Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs M from Kansas

"We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of game and wildness of the Nairobi National Park as it is so close to the city.

The tented camp was comfortable with large tents with in suite bathrooms and large beds. The food was also very good there.

Probably the highlight was the excellent guide that we had. His name was Andrew and he was as good as any guide we had in Kenya.

The location of the park is convenient to come from the international airport and then even closer to Wilson airport to fly out to our next camp.

We arrived late at night so paid only half board for the first night stay and then spent another night at full board to take advantage of the ,morning and evening safari."

"We chose staying at Offbeat Meru because we had read so much about the Meru Park being a beautiful park with lots of wildlife and very few visitors. We found this to be true in every way.

Since Offbeat had a good special going on when we wanted to travel, it helped us to stay within our budget. We stayed at three Offbeat camps. Their stay 4 nights pay for 3 special was used at all three of their camps.

We were not disappointed with our choice. Everything was first rate at Offbeat Meru, from the tent location, food and especially the guiding. We had Dominic as our guide. He was great in all aspects. With careful driving, bird and mammal sighting and just a great personality. We became good friends with him in a short time and had lots of laughs and interesting conversations.

Meru may be a little off the main safari circuit but it is well worth the visit, especially for a visitor who has been on safari once before and wants to spend time at sightings and not have multiple vehicles there at the same time. We saw a total of 12 other tourists the whole time we were in Meru Park. We did not have to share our vehicle with any one else since part of the time we were the only ones in camp.

We saw all of the big five while in Meru. It is one of the few places left in Africa where you can see rhinos in the wild. They are in a fenced in reserve but it is large with plenty of cover so you don't feel like they are in a zoo. Due to Dominic's good sighting we were able to see a leopard. At one time there was a herd of close to 200 elephants right next to the road and they stretched 180 degrees across the horizon in front of us. There are large herds of most of the other mammals with gerenuks and Grevy zebra in this park"

"Sosian is a working cattle ranch that coexists with wildlife. The main house is a beautiful old colonial Africa style home with formal dining, large family room with fireplace and a billiard room. We stayed in the Italian Cottage which would be considered the honeymoon cottage. It is the largest of the 7 accommodations and apart from the others. All are very nice and comfortable.

We are ranchers so enjoyed visiting with the ranch manager, Shawn, who was very patient in visiting with us about the ranch management and we took a tour of the cattle and the facilities.

There is plenty of wildlife. We were fortunate to see a cheetah just 30 minutes in to our first safari drive with the tourist manager, Simon. This animal is not commonly seen. You also have the opportunity to see wild dog. We were also having good luck on this sighting with watching them on the hunt and then seeing them finish up eating their kill. Our guide Michetk, worked very hard to give us the opportunity to see the dogs.

I would consider this property as a great place for a family with younger children. there are many other activities for them to keep them occupied and interested. You can do horse riding, camel riding, float down the river, fishing, walking, swimming and picnics. We had a river side breakfast after our safari with the wild dogs. They also do an evening meal out in the bush.

This place was a good stop for us with stays at tented camps on both sides of it. There were so many other fun activities for us to do besides just game drives, that it was a nice break to the total safari experience."

"Offbeat Mara is in the Mara North Conservancy. There is about 100,000 acres in the conservancy with 70,000 of it being reserved for wildlife. We had tent number 5 which along with #3 have the best view out on the plains. We saw elephant, giraffe and even a lion walk past the front of the tent.

It had been a rainy period and also rained at night while we were there so there was lots of grass. Our guide David said that there had not been this much grass in ten years. He was a really excellent guide along with spotter Kapen. They knew my wife is a birder so helped her add lots of new birds to her checklist. Also, they shared with us the culture of the Masai people. Most of the time we were the only two in the vehicle with the guide and spotter. January is a good time to visit if you want more of a private experience and are not wanting to be there during the migration.

We still saw lots of wildlife. The first evening safari drive we got the "cat trick" ( leopard, cheetah, and lion). We had one other day that we repeated the cat trick with a leopard mother and cub, cheetah on a kill and a whole pride of lions, two big males, four lionesses and 7 cubs. This camp seems to be located in a real game hotspot. Most of our good sighting were within a mile of the camp. It sits along the river where the leopards hang out and the open plains are just up the hill where the game and the other big cats are hunting.

The conservancy is very pristine and beautiful with the open grassy plains dotted with flat top acacia. There are rivers running through with trees lining them. There are some really large elephants and lots of giraffe.

The tents were large and comfortable with king size beds and in suite bathrooms. The staff were all extremely friendly and the managers, Kyle and Lara were helpful and had lots of interesting stories to tell at meal time. The chef was really good and created lots of variety in his menu. We took breakfast with us to eat out on safari.

You are able to do night drives and walks since it is in the conservancy. We did both and they were both fun."