We spent our honeymoon in Kenya and Zanzbar the last two weeks of August. As promised, here is our trip report:

Flight: Denver - Nairobi via Chicago and London on BA. Business class was outrageous, and premium economy didn't look worth the premium, so we flew coach. Looked on www.seatguru.com and booked in the back (row ~54) of the plane to get a row with only two seats for the ORD-LHR leg, which was roomy and perfect. Once we saw the premium economy, we were really glad we hadn't splurged - it was basically the same thing. We were glad to have had a 3 hour layover in London, because the security lines for terminal 4 were really long (this right after the liquids scare).

Night 1: Macushla House, Nairobi
The people at Serian recommended this place for our night in Nairobi. We had to take care of some business (forgot our paper Precision Air tickets NBO-ZNZ...) when we arrived, so we didn't sit down to dinner until after 10, and they cooked us a fabulous multicourse meal. Our room wasn't overly luxurious, but it had interesting furniture and was clean and comfortable. Only problem was that there wasn't any cold water (this has to be a pretty rare problem in Africa!), so we weren't able to take a shower - they brought in buckets of cold water to make a warm bath.

Nights 2-5, Serian Camp, Masai Mara:
We flew from Wilson to Musiara - loved the view from the air, the herds were everywhere! Serian proved to be as wonderful as everyone here said it would be. Our tent (6) was right on the Mara river, with two hippos right outside, a deck with a daybed, a nice bathroom (two sinks, a shower and a bathtub). We had our own guide, driver and Toyota Landcruiser (not sure if this is standard - most of the other guests were families occupying more than one tent). The food was delicious, and we really enjoyed hanging out with Alex and the other hosts and guests at the camp - everyone was very interesting. They also prepared two special dinners for us, one by a hippo pool and one on our deck.

As for the game, we saw a ton of lions - there were prides everywhere. On our last day we saw a kill (waterbuck). We also saw two massive river crossings, with a croc taking down a baby wildebeest and a Thompson gazelle (who thought he could cross by himself but then got confused and disoriented...I guess there's something to be said for following the herd). The night drives were great - lots of lion hunting action. I would have really missed this if we had stayed inside the park. One night, in fact, a roaring lion walked right past our tent while we were in it! We didn't luck into seeing any cheetah or leopard, unfortunatly, though our guides did try hard to find them for us. For the most part, we hardly saw any other vehicles (including at our two river crossings, both of which happened in the late afternoon).

Nights 6-8: Shompole
Totally luxurious, totally relaxing - I can't imagine our honeymoon without this stop. We flew in our own chartered plane (4 seater) from Musiara to Shompole. The pilot flew low so we could see everything - the herds, the Masai villages, the gorgeous mountain canyons. The flight was about 45 minutes from the Mara, and one of the highlights of the trip (we skipped ballooning, but have trouble imagining it could have beat this). Shompole was gorgeous. We had room 6 here, which was unreal. Spent the days lounging by the main pool, mountain biking, going for walks in the bush and getting massages. We loved the sundowner at Lake Natron, very beautiful watching the flamingos take flight. We did a couple of game drives, but there were far fewer animals at Shompole and our guides were not as expert as they had been at Serian, so we basically chose to relax instead. Kind of funny - we had monkeys come in our room to steal the soap. Food was great here as well, really fresh and healthy, with interesting flavors.

Nights 9-13, Matemwe Bungalows, Zanzibar
We flew to Wilson, transferred to NBO via Macushla House (to pick up our paper tickets which our neighbor had DHL'd to us from the States). A surprise on the flight was the view of Kilimanjaro above the clouds on the flight to Zanzibar. We liked Matemwe Bungalows, but to be honest, after staying at Serian and Shompole, it just didn't compare. 12 rooms felt huge, and the personalized service and luxury were nowhere near the same. If it hadn't been our honeymoon, I'm sure we would have thought it was perfectly lovely, but in retrospect, on the same budget I might have stayed for fewer nights at Mnemba Island or maybe even stayed in Kenya at Manda Bay. The beach at Matemwe was gorgeous (white, powder fine sand), but the tide and sea urchins basically took the fun out of enjoying the ocean. Fortunatly they had nice pools. Most mornings we sailed on a dhow out to Mnemba to snorkle, which was a lot of fun. The weather on Zanzibar wasn't great while we were there (windy and cool 2 of the 4 days). Enjoyed the Stone Town tour and spice tour quite a lot, as we had a tour guide who had been a university professor and was fascinating to talk to. Our last night, the manager of Matemwe surprised us with a bottle of champagne and a candlelit dinner on the beach, which was a wonderful way to end the trip.

Flight back: a mix-up caused our flights on Precision Airways not to be reconfirmed, and we got bumped. Pray this never happens to you. We stood out on the hot pavement at Zanzibar airport for 2 hours waiting to get rebooked, and then had the I guess it was good luck to find a flight to Nairobi via Dar via Arusha that landed with just enough time for us to make our connection on BA (almost without our luggage, were it not for the clever stragies of the transfer desk). We were pretty beat when we finally got home.

As for clothes, gear, etc. it was incredibly hot and dry during the day, and with me being fair skinned, I would have uncomfortable without the SPF buzz off clothing, hat, great moisturizers, sunscreen and eye drops. My husband was especially happy with his vented Tilly hat. I also was really glad to have packed a pair of Crocs to wear around the tents (barefoot is not a good option...as I later found out when encountering scorpions at Shompole and Matemwe), a stylish pair of sunglasses (you never take them off) and warm sweats to wear around the tent at night (when it gets cold) and on the flights.

Here are our photos and videos, in case you are interested:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=jizpahj.almyeraz&x=0&y=-we9kjh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvIq_G0s4rw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol_5wPrXSPQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANZmUooC6Xs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1xvCd8CJQU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdKY9MxKjcI

Thanks all of you for your help and advice!