It sounds as though you had a rough start to your trip, Barbara. It must have been especially frustrating after having booked with such a reputable company. Our presafari planning with Roy was seamless, but the reality is that glitches can happen. Ultimately, your actual safari sounds like it'll be a joy to read about, and I'm looking forward to your trip report.

To top it all off they sent us to lunch at the Impala Hotel. It was dirty, run down and the food was the worst meal we ate on our safari.

Yeah, what is with that place?!? it appears that a few safari companies have offices (someone is paying a heck of a kickback) would it kill them to put a few buck into the place? and make better food?

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

Yikes! I'm doing a safari not very similar to yours but with Wildtrek and Roy's booked through Africa Serendipity. Very glad to hear everything else went well. As usual when it comes to trip reports I very much look forward to reading the rest of it as soon as you have it posted.

Juliet

p.s. Welcome back!

brbrt,

Your itinerary looks wonderful and glad the safari was too. Thank you for your candid and detailed remarks about what you had to go through to get the safari off the ground. Good guiding makes all the difference so that's good you enjoyed the guides so much. Too bad you could not have known how well everything would work out during the difficulties.

Looking forward to more details.

Feb. 15
Flew into Nairobi on British Air. We arrived at 9:30pm. There were two very long visa lines. Both lines were for those getting visas and those who already had them. We were glad we didn't apply for our visas before we came because we would have had to wait in the same line. We walked to the luggage area and waited about a half hour for our bags. We looked over to a roped off area with many guides with signs. We were extremely happy to see OJ from Wild Trek with a sign with my name. Ben, our guide for our safari in Kenya was there also. He did the driving in Nairobi also. We were taken to the Intercontinental Hotel. OJ asked us for our room preferences and he made arrangements. We made it to bed at 11:30pm. We thought this hotel was excellent. While it was not an up-scale hotel, it was clean, had a beautiful lobby, good food, and served our purposes very well.
Feb. 16
Amazingly, none of us slept a wink last night. At 7:00am we tiredly made it down for a wonderful breakfast at the hotel. We met with OJ and he took us to a small platformed area of the hotel lobby to go over the entire safari. We were very pleased to see that our planned itinerary was going to be followed perfectly. OJ, with Ben as our driver, took us on a day tour of Nairobi. We saw the Giraffe Center and fed the giraffes. Some people held food in their mouthes and used that to "kiss" the giraffes. We took a walk in a near-by trail, hoping to see many birds but we only saw a few. Our second stop was the Sheldrik Ellee Orphanages for the 11:00 elephant mud baths. It was nice to see the baby elephants but the mud baths weren't much. The guides just let the elephants walk in the mud and feed on branches. I think we should have skipped this stop but maybe some people enjoyed it more. Our next stop was the Karen Blixen museum.We had an excellent guide take us through. It was a wonderful experience, especially if you have seen the movie, "Out of Africa".
We were getting hungry for lunch and OJ said there wasn't a picnic spot nearby so we ate in the van. The hotel had packed lunches for us and even though there was plenty of food, we couldn't eat the meat or mayo items because they were warm from sitting in the van. We decided then that we did not want to have any more packed picnic lunches. We drove on to the Utamaduni Craft Center. It was fairly large and we bought a few souvenoirs. We found out later that prices were very good on most items compared to lodges and other stores.
We then stopped at a supermarket for cases of water and then returned to the hotel.
We enjoyed a very nice Italian dinner at our hotel and slept well that night.

brbrt,

I'm very curious to hear how you liked Amboseli and your thoughts on Ol Tukai?

Would you recommend it??

Does anyone know what happened to brbrt?

