Kenya: reviews from our travellers

"My trip was far too short, by necessity, but I still had a really fantastic time and was not disappointed by the opportunities to see the wildlife, which was out of this world. I loved the raw, open feel of the tented camp, and by my standards, the camp and service were fantastic.

Richard Trillo did a fantastic job to get a wonderful trip sorted in a remarkably short time." Read full review: 2 nights in Africa; 2 on a Kenya safari

"We had an excellent trip and felt we were particularly lucky with sightings at the first three camps/lodges due to the expertise of our Asilia driver, Stanford. We were particularly pleased that once an animal had been spotted we were able to observe at leisure and have wonderful memories of a very restive leopard in a tree. We watched for about half an hour as he tried to find a comfy spot and walked up and down and all around the tree. Having our own vehicle really made a difference.

As I had made our booking some months before the trip I had forgotten that this would not be the case at Lamai. I think that it would be a good idea to make a note of this on the confirmation invoice or in the final letter you send just before departure. We had taken this paperwork with us but had not printed out all the emails leading to the final trip details. The couple we shared with were extremely pleasant but they had just flown in from the UK and were on safari for only 3 nights before going to Zanzibar whilst we had gone to the north more for the wildebeest. Things worked out well but this could so easily not have been the case and I will certainly bear this in mind for a future trip.

We had an excellent guide, Kakae, at Lamai, not only was he very good indeed at spotting game but he had a detailed knowledge of all the animals we saw. He had a great sense of humour and we enjoyed conversations with him on a number of topics." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari

"Excellent trip with some staggering game, especially in the Mara (albeit shared with plenty of other people).

We tend to stay in southern Africa so this was a little off our normal beat but we had a good time. Only downsides were tsetse flies in the Serengeti and an annoying lack of open vehicles. For future booking I plan to check the vehicle type and only book camps with open cars :)" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 3 on a Tanzania safari

"This was a great trip to three different areas
Firstly Naivasia which I booked myself but with advice from Richard. To see +/- 100,000 flamingos only 10 metres away was an experience, I would recommend Chui Lodge to others
Naboisho Camp was good, small but everyone so friendly. Bush bird walk great. Rolloff and Roger great guides, if you could stop them arguing about the size of the spot underneath the left wing of the LBJ lark. Tent great position. Saw the Wilderbeste crossing.
Kicheche Laikipia was also great, including the bird walk where even Andy the camp manager saw a bird for the first time ( Abasynian swallow on migration ). 6 tents only with ours being the best position (3), we left both the internal and external flaps up so the only thing between us and the Tigers and Polar Bears was a fly mesh, cold but exciting." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 5 on a Kenya safari

"Nairobi airport really tarnished our holiday experience - sadly.

Our transfers and drivers (apart from Driftwood to Mombasa - which may have been correct), were excellent.

Driftwood - not quite sure what was going on there regarding locals. Also need to mention that I was charged a very large sum of money for use of the safe in our room.

Asha Cottage - very good.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I realise that the situation in Nairobi Airport is beyond your control - but it was horrendous.

I would like to thank Richard for all the hard work that he put into our booking - much appreciated." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Kenya safari

"As this form does not have a section for our road transfers I would just like to mention them here. They absolutely made our trip the experience it was, namely thanks to our two drivers Shem (Nairobi) and Albert (Tsavo) who were punctual, friendly, extremely knowledgeable and expert, and did everything they could to make sure we had the best experience. Albert, for example, picked us up an hour early for one game drive in Tsavo because he had heard there were some lions we might see, giving us a full extra hour's drive - and we did see the lions!

On our way back from Tsavo, Tom and I wanted to spend some time in Mombasa which the bus driver was happy to facilitate, dropping us near Fort Jesus and giving directions then taking our luggage back to the hotel for us. We then took a taxi back to Diani later in the afternoon.

Franklin who was based at Pinewood told us about the bicycle trip to Kaya Kinondo mentioned earlier and booked it for us, and it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. He also offered various other trips I am sure we would have done if we had been there longer. I wasn't sure about attending his 'briefing' meeting when they first asked us because I couldn't see the point, and only went because it mentioned needing to confirm our flights, but I would recommend other guests do pop down because of the trips he can arrange.

