Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs F from Italy
Review Distribution
Total number of trips
1
Countries visited
1
Lodges stayed in
4
Excursions taken
0
Kenya 2016
Kenya between 14 Mar 2016 and 25 Mar 2016
"Our trip as a whole was splendid, but Expert Africa was responsible for the planning of only half of it, and of that half, one crucial element was a debacle. As a result, we have to mark the overall level of satisfaction down.
The part of our trip that went awry was our experience with Southern Cross and our driver in Nairobi. Our driver had no idea where The African Heritage House was and he wasted a full hour being completely lost. In our discussions previous to our departure, Richard Trillo had told us that he would inform Southern Cross of the places in Nairobi we wanted to visit. We would like to assume that he did indeed do that. If so, then the blame falls on Southern Cross for not doing their homework and finding out where the AHH is.
We were taken to a place where Alan Donavan once had a gallery, TEN YEARS AGO. Now it is a supermarket. Our driver, John, drove in circles as he muttered to himself and desperately asked people in the street if they knew where the AHH was. The low point was when John turned to us to ask us if WE DIDN"T KNOW WHERE IT WAS! It was embarrassing and inexcusable. It was akin to getting in a New York city cab, telling the driver where you want to go, and after haplessly driving around, he turns to you and asks you where that is! We repeatedly urged John to call someone for directions. He finally called his boss, but he was told that it should be there where we were. Apparently they both remembered something by that name being there when they were kids!
Eventually, at our insistence, John's boss got a phone number for the AHH. John was able to call them directly and get clear directions that the location was near Kenyatta Airport - which was the one thing we had known all along and had told him from the very beginning. We arrived an hour late to our appointment at the African Heritage House. That was a valuable lost hour. Not only was the hour itself valuable, based the amount we were paying for the driver (an amount unknown to us because Expert Africa refuses to divulge costs to its clients, a topic we will revisit later), but also because we had to rush our visit. We had to pay for a full tour when it was essentially cut in half, but more importantly our ability to enjoy our visit was extremely compromised. Our (doubtlessly expensive) day with a hired driver fell far short of our expectations.
We would suggest, and we're sure you would agree, that your clients should never be assigned drivers who don't have thorough knowledge of their city, especially when they are told a specific destination in advance! We don't blame John alone for this debacle, but also the management of Southern Cross, and Expert Africa for putting us in the hands of an incompetent organization."
The part of our trip that went awry was our experience with Southern Cross and our driver in Nairobi. Our driver had no idea where The African Heritage House was and he wasted a full hour being completely lost. In our discussions previous to our departure, Richard Trillo had told us that he would inform Southern Cross of the places in Nairobi we wanted to visit. We would like to assume that he did indeed do that. If so, then the blame falls on Southern Cross for not doing their homework and finding out where the AHH is.
We were taken to a place where Alan Donavan once had a gallery, TEN YEARS AGO. Now it is a supermarket. Our driver, John, drove in circles as he muttered to himself and desperately asked people in the street if they knew where the AHH was. The low point was when John turned to us to ask us if WE DIDN"T KNOW WHERE IT WAS! It was embarrassing and inexcusable. It was akin to getting in a New York city cab, telling the driver where you want to go, and after haplessly driving around, he turns to you and asks you where that is! We repeatedly urged John to call someone for directions. He finally called his boss, but he was told that it should be there where we were. Apparently they both remembered something by that name being there when they were kids!
Eventually, at our insistence, John's boss got a phone number for the AHH. John was able to call them directly and get clear directions that the location was near Kenyatta Airport - which was the one thing we had known all along and had told him from the very beginning. We arrived an hour late to our appointment at the African Heritage House. That was a valuable lost hour. Not only was the hour itself valuable, based the amount we were paying for the driver (an amount unknown to us because Expert Africa refuses to divulge costs to its clients, a topic we will revisit later), but also because we had to rush our visit. We had to pay for a full tour when it was essentially cut in half, but more importantly our ability to enjoy our visit was extremely compromised. Our (doubtlessly expensive) day with a hired driver fell far short of our expectations.