Feb 17
We were going to sleep late today and try to recover from jet lag but OJ suggested that we leave early for Lake Nakuru. We were anxious to get going so we agreed. We stopped to view the Great Rift. It was beautiful to see. We were bothered by the many people trying to sell things. No matter what we said, they would not leave us alone. Ben told us not to buy anything but some of us did anyway. When we were about 1/4 of the was from the lodge, we stopped for a potty break at a place that sold carvings of many types of wood and soap stone. The show room was enormous and the carvings were beautiful. Some of us bought giraffe statues and rino carvings and because they were so big, they had them shipped home. They got good prices by bargining with the sales people. We continued on our journey one of the most dusty, and bumpy roads of our safari. In some places we could hardly see anything. The roads had been good up to this point.
We arrived at Sarova Lion Lodge around 1:30pm and enjoyed lunch. Because we arrived before most others , we were given cottages located lowest on the hill. Each couple was given a cute, little stone cottage. The Lion Lodge is located in a beautiful area with a view of Lake Nakuru. Even though our cottage was small, it was nicely but basicly furnished, and clean with a nice porch with comfortable chairs. There were hundreds of birds and small white butterlies and some misquitoes. We had great food. Dinner was buffet style and included 3 selections cooked over an outdoor grill. The beef was tough but tasty but the vegetable and chicken were very good. There was plenty to eat and a lot of selection. I would say that quality of food over all was a 7 out of 10. The restaurant was open air and very pretty with cloth tableclothes.
At 4:00pm Ben took us on our first game drive. It was an outstanding beginning!
We saw many giraffe, a baboon family, black and white rino, impala, many types of birds, some very mean looking Cape buffalo and around a million and a half flamingoes feeding in the lake.
It was getting toward dusk and Ben recieved a call on his radio. He rushed to another part of the park and we saw a tree climbing lioness. We watched it climb high into the tree and it sat there a branch before climbing down and walkingin front of our van. What a thrill! Ben said that in the ten years he has worked as a guide, he has never seen a lioness that high in a tree.
We came back to the lodge for dinner and watched entertainment given by a traditional dance team. It couldn't have been a more perfect day. We were very glad we choose to go to Lake Naruku even though it was out of our way for our safari. We saw so many animals and flamingos that we did not see on the remainder of our safari.

The highest lioness ever! A great Nakuru outing.

brbrt,

I'm dying to hear your thoughts on Ol Tukai!! Please stop keeping me in suspense!!

Feb 18
Ben took us out at 6:30 for another game drive. We saw more impala, lions, lots of Cape buffalo, baboons, and water bucks. We came back to rest and use the internet. After lunch we went for a swim in and icy pool. At 4:00 we went on another game drive. We searched and searched for a tree leopard but never found one. We did see giraffes and more Cape buffalo. We stopped at an overlook for a beautiful view of the lake and we could see the huge patch of flamingos.

Feb. 19
We took off at 6:30am for our journey to Amboseli. We needed to go back through Nairobi because the more direct roads were not in good condition. We had a marvelous lunch at the Serina Hotel in Nairobi. The hotel and restaurant were beautiful and it had us wishing we had stayed there while in Nairobi. After lunch, we stopped at a MegaMart to buy hair dryers. For some reason, the hair dryers we brought with us burned up even though we had them on the correct setting and used converters.

We traveled on some good and some very bumpy roads. After a couple of hours, Ben stopped for gas and a potty break. We women were horrified to find that they had a “pit” toilet which was a hole in the ground, with no toilet. We had heard of these conditions but hoped we would not actually have to use one. We were thankful that we had purchased a “Freshette” to make things easier.

As we drove on, we saw many Massi guarding cattle and sheep. We passed by a couple of villages with many Massi walking around. When we reached Amboseli Park, Ben went in the park building to register. While stopped, our vehicle was surrounded by Massi women selling jewelery. I bought a very pretty necklace with a small elephant pendant.

When Ben returned, we went on a game drive inside the park. We saw our first of many elephants. We also saw a pond with several hippos. As we drove we also saw many types of birds.

We arrived at Ol Takui Lodge and were taken to our cabins. It was late so we had dinner and went to bed.

Feb 20
Amboseli Park
After a great breakfast we went on a game drive. We saw many, many elephants. We came back for lunch and we went for a swim an a beautiful but very cold pool. We had a terrific view from the pool of Mount Kilimanjaro and we could watch water buffalo and an elephant across the fenced in field.
We went out for another game drive before dinner. The park was flat and mostly dry with a lake which is spring fed and fed by Mt. Kilimanjaro. We had some great views of the mountain both in the morning and evening. It was so beautiful and we could see snow falling.
There’s at least one other lake which is spring fed and only fills if there’s been a recent rain. There were several ponds and wet puddles with birds and hippos.
We saw dik diks for the first time. Towards dusk someone spotted two cheetahs in the long grass. What a beautiful animal and what a thrill to see them. They were so much bigger than we expected.
We came back to another wonderful dinner and went to bed.

