Reviews of safaris to Samburu National Reserve

"In summary: it was a unique and wonderful trip to Kenya with incredible sightings - one of the very best we've ever had in Africa (and we had many of them !!!)

Of course we had doubts if it was a good idea to travel to Kenya in Corona times but we can say that (only and explicitly just for us!) it was definitely the right decision to travel. Kenya has a relatively low covid incidence (especially in comparison to our country), all staff members of lodges/camps were full vaccinated and wearing masks, using and offering sanitizers when and wherever needed and (most important!) we stayed by far the most time in remote areas and outside of buildings in fresh air.
Because of Covid the lodges and camps had lot of cancellations. Thereby there were only a few guests wherever we stayed - sometimes we were the only ones. Except of our last stay (Amboseli) we always had our "private" game drive vehicle - just the driver guide and the two of us !!!

Although living in Germany we've chosen again Expert Africa as our travel agent because we've had already great experience with them and different team members in planning and organising safaris to different African countries. All team members we were dealing with had great knowledge about the country, lodges, wildlife,... they were responsible for and were so friendly and helpful!

This time Jessica Plumb was our agent and we can't say enough "thank you" to her and all her efforts and patience with all our requests and questions. Even after finishing the booking she was always taking care of us especially in behalf of the always changing rules for Kenya immigration.

As expected the organisation of our trip was perfect, everything worked without any problems, we missed nothing!!

We will came back to Africa - and of course again with the experts of Expert Africa !!!!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Although it sounds like advertising: No - everything is perfect !!!

I loved the old website very much but after a short while I got used to the new one and especially the new wildlife count was very helpful for me in behalf of my expectations!!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Kenya safari

"We had a great time and would not hesitate to travel to Kenya again especially during Covid times. All of the lodges (in fact the whole country) take Covid seriously and have put in place the necessary safety measures. We felt very comfortable and safe. All of the lodges/ hotels are able to source Covid tests easily.

Richard was very helpful, as always, especially in these trying times when the holiday had to be cancelled once and then when one of our party got covid pre departure and had to miss half the trip. He was always on hand to help, even over the Christmas period." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Kenya safari

"Wonderful ! Only suggestion maybe it would have made sense to drive from JKIA to Laikipia in view of the inevitable layover time waiting for the plane from Wilson?

Also suggest that passengers book to take an authorised LFT kit with them to avoid last minute hassles with testing at the JKIA base. Also JKIA require proof of payment for the UK PCR test - the number on the Passenger locator form was not enough...!

The checkin queue for the 9.30 am KQ flight to London was chaos (and this is apparently always the case) - if one has the nerve go c. one hour ahead to avoid the madness of 9 prior flights and only 3 desks open!

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I would happily rebook with you though I would prefer being able to book the international flights with EA rather than go elsewhere - particularly in Covid times." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Kenya safari

"Wonderful trip, felt very safe from Covid throughout. Don't wait!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 11 on a Kenya safari

"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