Reviews of safaris to Samburu National Reserve

"Excellent within the constraints set by the weather.

We maximised our drives at both camps though at Little Governors we were severely restricted and at no point after the initial arrival were we able to cross the river." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Kenya safari

"I always look forward to visiting Kenya. The weather was not so good this time but everyone did there best to make sure we had a good experience.
Thank you." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Kenya safari

"As I said in my email to Richard, nobody can be blamed for the unprecedented levels of rainfall in Kenya over the past few months and its effect on the ground, the vegetation and the distribution and accessibility of the wildlife - well, nobody at Expert Africa or on the ground in Kenya. The climate change deniers, maybe!!!

We enjoyed our holiday nevertheless but the issues with wildlife mean that, if we're being honest, it wasn't as good as our first trip last year. We're not very experienced Safari goers and haven't got to the stage that more sophisticated guests might be at, of wanting to look very hard for animals; we want to come out of our camp and see herds of animals across the plains for as far as the eye can see and, at times this year, there was nothing very much as far as the eye could see!

We would like to note that none of the guides we had this year were as good as the excellent ones we had last year.

It's also worth mentioning that there was a misunderstanding about our pick-up time from the airport hostel to go to Solio. Some months ago, we changed the time from 7.30 am to 10 am, and this later time was clearly on our itinerary. However, Patrick from Safari Collections turned up at 7.30 when we were still in bed! He was very good-natured about it and waited for us to get ready and to have breakfast. He was pleasant and chatty throughout the drive and when he came back to Solio to collect us and drive us to Elephant Bedroom. We're not in any way complaining about this. These things happen but we thought you'd like to know." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Kenya safari

"Richard was excellent in making ground arrangements. Everything ran smoothly. Excellent pre-trip communication.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No..would recommend." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 15 on a Kenya safari

"We had a wonderful trip with many momentous adventures but quite a lot more tedious jeep rides than we had bargained for, especially in the Kenya portion where the distances between camps was several hours on washed out roads only to find out when we arrived that the next activity would be a jeep ride! This was disappointing as I had been quite clear that that what I was exactly what I was trying to avoid.

The biggest issue was that Olivia had not made clear to me the consequences of the rainy season. I thought it just meant that it would rain a bit during the day and we would get wet, something I don't care about. What it really meant is that the bush would be so green and thick that animals would be extremely hard to see, that water would be so readily available everywhere that animals would be widely dispersed across hundreds of thousands of acres, and therefore hard to find, that the bugs would be fierce. and that the normally rough, bumpy roads would be so deeply rutted and washed out hat driving was bone crushing. And, as I noted in my comments about Sarara, some activities such as the Singing Wells, were not possible. No one can control the weather but if I had known what the rainy season was really like I don't think I would have taken the chance of traveling in the shoulder season. Since we were the only guests at a number of places, i felt everybody else had gotten the memo except us!

Also, some of the logistics could have been worked out better. Though the three Samburu camps look equidistant on a map, in fact it made no sense to go to Saruni Rhino last instead of Sarani Samburu, which is quite close to the airstrip.By going there last, it added another 2 and a half hour jeep trip on washed out roads to get back to the airstrip we had just come from two days earlier.

Finally, we were never told that the trip from Saruni Rhino to Plantation Lodge would be over 10 hours. We were shocked to discover on arrival at Kilamijaro that our jeep ride was over 4 hours. I can't believe there was not a scheduled or even charter flight from Kili to Manyara. In any event, no one told us about the length of the trip and we had no food from 8 AM till 6:30 PM expect for the driver's small pack of Pringles. I expected better attention to logistics.

With the exception of Stone Town, all the places we stayed were great. I just wish we had done the trip a different year when we could have done it at the right time." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 7 on a Kenya safari

"An intensely memorable experience - fell in love with Kenya all over again.

Especially enjoyed the interaction with our guides and staff at the lodges - have witnessed first hand over the years how more and more local staff are establishing themselves as guides and managers which is fantastic. At times quite an extreme and adventurous trip, with journeys to remote parts where we were the oddity. We had difficulty agreeing our top three moments so had to settle for six!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 10 on a Kenya safari

"All the organisation and arrangements for this holiday, from initial discussion and booking till we got home, worked perfectly.

It was our first visit to Kenya, and one of our best holidays ever. We enjoyed our stay at Elephant Bedroom but Kicheche Mara
is a special place.

Thank you, Claire.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, it's just fine!" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Kenya safari

"Kenya was our second safari, and we had the most amazing experience.

Special thanks to Richard for answering my myriad of questions with patience, and putting together such a fabulous holiday. Everything ran to schedule, there were no issues whatsoever, and it was all planned in meticulous detail by Richard. I contacted a few firms when booking the trip, and was very impressed with Richard, and intended to book with Expert Africa even if they didn't give the cheapest quote - but in fact they did, the price was really excellent considering it included so many flights and transfers and excursions.

We really enjoyed the different experiences in Samburu and the Mara, and can highly recommend this combination. To sum up, Saruni was the best experience in terms of lodge and stay, but the wildlife was much much more prolific at Ol Seki, and so it was great to combine the two.

All in all it was amazing, and now we cannot wait to return." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 6 on a Kenya safari

"A truly spectacular time at Sasaab.

More wildlife than we were expecting in Samburu, wonderful location, fabulous food and great accommodation.

We left part of our hearts there!" Read full review: 5 nights in Africa; 4 on a Kenya safari

"Our trip was a visit to Lake Turkana, Marsabit and then to Samburu National Reserve. We were pleased that we did the circuit in that order as it gave us a luxurious end to the journey.

I had some difficulty to find an operator that was willing to cover Northern Kenya, but Expert Africa had the knowledge to create a suitable itinerary for us and find a company experienced in touring the region." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a Kenya safari