Ol Tukuai Lodge was beautiful! The huge lobby was decorated in African style and was very impressive. The restaurant was elegant and had beautiful African style chandeliers. The grounds were very lush opposed to Amboseli Park. The landscaping is very well kept and beautiful. We had to walk down a long, long path to reach our rooms. We didn’t mind because we needed the exercise after riding all day. We had a terrific view of Kilimanjaro from our porch. However some cabins were behind rows of others and the view was blocked ..We had two comfortable chairs on the porch so we enjoyed sitting there and enjoying the view. The rooms are spacious but the curtains are faded and slightly torn and need replacing. Be warned that the showers have opposite faucets for hot and cold water. We learned that the hard way by turning on only the hot and having to take slightly cold showers until we figured out what was going on.. The beds were rock hard. There were several windows but at night the lighting was very dim. But the view made up for any shortcomings of the room.
The food was much better than the Savora Lion Lodge. We rated it a 9 out of 10. Beef was also very flavorful but not tender but the desserts were wonderful.
We recommend Ol Tukui especially for the view.

brbrt,

You're still keeping us in suspense!! How was Ol Tukai?! How did it compare with your other lodges? Would you recommend it?!!

Great! Finally! I'm glad you liked it! 9 out of 10 is pretty good!

Feb 21
We enjoyed a later breakfast this morning (8:00). Then Ben drove us to the Namango boarder between Kenya and Tanzania. The guys went inside each building for each country to show our passports and get our visas stamped ( no cost since we paid our $50.00 each in Nairobi, Kenya when we arrived). We exchanged vehicles and met Salvatory, our driver from Roy Safaris. We said good by to Ben and we all agreed that Ben was a terrific guide in so many ways.

Sal drove us to the office of Roy Safari and we learned that due to the rains in Tarangire Park, a bridge was out in route to Swala Camp. We were so disappointed because we thought that our two nights in Swala would be a highlight in our safari. ( For more on Roy Safari, see the first part of this report).

After a terrible lunch at the Impala Hotel, Sal drove us to the Mountain Lodge near Arusha. We drove a long distance and it was a long ways back on a dirt road. But we were very pleased with the accommodations. The rooms were very large with beautiful furnishings. We had a beautifully carved wooden king-sized beds. There was a huge walk in closet , large washroom with full sized vanity, and even a lobby area with desk and phone.
The grounds were absolutely fabulous. They were very lush and had a river for fishing, a long, long beautiful pool, surrounded with tropical plants and views of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru from the long porch in the rear of the dining lodge. The dining room looked like a castle inside. We had a private dining room that had a huge dining table. The food was the best we had yet with steamed trout, greens, homemade bread garden fresh vegetables and crapes for dessert. A fire was lit in the fireplace in a large, separate room with benches with cushions.

The only negatives were no ceiling fans, no top sheet on the bed but a very heavy fur blanket. It was hot when we went to bed but we were cooled by very cool mountain air later in the night. It was still too warm for the fur blanket however.

We rated this place 9.5 out of 10.

brbrt,

Ol Tukai was a hit, with elephants as you would hope. Nice to have some Kili views and to see some of those adorable little dik diks.

Your accommodations are getting high marks with 9s and 10s.

Yvonne & Wayne,
I was laughing out loud too by the time you were accosted at the airport. Your husband my have been on a diplomatic passport and immune from any charges, but how about you? You'd be back at the lodge pounding cornmeal into ugali to pay restitution and your husband would be continuing on safari without you, compliments of the passport.

The thought of Roy's tracking you down on a future safari is pretty funny to me too. Notice I wrote "the thought." I wouldn't actually wish that upon you.

Feb 21
We enjoyed a later breakfast this morning (8:00). Then Ben drove us to the Namango boarder between Kenya and Tanzania. The guys went inside each building for each boarder crossing to show our passports and get our visas stamped ( no cost since we paid our $50.00 each in Nairobi, Kenya when we arrived). We exchanged vehicles and met Salvatory, our driver from Roy Safaris. We said good by to Ben and we all agreed that Ben was a terrific guide in so many ways.

Sal drove us to the office of Roy Safari and we learned that due to the rains in Tarangire Park, a bridge was out in route to Swala Camp. We were so disappointed because we thought that our two nights in Swala would be a highlight in our safari.

