As most of us will face the question of how to get to Lamu exactly, here’s a short update on that.

All of us, who booked their flights already, will go there from Nairobi, which is the easiest destination for international flights to Kenya. You will usually arrive at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO), but most direct flights to Lamu depart from the smaller, regional Wilson Airport (WIL).

There are (at least) 3 airlines offering daily direct flights to Lamu. However, you will have to forgo your favorite booking service and buy your ticket directly on the airline sites. Here are the ones I found so far:

• Safarilink
• Air Kenya
• Fly540

These flights all cost around 200 USD.

Alternatively, you can take buses from Mombasa and other cities, which is obviously much cheaper. Be prepared for a long, bumpy ride! It might be an experience some of you would prefer to boring old air travel, though. If you choose the bus option, we’re confident that you’re enough of an explorer to find out about schedules and tickets yourself.

Some of us will arrive in Nairobi shortly after Christmas, so get in touch on IRC or Twitter, if you’d like to share an apartment or go hacking or spend New Year’s with us (or all of the aforementioned).

Any more questions? Leave a comment!

Hi everyone,

We have some news for you regarding accommodation plans. As promised, we’re trying to figure out something cheap and easy for everybody who’s interested in not booking their own, and thanks to the enthusiastic help of the folks over at sleepout.com, we have a first special offer available for early takers.

The house – or should I say castle – is about 10 minutes walk from Shela village. You can read all about it here. It fits up to 22 people, but in all rooms, 2 people would have to share single beds (which are said to be larger than king-size).

So here’s the deal: @bkero set up an Etherpad, where you can “reserve” your room there. First come, first serve. If you want to join the Fort hackers, go there and enter your name:

http://etherpad.bke.ro/p/hackerbeach

Update Jan 8, 2014: Please contact us directly in #hackerbeach on Freenode or tweet us.

(If we get the castle, it’ll probably be one of the hot spots for all of us during Hacker Beach, so if you don’t like that kind of thing as accommodation, you could still go there for hacking and socializing whenever you want, of course.)

The other recommendation so far is the Pwani Guest House, where at least some of us will most likely stay before Jan 6. Hopefully that one is more flexible and could accommodate last-minute hackers for example.

Also, an accommodation provider in Lamu posted a comment on this site, and, in their own words, they “would love to have some hackers come and stay”. Maybe someone can check it out and get more details and maybe even a second special deal? You do know that everybody is both participant and organizer of Hacker Beach, right? 😉

On a last note, some of us will stay in Nairobi for a couple of days until Jan 1. More news on that soon. (Or join the IRC and ask about it.)

So, let’s go and fill up a castle, folks!

It’s going to take place in January 2014 on Lamu island in Kenya – a quiet and beautiful retreat in East Africa.

Apart from this blog, we use Lanyrd for the attendee list, Twitter for short announcements, and a (yet to be approved) mailing list for the details for participants.

We’re also hanging out on IRC in #hackerbeach on Freenode.

As always, everybody is invited. Join us for a month of relaxed hacking on an island paradise!