Travel reviews by Mr Dario from Richmond

"Nice, modern, convenient (@ airport).

Very brief stay so not much to feedback.

Nice roof pool, too bad it was midnight (and winter..)"

"Our first taste of Africa: amazing place, staff were lovely (all the 'junior' people were there as owners and main guide were on leave), the location is great and well looked after. We were nearly the only ones there for 4 nights and made friends with the staff in no time, everyone was terribly kind & friendly. Our 'banda' was beautiful and we like the eco touch to it, recycled timber, no plastic bottles, all solar powered, etc.

Food was great even more so considering we had 2 vegetarians out of 5 - and Kenyan love their meat: always had options for us.

Our driver/guide Andrew was superb and possibly had super-powers (driving at night, pointing the spot light, seeing invisible things, giving us insights: all at the same time!).

There wasn't a thing we did not like, could not have been better."

"Ol Kinyei was our first experience of the Mara: it was great all along. A minute after we landed (the airstrip is already an experience if you never landed on one) we were taken to see a cheetah that had been spotted a few minutes before by another car. That was a great start!

The camp was very nice, tucked away by the bend of a stream, a few tents scattered around with minimal impact on the surrounding environment. The camp manager gave us a tour and a talk and was very helpful with everything. Our guides were great, knowledgeable, just very nice people all round. The food was great too and again they catered to the 2 of us that were 'grass-eaters'.

The drives were always different and fascinating; the night drive was also a first for us and we saw animals we would only see at night so again something completely new. And -cherry on the cake- we had a resident female-hippo that came to graze every night by our tent - but very discreet! Top marks all round."

"We stayed at Porini Lion Camp for our last 2 days in the Mara, having been at Ol Kinyei the previous 2 days. I am happy we decided to see another camp and another area as the landscapes and animals were different enough.

The number of lions and cats in general that we saw there in those 2 days beggars believe. On the 2nd day our tally indicated we'd already seen 22 lions since we set off at 6.15 and it wasn't 8 am yet!

We also got to see the great migration which was a spectacle, even though you can't avoid feeling that something is not right when you are part of a huge number of vehicles parked by the side of the river stalking the poor wildebeest that are trying to make up their minds on whether and when to cross. Just too many people, too many of us tourists. In the end I enjoyed a lot more our drives in the conservancy with our maasai guides and also the visit to a proper Maasai village not too far from the camp. I definitely recommend that, if you get a chance."

"This is a lovely relatively small hotel on northern part of Diani beach. Staff very kind, a lovely pool, right on the beach which would also be quite nice: if only you could step outside of the hotel area and go for a walk without being approached by ‘beach boys’ (that hotel stuff just warned you about) that want to do business with you, be that a key ring, a coconut or just a donation because life is tough if you’ve no job. It’s hard not to sympathise, and i am sure most of those guys are genuine good people in a bad situation. However the net effect is that you feel a little bit in a siege, which is not great, with 10 km of which beach right there for you to enjoy.

Going to visit Mombasa is a plan we considered and abandoned as the ferry is very temperamental and it can end up taking much longer than we were willing to, just to get there and get back. See excursions: we went on a short snorkelling trip which was ok, but not earth shattering. There was another full-day trip which looked nicer, but was quite pricey for a family of 5 and we ended up not going.

So the hotel was very nice with lovely food and great staff. Things to do outside the hotel - in relative freedom - a bit less so."