( For more on Roy Safari, see the first part of this report).

After a terrible lunch at the Impala Hotel, Sal drove us to the Mountain Lodge near Arusha. We drove a long distance out of town and it was a long distance down a dirt road to reach the lodge. But we were very pleased with the accommodations. The rooms were very large with beautiful furnishings. We had a beautifully carved wooden king-sized bed. There was a huge walk in closet , large washroom with full sized vanity, and even a lobby area with desk and phone. There was a concern about the water bottles that were supplied by the lodge. We noticed they were not sealed and that they did not have labels. We suspected that they had been refilled by the lodge. We questioned them and they brought new bottles which were exactly the same as the originals. Fortunately, we had some water left from the supply we bought in Nairobi.

The grounds were absolutely fabulous. They were very lush and had a river for fishing, a long, long beautiful pool, surrounded with tropical plants and views of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru from the long porch in the rear of the dining lodge. The inside of the dining lodge looked like a small castle. We had a private dining room that had a huge dining table. The food was the best we had yet with steamed trout, greens, homemade bread garden fresh vegetables and crapes for dessert. A fire was lit in the fireplace in a large, separate room with benches with cushions.

The only negatives were no ceiling fans, no top sheet on the bed but a very heavy fur blanket. It was hot when we went to bed but we were cooled by very cool mountain air later in the night. It was still too warm for the fur blanket however.

We rated this place 9.5 out of 10.

Feb 22
After a wonderful breakfast we were forced to drive back to Roy Safari’s to waste another morning of our safari. That finished, we drove to Tarangire Park. This park is beautiful beyond words. We are so glad we decided to come. We saw Bobab and Arcadia and occasional palm trees. And the Tarangire River winds through the park. It was all very green with rolling hills, lakes and ponds.

We saw a great many birds and elephants, giraffes and dik diks. We also saw a leopard on one of the roads inside the park.

We stayed at the Sopa Lodge. It was a very good choice. The lobby was elegant and we had an excellent room with a ceiling fan. The rooms were in hut shaped buildings of upper and lower units of two. We had a lower level unit but had a great view of a wooded area. We could hear monkeys fighting in the distance.

The food was better than average. We rated the food a 6 and room a 9 out of 10.

Feb 23
After a 6:00 breakfast we went on a game drive on our way out of Tarangire Park. Sal planned many drives with the thought of giving us as much time in the parks as possible. We really appreciated his efforts to please us. We drove on to Manyara Park for our one night stay at the Serena Lodge. We arrived in time for lunch. The lodge was in a beautiful setting. There were a couple of trees near the entrance with hundreds of Weaver birds with nests with new chicks. They were making lots of noise while feeding the babies. It was amazing to see.
The rooms at the lodge were disappointing. We expected better at a Serena Lodge. The rooms were a little run down and not very pretty. But the infinity pool overlooking the Great Rift Valley and the local village was wonderful. We had a great swim and enjoyed the view so much. It also had a beautiful bar setting next to the pool but watch out for the drink prices. I paid $13.00 for a Serena Sunrise drink I ordered without realizing how much it would cost. Even though the room was slightly disappointing and the food not that great, we are actually glad we stayed there because of the great views we enjoyed while swimming in the pool. Rating: Rooms 8 and food 8 out of 10

February 24
Gibbs Farm for lunch and Drive to Ngorongoro Crater
Sopa Lodge

After breakfast at the Serena in Tarangire, we took another game drive in the park. We saw elephants drinking at pools, and walking down a shallow river.
We left Tarangire and drove to Gibbs Farm for a wonderful lunch. Everything was so good and made from farm fresh ingredients. We enjoyed drinks while waiting for our lunch. We had time to see the beautiful view of the valley from the hilltop of the farm restaurant. It was such a nice break and very relaxing.

After lunch we drove on to the Ngorongoro Crater. We took the rim road to the far end of the crater and descended into it. We saw so many herds of animals and some hippos in a pond. We were amazed at the number of animals we saw in this crater. We did have to deal with a lot of dust which came upon us in clouds. Sal said it hadn’t rained in two weeks and the crater dries out fast. He said it was very unusual for it to be that dusty in February. We came across a herd of zebra. One was on the ground and we soon realized she was in labor. Another zebra came by and seemed to be checking on her and put it’s face against her. We stayed as long as we could but had to leave before she gave birth. We were required to be out of the crater by 6:00pm.