Overall, we had a wonderful time thanks to our drivers as well as the staff at both Pinewood and Satao. Also thanks to our taxi driver who took us back to Diani from whom we learned an enormous amount about Kenyan life, politics and culture!

But above all thanks to Richard and Expert Africa who created the perfect trip at relatively short notice and with a minimal amount of time needed to 'brief' him on our requirements. We have never used travel agents before, but being a bit further from our normal travelling comfort zone wanted to be sure we booked places that would be clean and well run, and that our payments and bookings were secure. I would recommend Expert Africa to anyone travelling to Africa (and in fact have now noticed that your brochure is on many of our friends' bookcases already!) and not hesitate to use you again for any African trip. Richard seemed to instinctively understand what we were looking for and our requirements, and we were very pleased with the final cost of the package - I think it was probably cheaper than if we had made the individual arrangements ourselves and whilst we may have found the locations ourselves through the Rough Guide we wouldn't have had the benefit of our drivers and all the timings/logistics working so well.

In the circumstances of the fire at Nairobi airport it was a huge comfort to know that not only where you watching the situation and keeping me informed, but also that had my travel been affected you would have made the necessary arrangements to rearrange bookings etc, and at a stressful time this was the kind of reassurance that money can't buy.

Thank you again" Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 6 on a Kenya safari

"We greatly enjoyed our holidays...Mara Camp was superb and our stay at Royal Livingstone was also excellent. Maybe Rovos Rail was not the best choice for a trip with our sons." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 5 on a Kenya safari

"Quite blown away by the beauty of the terrain that we visited, left us curious about other parts.

Felt very well advised by Expert Africa staff. Despiite a brilliantly well laid out website, it was the little comments and recommendations made on the telephone that had directed our choices and as stated in our intital email, we felt we couldn't fail to have the best of times by simplly following your tracks. For us, Kenya has been a very different place in which to travel for, despite a fair amount of experience of living and travelling in Africa.

The one thing that would have been helpful would have been more transparency in the pricing of 'packages'. It all costs a great deal and in deciding how to distribute the budget, it would be useful to know more and make it stretch as far as possible on the more expensive bits. Will affect us considering any future visits - now that we've seen the reality of those roads, we can see the value of flying.

Jessica entered a trip advisor comment on return to discover that the US guests we met at Naibosho, first time in Africa, had gone out with Roelof and seen a leopard with its kill..! She has been on a quest to see a leopard for some tme now, plenty of evidence of their whereabouts but never seen one so she has some unfinished business." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 12 on a Kenya safari

"A trip of a life time and it certainly measured up the everything we had hoped and more. Firstly please pass on our huge thanks to both guides. Martin of Asilia was amazing and so professional .We'll for ever be grateful for his patience for our bird watching interests and his expert knowledge. He was so good at finding the quieter places and picking up the signs before others got there!! Please note our grateful thanks to him personally through Asilia.

Also we would like special recommendation for Paulo Siololo of Nomad Tanzania...Arusha. as he was fantastic too. Think he has telescopes for eyes as he picked signs of animals at tremendous distances and had the patience to pursue and wait. We had numerous wonderful experiences just watching cheetahs and Leopards all on our own as well as so much more. He really put himself out to please us and make our experience memorable.

Fishermans tours on Zanzibar not quite so efficient as 3/4 hour late one trip and didn't turn up on last return drive to airport. Neither actually caused us problems as door man at Serens Inn got us a taxi and arranged for paymenbt between driver and F. tours.but thought you may like to know for future.

Well done Expert Africa and especially Ellie ,you judge it perfectly for us....right locations and timings ." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"This was a really well organised holiday where everything went like clockwork from our first contact with Expert Africa to getting off the plane at the end of the trip.

The Meru and Pinewood resorts were faultless and the quibbles with Mara could easily be fixed.

I would highly recommend both Expert Africa and the itinerary that we followed, it really was a special experience for all 4 of us.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, keep up the good work!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Kenya safari