How to Travel from Mombasa to Diani by Matatu

The cheapest way to travel from Mombasa to Diani is by Matatu.

How exactly you go about traveling from Mombasa to Diani by Matatu depends on where precisely, within Mombasa City, you are starting from. For instance, if you are starting from the Mombasa CBD, you only need to take any one of the matatus that terminate at ‘Ferry’. There are numerous matatu routes that terminate at‘ferry’ (likoni ferry, on the Island side), including Bamburi Matatus, Magongo matatus, Migadini Matatus, Tudor Matatus… among others. So you just board any of these matatus – you can find them at Mwembe Tayari, at Mombasa GPO (posta), at Mombasa Catholic Cathedral (Kanisani) and so on, then pay the necessary fare to be taken to Ferry. If you are in a place like Mikindani, you need to take one of the ‘Town’ matatus, then alight at Mwembe Tayari and from there board a Ferry-bound matatu. The same would apply if you are coming from Mishomoroni, where you take one of the Mishomoroni matatus that terminate at Mwembe Tayari, then board a ferry-bound matatu from there. If you are coming from a place like Miritini, you can take one of the Miritini-Magongo matatus, alight at either the Magongo Mainland flyover or at the Changamwe Flyover, then take one of the Ferry-bound matatus there... Just get yourself to Likoni ferry.

Once you get to Likoni Ferry, you wait for one of the ferries to arrive, then board it in order to be taken to the other side of the channel. Alternatively, you can walk to the Likoni floating bridge at Liwatoni and cross over to the Likoni side.

Upon getting to the Likoni side, you should head to the Likoni bus terminus, and board one of the Ukunda bound matatus or minibuses there. Ukunda is another name for Diani. But matatus usually refer to it as Ukunda. So you should be looking for an Ukunda matatu, not a Diani matatu. Sometimes, the Ukunda bound vehicles take up to 20 minutes to fill up. But it will eventually fill up and depart for Ukunda. The journey between Likoni and Ukunda should take around 40 minutes by matatu. The matatu is bound to drop and pick passengers on the way, at places like Shika Adabu, Denyenye, Kombani, Tiwi and so on.

Upon arriving at Ukunda town, if you wish to go to Diani beach, you should alight at corner Diani/corner bichi (beach corner). From there, you will need to take one of the tuktuks that ply the Ukunda-Diani Beach route. You could also take a motorcycle taxi (boda boda). Or you could be lucky to find one of the matatus that ply the Ukunda to Diani beach route and take it. The number of matatus on that route seems to have gone down, thanks to the proliferation of tuktuks. But when that route was still strong, you would usually find two matatus at a time – one going to the Neptune Beach Diani side and the other going to the other side of the beach. But nowadays, it is usually TukTuks that you find at corner Beachi, to take you all the way to Diani beach.