Our rooms at the Sopa were on a par with a Motel 6. Our shower was in a patched bathroom that leaked all over the bathroom floor. The room was a pit. The food was cold and the dishes served were unappealing.
We choose this Sopa because we thought it would be an advantage to be near the road down to the creater but wished we had stayed elsewhere. We rated the room and the food a 2 out of 10.

A zebra in labor, how very interesting!

Feb 25
Morning crater drive and drive to Ndutu
Ndutu Safari Lodge

After an average breakfast we drove down into the crater. Again, we were amazed by the huge herds and variety of animals. We watched two cheetahs come down a hill and stop near a herd of wildebeests. They ran up to them and the wildebeests scattered. The cheetahs stopped and watched them for a while. Some male wildebeests came closer and stood near them but soon the cheetahs lost interest.
We drove on and came across a pride of 9 lions that were napping. They woke and stirred briefly and we were able to get a few good pictures and then they fall asleep again. We also saw several hyenas. We went to the most beautiful hippo pool. We saw several hippos in the water.

We came back to the Sopa for a surprisingly good lunch. Because it was Sunday, we were given a menu to order from. The food was wonderful.

After lunch, we drove to Ndutu Lodge. The road was terrible. We drove all afternoon, stopping on the way at a Massi Village. The Massi sang welcome songs and danced. Tom and Bob joined the men of the village in a jumping dance. The chief’s son took us around the village and into a “tourist model” home. While in the home the chief’s son explained about Massi life and customs.

Finally, we arrived at Ndutu Lodge. Just by luck, Tom and I were assigned the honeymoon cottage. It was bigger and it was set apart from all the others. We had to put up with a lot of joking from everyone else.

Dinner that night was exceptional. It was served family style and everything tasted so good. One of our group was ill that night and the chef came to our table to ask about a plate to be sent to her room. He was so gracious and made a beautiful fruit and cheese selection for her husband to take to her.

Another good outing in the crater.

Feb 26
We had another great meal at Ndutu Lodge today. After fIlling our plates at a small buffet, the waiter brought pancakes to the table and took orders for eggs and bacon. Everything was delicious.

After breakfast, we went a game drive. We saw a huge giraffe and several smaller ones.

It had rained the night before and we ran into an area of extremely muddy, rutted roads. My husband and I had our first experience “Mudding”. It was so scary but really fun too. We slid all over the road several times and almost got stuck. We almost slid into a tree. Mud flew everywhere. We made a couple of 360 degree turns. The whole experience lasted for a couple of miles. If it wasn’t for Salvadori’s excellent skill at driving, I’m sure we would have become stuck.

We drove on for about three more miles and found what we thought was the migration. Wildabeasts and zebra surrounded us as far as we could see. We were amazed at the number of animals. But Sal told us we hadn’t seen the migration yet. We couldn’t imagine what he meant. He said we would see what he meant later.
After a while, we drove away and came across a pride of lions with cubs. We took some great pictures and drove on.

After going a ways, Sal spotted cheetahs running in the field. They ran close to us and stopped. There was a mother and two cubs.

The flies were terrible in the area of the migration. Whenever we made a stop on the drive flies landed on us and made it hard to take pictures, especially videos. We hung up some sticky fly traps in the van. Then we had a contest between the front and rear people to see which trap would catch the most flies. The flies didn’t seem to be attracted to the traps . We caught about 15 out of trillions in the area. At least they weren’t tsetse flies and they didn’t bite.

Later we came close to the real migration. Sal said to look along the horizon. There, we saw thousands of animals, stretching for miles in both directions. We drove closer to it and were soon surrounded with zebras and wildebeests. We also saw herds of impala.

After a while, we drove back for another outstanding meal at Ndutu. We relaxed in the afternoon and at 4:30 Sal picked us up for another drive. We went by a lake and into a green scrubby area. It wasn’t very pretty but it was wonderful for birding. Coming back, we saw the most beautiful sunset. We arrived back at Ndudu lodge at 7:30 for another outstanding dinner.

Ndutu Lodge rating: food 10, accommodations 9 out of 10. Our honeymoon room had cute decorations and was very comfortable. It had all we could want. The other’s rooms were small and had very small twin beds.

