Kenya: reviews from our travellers

"Best safari we have ever done and one of our favourite ever holidays. And Beyond were great and we would look to book with them again. Serengeti under canvas staff were off the scale amazing!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service: None - you guys are superstars" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"This was one of our best ever family holidays - ideally for older children (in our case, young adults) - with many amazing animals to see, landscapes which were stunning, and different cultures between the highlands, the Mara and the coast.

The four legs of the trip - Borana in the Highlands, a not for profit conservancy which is helping re-establish the black rhino to the first Maasai-owned Camp in the Mara, to six days on Lamu island, a centre of Swahili culture, provided wonderful contrasts and very different experiences.

We could not have wished for a more perfect trip which exceeded all expectations. Now we would love to explore more of Kenya and see more of sub-Saharan Africa. Problem is, we also loved where we went and would like to return to these places and people too! Not the worst problem to have...asante sana, Expert Africa!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Expert Africa could offer a bit more information about activities in addition to quality of camps and lodges -- including interrogating the interests of a family group in order to get them to plan more of what they can get out of a trip. We didn't realise until the end of our first day at Borana, for example, that horse riding really offered the chance of a safari on horseback - and this then made Borana very special.

On the other hand, the flexibility of the Expert Africa team in allowing us to stay at a friend's private accommodation on Lamu was greatly appreciated. The process of building up the itinerary was a very positive experience and I trusted Richard Trillo's advice and in depth knowledge.

On the quote: It would have been nice to have had more of a breakdown of costs and options as I didn't feel able to weigh up alternatives fully. On the other hand, the itinerary was fairly fixed when it came to where we wanted to go on safari.

Finding ways of helping providers be as green as possible would be beneficial - not just conserving species (and we did donate to the Rhino International fund) but also ways of eliminating plastic in camps is important as these are visible ways of leaving less impact. After all, the Kenyan government has banned all plastic bags, so camps and airlines including safarilink should be encouraged to have refillable water canteens, etc. And camps can easily switch.

On Lamu - I would certainly explore the growing private villa/house rental options as these a fun, private and often of historic interest. Otherwise, airbnb and tripadvisor will take a share of your future business....(Our situation was coincidental and through a friend who owns a place with bandas at the end of the island...)

In summary, I rate Expert Africa highly and would recommend you to others! Many thanks." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 8 on a Kenya safari

"Despite the inauspicious start in Harare Airport, all other aspects of the trip went very smoothly and overall it exceeded our expectations and we will undoubtedly book another trip with Expert Africa in the future.
We are big fans of Zambia because of the excellent walking but we liked the combination of walk and drives we experienced in Zimbabwe.
Mana Pools was busier than Hwange, which was very quiet. In Mana Pools, it is strange to see people walking in the park without guides. In Hwange it was wonderful to be away from tsetses and mosquitos." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Zimbabwe safari

"A wonderful trip which is going to be difficult to follow.

The logistics worked out exactly right, and thank you Claire for the little extras that appeared at several of the stops to recognise our anniversary." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 5 on a Zanzibar holiday

"We got the balance of Safari (3 days) and Lazing (6 days) just right and all the properties we stayed at great and as expected.

My reservations about Tanzanian safari are the volume of vehicles around the sighting of a leopard and the crossing; it resembles a traffic jam and the authorities need to place restrictions on the lodges/parks as it did affect the experience.

I would have second thoughts about returning to Tanzania having seen this congestion which I haven't encountered before." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zanzibar holiday

"We had a brilliant holiday. We enjoyed our stay in Stone Town, a very interesting place, and our stay at Pongwe Beach was very relaxing and everything we could ask of a beach stay. Our safari experience was on a different scale, exceeding our expectations on every level. It’s hard to imagine how it could have been bettered. More than half of the people we met at the Kicheche Mara camp were repeat customers. They really have got everything right." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday

"It was amazing. I am glad that we had 3 nights in both camps in Serengeti. Camps were great fun and driving in open sided vehicles a definite bonus. 4 in a jeep seemed an ideal number.

We saw more animals than we could have hoped for, including 2 leopards up trees. We were disappointed not to have tour of slave museum which had been main reason for going to Stonetown.

Matemwe Lodge at the end was perfect although it was only about half full so would have been even better with a few more guests around in the evening. I could have done with 5 days there!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"Great safari trip. Can’t fault it." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"Very satisfactory is overstating it a bit, but the main detractor was the weather and one can't legislate for that." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Kenya safari

"Vary enjoyable given the circumstance, obviously some days very hard as Peter had organised this and he wasn't there to share it.

Only reservation, final camp would have been better if they told me what the routine re securing tents in the evening was - on first night escorted to camp by guard but it was pitch dark and on my one felt a little scared. However they did sort it out for the other nights making sure that the blinds were all down and the lights were left on.

Generally felt very safe despite being on my own." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Kenya safari