We would suggest, and we're sure you would agree, that your clients should never be assigned drivers who don't have thorough knowledge of their city, especially when they are told a specific destination in advance! We don't blame John alone for this debacle, but also the management of Southern Cross, and Expert Africa for putting us in the hands of an incompetent organization."
Feedback response
We were happy that Mr and Mrs F had such a good time on safari in the Maasai Mara, but we were very concerned to get this feedback. Southern Cross have been a consistently excellent and reliable partner since we started the Expert Africa Kenya programme. When booking the vehicle and driver, Richard sent full details of these travellers’ plans for their last day, with the anticipated timings, and these were confirmed and later reconfirmed, as is our normal practice. After contacting Mr and Mrs F about this feedback, we learned that a shop we had organised for them to visit was not open until much later than expected, as it was a public holiday. Richard should have anticipated this and checked the opening times which would have changed the plan for the day if they had known. As these travellers waited for the shop to open, they were delayed by more than an hour in leaving the area to cross Nairobi to reach African Heritage House, a delay that was increased by the driver’s uncharacteristic lapse of knowledge and preparation. Expert Africa and Southern Cross have sincerely apologised to these travellers for a combination of errors and we have refunded the costs of their disrupted day. This feedback is also a reminder of the importance of sticking to planned timings in the Nairobi area, as even seemingly short journeys can take much longer than expected.
Arranged By Richard Trillo
Aero Club of East Africa
"Our fourth stay at the Aero Club"
1 night
Arrived
15 Mar 2016
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good
Location
Excellent
Service
Good
Facilities
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Good
Rekero
"Rekero is the place for the big cats"
4 nights
Arrived
16 Mar 2016
"We chose to visit Rekero because we wanted to see more of the big cats, especially cheetahs, and we were not disappointed. In prior years we had been to six safari camps in Kenya before Rekero, so we know that it's never safe to say that any sightings are guaranteed, but seeing the big cats at Rekero is as close to a sure thing as you can get. In four days we saw seven cheetahs, five leopards and so many lions that we lost count. The Rekero guides, as well as the guides at other camps in the area coordinate in such a way that if you wanted to spend every day with just cheetahs, or lions, you could. The leopards are more difficult to find and the sightings more fleeting, but if you set out to see them, our experience was that your odds are good.
Thanks to seeing a black rhino on our last morning, we did see the big five. We were also lucky enough to see more elusive animals such as a serval cat and a bat - eared fox.
We prefer tented camps to those with lodges, so for us the accommodation at Rekero is ideal. The tents are tucked into the woods and overlook the Talek River. We requested tent nine because we wanted to be close to the hippos and were we ever close to them! They cracked branches and twigs on their paths to the river as they brushed past our tent at night, and one night we encountered a hippo in the path as walked back to the tent from dinner.
Our hosts Clea and Conway were delightful, friendly and always ready to help. They sprang to action one night when our tent was invaded by safari ants after a rain and swiftly moved us to another tent. We are most grateful for all their aid and advice.
Our guide Pius was more complicated. We'd have to say that overall he was an excellent guide, because he did put us in position to see many fantastic animals and sights, but we got the feeling that he wasn't always giving it his all. On our last day in particular, we sensed that he was "running out the clock." At times Pius seemed to rely somewhat too much on other Rekero guides, so much so that on several occasions we could see that he stopped the truck to make small talk while he waited for the other guides to leave a scene before he took us there. Then when we arrived at the scene we'd find "just" a few sleeping lions, when we'd had many active and fantastic lion encounters during the previous days. We'd have rather headed off somewhere else without being sure what we would find. The other irksome thing was that there were times when we felt we were on Pius's photo safari, as he had us waiting to move on while he maneuvered for pictures that he wanted to take with his camera. We don't mean to be too rough on Pius, because he's a friendly and personable man who guided us to many magic moments. He found us a pride of lions marching majestically across the plains, as well as a herd of elephants, both when no one else was around. He also brought us to the most memorable bush breakfast spot we'd ever been to.