That is some description of mudding! I've never done anything like that. So the flystrips were not a winner. Did anything work to combat them?

"Salvatory was our driver and guide in Tanzania

Sorry you had problems with Roys ... you were lucky to get Salvatory, he has been on two trips with us and is one of the friendliest, most happy-go-lucky guys I've ever met

Bill

To atravelynn: No we did not find anything that worked to discourage the fly problem. They were annoying but did not bite.

Feb 27
We took a morning drive around a large lake near Ndutu Lodge. There was one hippo in the lake. Then we drove in a scrubby area similar to the day before. We saw a few giraffes , zebra and again, lots of birds. We came back to Ndutu for a lunch of African foods. Most of us did not care for the selection.

After lunch, we drove to the Serengeti, viewing the huge migration along the way. The migration again amazed us. Sal said there were a million and a half wildebeests and 800,000 zebra migrating. They were as far as we could see on the horizon.

After an hour and a half drive, we arrived at Kusini Camp. It is located back in the trees. The restaurant is set near a huge granite slab.
We were welcomed with cool towels so we could refresh ourselves. We were then taken to chairs in a campfire area and given delightful lime soda drinks. The manager explained some things about the camp and assigned our tents. My husband and I had the farthest tent down a long trail. Our tent was up on a platform that also served as the floor of the tent. The platform extended out from the tent and served as a porch with deck chairs and a lounge. We had a beautiful view facing a field with trees.

After settling in, we walked back to the restaurant area and climbed the slopping rocks near the restaurant. It was an easy climb. We relaxed on pillows and enjoyed drinks while watching the sun go down. Because it was cloudy, we did not see the sunset, but it was wonderful anyway. After dark we all went over to the campfire to wait until dinner was served.

Dinner was wonderful. We returned to our tents and went to sleep under down comforters and soft pillows.

Feb 28
After a delicious breakfast we drove ten miles to the edge of the migration. The migration was closer to Kusini today than yesterday. This time we saw many baby wildebeests. The birthing had begun. Sal saw a group of vultures and storks and we drove to see the kill. It was a baby wildebeest. They were picking it apart.

We drove on into the migration and we were able to watch several births. Sal drove very close to one birth and the mother became frightened and ran away from the baby. Because our Land Rover was the first thing the baby saw, it thought we were it’s mother. We tried to drive away but the baby quickly gained strength and ran after us. As the mother circled the area, we stopped again and the baby came to our vehicle crying instead of going to it‘s mother. The mother rejoined the herd. We were so sad because we thought the baby would never know it’s mother and would probably be killed. After driving around some more with the baby following us, someone spotted the mother again. Sal then drove behind the mother so the mother and baby were both on one side of the Land Rover. Mother and baby reunited. We were all relieved at the happy ending.
After a while we returned to Kusini for a delicious lunch. We relaxed in the afternoon on our porch deck chairs.

We all enjoyed staying at Kusini so much. We decided it was our favorite lodging. The meals were all wonderful. We always had two choices on the main course. Desserts were great too. Wine was included at lunch and dinner. The tents were wonderful and a nice change from our other lodging. The camp was managed by a delightful, very friendly couple. They made our stay outstanding.

We rated the meals 9 and Lodging 10 out of 10. Our hosts deserve a rating of 10.

It sounds like your time in Ndutu was similar to ours, at just about the same time, except we didn't have the problem with flies that you did. The migration was amazing.

susan17,
Sunny Safaris was our operator and everything worked out quite well. We were met promptly the few times we needed transportation, all of our accommodations were as we expected, our guide Gerald was very good (although not the most talkative guy) and his vehicle was roomy, comfortable, and reliable. Ally in Arusha was our contact and he served us well, but there is a nine-hour time difference where we live so e-mail was the only reasonable way to communicate. They were among the least expensive of those I originally talked to, but our experience with them was not reflected by their economical pricing.

As far as accommodations in or near Arusha, we stayed the first two nights (after landing at Kili airport) at the Kia Lodge, which is only about five minutes from the airport. We also stayed one night later in the trip at the Kigongoni Lodge just east of Arusha. I would recommend both of them, especially the Kia if you want to be close to the airport.

