Fort Jesus

There’s a significant entrance fee to visit Fort Jesus, reflecting the site’s UNESCO status. It’s easy enough to explore independently, although many travelers find the freelance guides who loiter around the site a little pushy, and others find Mombasa’s traffic chaos too much to navigate comfortably.

Almost every Mombasa tour, from city tours to walking tours to tuk-tuk tours and shore excursions, will include a stop at Fort Jesus, and it’s also a common stop on longer trips to resort towns further south such as Diani Beach. If you’re spending the night in or near Mombasa, the sound and light show opens with a tour of the fort by night and closes with fireworks.

• When booking a tour, travelers should know that the fort played a significant role in the global slave trade.
• With cannons to climb on and walls and dungeons to explore, Fort Jesus is an atmospheric destination to visit with kids.
• Some efforts have been made to adapt Fort Jesus for travelers who use wheelchairs, with ramps, an accessible entrance, and accessible, though far from smooth, paths.

Fort Jesus lies in the heart of Mombasa, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) southeast of Moi International Airport. It’s only a short detour from the route drivers follow from the airport to resort towns such as Diani Beach and Tiwi Beach. Tuk-tuk tours and walking tours make a particularly atmospheric way to explore Old Mombasa.

During the day, the fort opens from morning until early evening seven days a week: the best light for photography is generally in the late afternoon. The sound and light show begins at 8pm Thursday through Sunday and lasts for about an hour.

A prison during the British colonial period, Fort Jesus has been operating as a museum since 1960, but the “Fort Jesus Museum” generally refers to the on-site museum rather than the fort itself. Though badly signed, the museum displays interesting finds from Portuguese warships sunk during the long Omani siege of 1696–1698, including Chinese ceramics and Persian charms.