He spotted the rhino on our last morning, but we felt that we wouldn't have been there to see it if we hadn't made him get up early on the morning of our leaving. That was our experience with Pius in a nutshell, moments of elation mixed with some frustration.
Overall, our experience at Rekero was fantastic and we wouldn't hesitate to return."
Thanks to seeing a black rhino on our last morning, we did see the big five. We were also lucky enough to see more elusive animals such as a serval cat and a bat - eared fox.
We prefer tented camps to those with lodges, so for us the accommodation at Rekero is ideal. The tents are tucked into the woods and overlook the Talek River. We requested tent nine because we wanted to be close to the hippos and were we ever close to them! They cracked branches and twigs on their paths to the river as they brushed past our tent at night, and one night we encountered a hippo in the path as walked back to the tent from dinner.
Our hosts Clea and Conway were delightful, friendly and always ready to help. They sprang to action one night when our tent was invaded by safari ants after a rain and swiftly moved us to another tent. We are most grateful for all their aid and advice.
Our guide Pius was more complicated. We'd have to say that overall he was an excellent guide, because he did put us in position to see many fantastic animals and sights, but we got the feeling that he wasn't always giving it his all. On our last day in particular, we sensed that he was "running out the clock." At times Pius seemed to rely somewhat too much on other Rekero guides, so much so that on several occasions we could see that he stopped the truck to make small talk while he waited for the other guides to leave a scene before he took us there. Then when we arrived at the scene we'd find "just" a few sleeping lions, when we'd had many active and fantastic lion encounters during the previous days. We'd have rather headed off somewhere else without being sure what we would find. The other irksome thing was that there were times when we felt we were on Pius's photo safari, as he had us waiting to move on while he maneuvered for pictures that he wanted to take with his camera. We don't mean to be too rough on Pius, because he's a friendly and personable man who guided us to many magic moments. He found us a pride of lions marching majestically across the plains, as well as a herd of elephants, both when no one else was around. He also brought us to the most memorable bush breakfast spot we'd ever been to.
He spotted the rhino on our last morning, but we felt that we wouldn't have been there to see it if we hadn't made him get up early on the morning of our leaving. That was our experience with Pius in a nutshell, moments of elation mixed with some frustration.
Overall, our experience at Rekero was fantastic and we wouldn't hesitate to return."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent
Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Good
Facilities
Excellent
Own Arrangements in Lamu (Not currently featured by Expert Africa)
"Peponi Hotel is magical"
4 nights
Arrived
20 Mar 2016
"This was our second stay at the Peponi Hotel in Lamu. It was as magical as we remembered. Andrew, at Peponi, made our reservation and arranged our flights from and back to Nairobi, as Expert Africa was unwilling to do those because of UK travel advisories against going to Lamu.
Our room was beautiful and the food is outstanding. Carol is flawless as a host and is tireless in making sure that every detail of her guests' experience is the best it can be. It's impossible to imagine being looked after any better.
The only problem we had was that it was very hot and therefore it was difficult for us to partake in any of the many wonderful daytime activities on offer. For our next visit, we will aim for a cooler time of year."
Our room was beautiful and the food is outstanding. Carol is flawless as a host and is tireless in making sure that every detail of her guests' experience is the best it can be. It's impossible to imagine being looked after any better.
The only problem we had was that it was very hot and therefore it was difficult for us to partake in any of the many wonderful daytime activities on offer. For our next visit, we will aim for a cooler time of year."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent
Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Not currently featured by Expert Africa
Aero Club of East Africa
"Same as previous"
1 night
Arrived
24 Mar 2016
"Same as previous."
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good
Location
Excellent
Service
Good
Facilities
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Good
It's location close to Wilson airport is very convenient and as a place to both recover from the international flights into Nairobi and spend the night before flying out, it is ideal."