This message is mainly to the admistrators of this forum @ Fodors. Thank you very much for allowing the operator to speak on their own behalf. It further cements in my head what a wonderful forum this is indeed. It is also a reminder to take every trip report with a grain of salt.

To Sanjay of Roy Safaris, thank you also for taking the time out to provide your side - "I would therefore leave this up to the readers of this forum to make any judgement as they see fit on Roy Safaris now that facts are in place."

Regards,
Juliet

I wish to clarify the posting I made on our safari with Roy Safaris. I made some comments giving my opinions about difficulties we experienced with their office. Roy Safaris has contacted me and they do not agree with my opinions and comments. At no time did I wish to do any harm to Roy Safaris. Please disregard anything I have stated about Roy Safaris previously.
The purpose of the posting was to tell others about our safari and to share our experiences. We do recommend them to anyone wanting a good safari. We had good guides and the Safari itself was wonderful and flawless. I’m sure the credit for this is due to Roy Safaris.

Well, I have no clue what just went on here. He said, she said. Let's get back to the trip report!

WTF!!!!
regards - tom

Some legal wranglings I suppose which I think is best left to brbrt and Roys.
Regards,
Eric

brbt,

Thank you very much for returning to comment. It solidifies what you feel YOU expereinced and I think it is very good of you to report back that you would still recommned them as a whole due to their fantastic guides, etc. As others have commented, please do complete your trip report as myself and others draw greatly from the experiences of others.

Cheers,
Juliet

Sorry for this interruption; thanks for the detailed report brbt.

This is just to confirm that we did delete messages posted by Roy's Safari's due to the personal information relayed in those messages.

Since the responses from Roy Safaris (Sanjay, the managing director) were deleted after a day I hope the Fodor's Editor will not object if I repeat his basic points, leaving out any personal info. Since many people will see this thread while doing research it seems fair to summarize Sanjay's responses.

Regarding the missing emails brbrt mentions, Sanjay thinks this might have been a problem with a Yahoo mail account since all the emails sent to the client's husband at a second address were received.

Regarding the delay and refund in Arusha (which was what got most of my attention when I first read it) ... apparently the lodge they were to stay at the first two nights was Swala in Tarangire and this lodge closed the night before they arrived because heavy rains had washed away a bridge, leaving the lodge inaccessible.

So the extra time spent in Arusha was spent trying to re-book the clients elsewhere, and the refund was delayed because they didn't know the amount due until a replacement lodge was booked (Swala is one of the more expensive lodges in the area so the client would be receiving a refund because the replacement lodges cost less).

Regarding the problems with YvonneM with the Serena Zanzibar employee demanding $250, Sanjay points out that Roy was only supplying transport to and from the airport and that the hotel booking went thru the client's travel agent (at least I think that's what he said).

There are always at least two sides to these stories and hopefully I remembered Sanjay's correctly.

Full disclosure ... I have used Roy Safaris for three trips, the first arranged by a professional photographer and the next two arranged by myself because I thought they did a good job. The guide that brbrt used (Salvatory) was on two of our trips and a wonderful fellow.

I'm not trying to carry water for Roys and have no business relationship with them other than as a client, though I did meet Sanjay twice in Arusha on the mornings two of our safaris started.

They have always treated us well and while I'm sure disputes like those mentioned here occur I'm certain they are the exception.

To give one example of how Roy Safaris treats clients I'll just mention that on our last trip in January we lost part of a game drive in Ngorongoro Crater when we had to try to pull out a stuck jeep, then took two of the clients with us to the rim so they could go to a different hotel and meet a new jeep the next day.

This was not a big deal to us but Roy (Sanjay) offered to not charge us for half-a-day's jeep usage when we return next year, even though I didn't ask for any compensation. They are good guys to work with in my book.

Anyway, hope this doesn't cross any lines with the editor but I thought it fair to get Sanjay's responses on the record.

One final comment is that even on the best safaris I've found that at least 2 or 3 things will go wrong. Maybe someone will get a stomach bug or luggage won't arrive or the desk clerk is asleep so you have to do the buffalo-walk in the dark alone or a cook will demand a tip because he doesn't want to get up early to fix a box breakfast for you (all things that have happened to people on our trips) ... try not to sweat the small stuff and let it detract from the overall joy of being in Africa!

