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Iten
The running town
Iten is the small Kenyan town that produced generations of world-record distance runners. Walking, running, cycling and easy ridge hikes take you straight into the highland landscape that built them.
Iten · Elgeyo Marakwet County
Iten Kenya tours and visits.
The Home of Champions — a working highland town on the edge of the Kerio Valley, and the place ELMAG SAFARIS calls home.
Why come
Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County.
Iten sits at roughly 2,400 metres above sea level on the Kerio Valley escarpment — the altitude band that stimulates red blood cell production, and the reason runners come here from all over the world.
It is also where the High Altitude Training Centre (HATC) and the Lornah Kiplagat training centre are based. Visitors come for the running culture, the ridge view-points and the farm-and-school landscape that built it — and for the quiet that only a small town at 2,400 m manages to keep.
ELMAG SAFARIS arranges visits, accommodation, athlete transfers and training-travel logistics here — see Iten running & training camps.
Altitude is real. If you are visiting to train, tell us your arrival plan and we will build in a sensible first two days and a route that avoids unnecessary road time.
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Iten
Tours in and around town
Farms, schools, training camps and the ridge view-points made familiar by Kenyan running, plus day trips out to Eldoret and down to the Kerio Valley.
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Iten
Accommodation
High-altitude guesthouses used by visiting athletes and mid-range hotels used by families and teams. Booking handled by ELMAG SAFARIS.
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Iten
Travel access
Easiest access is via Eldoret, roughly an hour by road. ELMAG SAFARIS runs airport pickups from Eldoret and connections on to the Rift Valley parks.
Getting here
Roads, airports and transfers.
Eldoret International Airport is the usual arrival point, roughly an hour by road from Iten. Nairobi is around six hours by road on the good route, or a short domestic flight to Eldoret. Transfers in both directions are arranged by ELMAG SAFARIS — see transport and transfers.