Hi, I am totally confused now. I am torn between taking my family, with 5 kids, ages 6,8,9,10,13, and 4 adults to Tanzania or Kenya. They both seem fantastic, but there is a travel advisory right now for Kenya. But I am told Kenya is more kids friendly. What would you do???

Hello,

Personally, I would choose based on which country the Great Migration was likely to be in when I was travelling. Tanzania is also very child-friendly, and has the Ngorongoro Crater as well as the great plains of the Serengeti.

Presumably, with school-age kids, you're looking at a summer trip -- in which case I'd recommend Tanzania in June or early July, and Kenya in August.

Mid-to-late July is a tricky one -- the migration is moving between Tanzania and Kenya and its movements are not very predictable.

Cheers,
Julian

I'd do a tour that takes in both. But why the travel advisory? Was in Nairobi last week and the hotels were busy with tourists... no sense of being more danger than in my home town.

Felt more threatened in London a couple of weeks ago. (and that wasn't very threatened at all!)

If you put "travel warning" in the search box above, you'll find several previous threads on this subject.

jdavies - as to travel advisory it is meant to bring awareness to potential issues/unrest. My thoughts, entirely personal - not validated, were that the Somalia issues and people seeking refuge in Kenya (think this is North Part) might be raising the concern level in Kenya. Could be off-base with this one and/or could be due to who's in power. With that said many people have traveled to Kenya on this board and continue to go. If you choose Kenya I'd stay in the commonly travelled areas with a family. It's fair IMO to be concerned.
To help with your decision, have you looked for age requirements? For activities like Chimp viewing the age minimum was around 10 yrs, if I remember right. There might some age restrictions to consider for your trip.

When I mentioned Kenya earlier, was thinking about the close encounters people have had with Giraffe's and cheetah "hugs" and a monkey sanctuary. Probably more than that. But they did sound great.

Are your kids going to be able to sit for hours in a car driving and sitting for periods to see animals without getting out and running around? Having shorter time in vehicle could curb that.

OAT had an itinerary that could be well applied for families. Use it for research or consider a group trip. You'd make up more than half of the group size. http://www.oattravel.com/gcc/general...spx?oid=119157

And another link to look at itinerary from web. They will start to look similar after a while: http://www.emcoinc.com/travel/html/A...ilyKenyaTZ.htm