Bill

March 1

We left Kusini this morning to go to the Serengeti Serena Lodge in Seonera. We did a game drive on our way. We saw so many wildebeest mothers and babies. We noticed a mother giving birth. Then were able to witness several more births.
We saw several lost calves. Several tried to follow our Land Rover. At one time we had six calves following us. Eventually they wandered off.
We drove to another part of the migration and Sal spotted three lions. One had a dead baby wildebeest lying next to her. She didn’t seem interested in eating it. There were several babies wondering around the area without their mothers. It wasn’t long before the lioness started stalking one of them. We watched two kills that morning. It was so hard to watch innocent, lost calves become victims to the lions. The most terrible part of witnessing these kills was when the lions toyed with the babies before killing them. Then the left the babies to hunt again.

We drove on towards the Seronera area taking a detour through the Ndutu area due to the more direct road being too wet to travel on. We saw Nobie Hills and stopped for a picnic lunch at a welcome center.

We drove on and when we neared the area of the Serena Lodge, we visited a hippo pool. There were many hippos. There was a dead hippo on the other shore of the pool. A couple of crocodiles were eating it.

We arrived at the Serina Lodge in late afternoon. We were impressed with the building and our rooms were pretty nice. Our room was in a hut shaped building with individual rooms on two levels. We had a room on the second story. The view was excellent. Dinner was very good that evening.

Rating: Food Buffet 8.5 Room 8 out of 10

March 2
Sal drove us to the Seronera airport. Our plane was scheduled to leave at 10:30 am. We were amazed at the number of people at the airport. A plane landed and Sal said it was our plane. He went over to talk some pilots and found out we needed to wait for another plane coming in a hour later. We drove around the area and came across many, many giraffes.
An hour later we returned to the airport and boarded our plane. We had struggled to keep our luggage weight under the required 33 pounds but it was never weighed.

Our plane flew into Arusha, were whe had to get off for refueling. We did some shopping in the few small stores and after about 45 minutes we reboarded the plane.
We were surprised that we needed to land in Kilimanjaro airport to go through customs and immigration. We had thought we were going to fly directly to Wilson. Anyway, we arrived at Wilson airport an hour after we were expected. But OJ, our original guide for Nairobi, was there to meet us. We were so happy to see him because he was such a great guide and so much fun.

He acted as our guide again. Wild Trek also sent us a very good driver. We went back to the Intercontinental Hotel to collect our stored luggage. We asked the hotel for a room so we could re-pack some of our bags and change clothes. We were taken to the lower level of the hotel and to a spa area. It was pretty warm there but we managed fine.

OJ asked us what we wanted to do and we asked to go to the Decorator’s Den. He knew exactly where it was. We were amazed at all the selection and found most things more reasonably priced than any where else on the safari.
We stocked up on everything we wanted. Then we told OJ that we would like to go to the Mediterrano Italian Restaurant for dinner. It had been recommended by several people on this forum. Since it was still too early for dinner we stopped at a small mall near the restaurant. After briefly shopping, we were taken to the restaurant. It is located in a pretty shabby area. But, we were pleasantly surprised when we went inside. It was beautifully decorated. We had a leisurely dinner with great service. Because we were there long before we needed to leave for the airport we could really relax over great food and drinks. We all sampled each others food and it was all good except the lasagna. Servings were huge and reasonably priced. We want to thank everyone who recommended this restaurant.
It was time to go to the NBO airport. We arrived there by 9:00 and had to go through 4 screenings before we could go to a waiting room and wait to board the plane to London. our plane took off at 11:25.

This is the end of my report. We don’t have our pictures ready to post yet but I will post them as soon as possible.
Thank you to all those who wrote into the forums. Your advice helped so much in the planning of this trip.

Also thank you to all those who made so many kind comments about my previous postings.

Thanks for your report. Glad to hear you enjoyed your dinner at Mediterraneo. Looking forward to your photos!

brbrt,

I know you gave a 9/10 rating at Ol Tukai for the food.

But how about a rating for the Ol Tukai lodge?

And the Ol Tukai rooms?

And the Ol Tukai location?

I'm curious how it compares to the other lodges you stayed at.....

One of my messages was mistakenly removed from this forum by management. In that message I stated that the person I booked my Safari with was Susan Woods. Her name was Susan but it was not Susan Woods.