African safari advice
 

Hi Friends

Everyone on this forum is so knowledgeable on African safaris so please can someone help me with my itinerary as I’m sure it could do with some refining.

We aim to stay in as many luxury accommodations as possible availability and budget permitting. So please can you recommend accommodations for us also.

Myself and my wife will be flying into Kenya this September 2024 from the States probably in Kenya Airways. We’ll stay in Nairobi for a night (please can you recommend a nice hotel) and then make our way to the Mara Reserve to see the Migration for two nights (please recommend a luxury rented camp). From the Mara we’ll make our way to Diani Beach for some rest and relaxation for two or three nights (please can you recommend a high end hotel). Is there a better beach in Kenya we can go to that’s not difficult to get to from the Mara?

From there we will move to Uganda and Gorilla trek. We have friends in Uganda that can help us with this portion of the trip and will organize the accommodation and trekking permits.

From Uganda we move on to Zambia and this is where we really need help. We are only going to be in Zambia a very short time so if you were going to choose one National Park in Zambia in September/early October where would you choose and why? I’ve heard the KNP (Basunga Plains) are great this time of year and also know LZNP is marvelous but I’m open to other suggestions? Also please can you reccomend some luxury tented accommodations in the National park you recommend? We then want to go to Victoria falls. My wife stayed at the Royal Livingston 20 years ago and loved it because you could see the falls in all their splendor from the hotel, is the Royal Livingston still the place to go or are their comparable alternatives? From Zambia we move to Madagascar but again we have friends to help us there.

Finally, should we let one tour operator book the whole trip including accomodations, flights and transfers etc or should we book through local tour operators in the respective countries we visit?

I know this Africa trip is all very last minute and we may not get the accommodation we desire but we’re gonna take our chances.

Thankyou for taking the time to read my post and any feedback and advice is profoundly appreciated.

Lots of unpack here. I don't know much about luxe hotels, but I have some other thoughts. First, you should book through local operators in each country. No need to pay a markup for middlemen. Second, two nights in the Mara seems incredibly short. You may have little time to see stuff on your arrival and departure days, so that's only one full day of game viewing. A very long way to travel for a once in a lifetime trip that you're going to shortchange.

Third, you're all over the place. You're trying to cover too much ground over a large continent, when it's unnecessary. Distances in Africa are vast, and travel is slow with frequent unexpected delays. Not sure why you need to go on a safari in both Kenya and Zambia. What do you hope to accomplish by both? Pick one. This is especially true where you're planning a mere 2 days for the Mara. (You don't say how long for safari in Zambia).

I have seen your post here and have a few tips & recommendations for you in brief.
A few Luxury hotels in Nairobi:

- Four Point by Sheraton & Crowne Plaza are inside the airport just incase your flight arrives in wee hours but you will need a 5 min transfer to these points.

-Radisson Blue hotel, Fairview hotel, Argyle Grand hotel, Serena hotel & Sarova Stanley are all in Nairobi, just name but a few.

A few luxury camps inside Masai Mara national reserve:

- Mara Ashnil tented camp.

-Mara Maisha tented camp.

-Mara Sarova hotel.

Down in the coast, this entirely depend on the region that you would love to visit, i will suggest hotels in Diani, there are plenty of beach front hotels, its also easy to catch a local flight of 1hr 42 minutes to get to Nairobi city where your safari to Masai Mara starts.

Below is the list of 2 to 3 luxury ones.

-Ocean beach resort

-Serena beach hotel

-Diani Reef hotel and the list goes on & on.

Gorilla trekking in Uganda:

-Plan for about 3days 2 nights visit.

-Uganda has affordable permits costing around 700 USD per person.

-Landing at Kigali International Airport & get transferred to Kisoro or Bwindi, takes about 3 hours drive.

Finally Zambia.

-You could also visit - Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park , this park is conveniently located close to Livingstone for a quick animal drive. And i would still recommend Royal Livingston still a great hotel by Anantara.