Travel reviews by Mr T & Ms C from Cheshire

"From start to finish our visit to Rekero was excellent. We were picked up from the airstrip by two guides, Pius and Moses and we managed to spend some time on this first journey to the camp itself observing giraffe, an elephant and Olive the leopard from the BBC Big Cat Dairies series.

Over the course of 2 days we were very lucky and our guides very good at their job so we managed to see a Black Rhino, several hundred wildebeest making a river crossing, large numbers of zebra, giraffe and gazelles. We saw the Rekero pride of lions several times including one early morning sighting just outside camp as the sun was rising and two lionesses were engaged in play fighting. We also saw 3 cheetah, around 100 hippo's including the camp resident hippo George. (don't worry he doesn't sleep in the tents !

We had two guides to ourselves as Moses was being introduced to the Mara area by Pius, but Moses had been a guide a Amboselli previously and both of them had a wealth of knowledge and got the balance just right between giving us information and allowing us to watch and enjoy.

Breakfast and lunches whilst out in the Mara were great and the food served in the evening at the camp was really good. The hosts were very welcoming and good at keeping all the guests engaged at the dinner table despite the varying backgrounds of the guests.

The tents are much more luxurious than you might expect. The bucket showers work well and there are flushing toilets in the tent, with a very comfortable bed and hot water bottles at night if it is a bit chilly. All that said it is great to hear the animal calls at night safe in the knowledge that the friendly Askari guards are on patrol around the camp.

My only regret is that we didn't stay longer and we will definitely be returning to this camp."

"From start to finish our visit to Naboisho was excellent. We visited the sister camp Rekero before we stayed here and the main difference is that this camp is based on a conservation area which means much less vehicles and no animals being surrounded by vehicles which does happen on the Mara. (The Rekero guides we had didn't crowd the animals in the Mara, but others did do occasionally)

Over the course of 3 days we were very lucky and our guide Wilson has the sharpest eyes of anyone I have ever met. We saw between 10 and 17 lions together on 3 occasions whilst we were there and this included being able to watch 5 cubs play fighting and seeing the 3 large male lions from this pride up close as well. On a night safari we were surrounded by this pride as they relaxed before their evening hunt. The guides turned the light off and we could see every star and consellation there is to see. On the same night safari we got see some of the smaller animals up close such as the bat eared fox and the bush babies.

There are two additional options that I would recommend that you take up which are the fly camping safari and the walking safari. Unfortunately we missed our chance to go on the fly camping safari but the guests that went on it really enjoyed it and it is far from basic camping with showers and toilet tents plus the extra excitement of being really out in the wild. We had a 5 hour morning walking safari (this can be as short as you want it, but we were happy to stay out this long) and it was great to be able to stretch our legs after 4 days in jeeps and being so well fed. We got to see the giraffe behaviour up closer, saw lots of birds and Roelof was very informative as he guided 6 of us around the area. We tracked a lone bull elephant for a couple of hours from a safe distance and we were up close with some baboons as well and it was really enjoyable to be walking around the area.

Breakfast and lunches whilst out in the jeep were great and the food served in the evening at the camp was good. As with Rekero the hosts were very welcoming and good at keeping all the guests engaged at the dinner table despite the varying backgrounds of the guests.

The tents are much more luxurious than you might expect. The bucket showers (inside and outside available) work well and there are flushing toilets in the tent, with a very comfortable bed and hot water bottles at night if it is a bit chilly. All that said it is great to hear the animal calls at night safe in the knowledge that the friendly Askari guards are on patrol around the camp. We had a late night visit from a zebra chewing the grass right at the side of the tent, but when we switched the light on to check which animal it was he/she ran off.

My only regret is that we didn't stay longer and we will definitely be returning to this camp."

"We had a very enjoyable stay at Asha Cottage despite it being quiet in the Diani Beach area whilst we were there. The food was good and there was plenty of it and the 3 guys serving it all were very friendly. It is a very picturesque boutique location with a pool, a hammock and a beach front bar/dining area that is great for relaxing.

The only drawback whilst we were there was the number of beach boys trying to sell key rings etc. They are mostly polite and very chatty but when the beach is quiet as it was when we were there then it can get very annoying being hassled every time you want to walk along the beach or go into the sea.

The beach itself is stunning and it has a coral reef and Asha use a local boatman to organise snorkelling trips who seemed like he would be great fund although we didn't use that service as I am not keen on snorkelling."