Kenya: reviews from our travellers

"We enjoyed our holiday even more than we expected. The two camps complemented one another very well. Meru is a splendid park to visit.

There was lots of wildlife without the pressure of other visitors and vehicles and Offbeat Meru was an excellent camp from which to explore it. Samburu was rich in wildlife, although a little busier, and the river-side setting of Elephant Bedroom was ideal.

We happily recommend our trip and combination of camps. In retrospect, our transfer arrangements from and back to Nairobi was the weak link and could hopefully be improved. We will email separately on this." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 3 on a Kenya safari

"The trip as a whole was very well organised and everything was as expected. All of the camps and accommodation were excellent and would have no hesitation to recommend them.

The only negative point was that the road trip to the Meru national park took much longer than the 5 hours that was expected. It realistically took us 6 hours plus the time from the gate to the camp, so in total it was roughly 7hours. It was interesting to see Kenyan life but it is a very long drive after an overnight flight. After speaking to the camp manager they have not experienced any problems with the flying option but we understand that it was our choice to take the road option but just wanted to make you aware when advising clients that the journey is very long." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 7 on a Kenya safari

"We had an amazing trip and everything went smoothly, including airport transfers etc. The car journey to and from Nuarro was longer than we thought and the layover in Nairobi was unbearable, but clearly unavoidable!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 7 on a Mozambique holiday

"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