Hello. I am new to this board. I am in the very early stages of planning a safari with my husband. I am interested in a vey comfortable (possibly luxury) safari mostly in Kenya, possibly a short time in Tanzania. I am looking for suggestions based on experience with different travel companies. I already know of A&K, Micato, Tauck. I am certainly not cheap but I do hate to "overpay" for anything and take pride in finding deals. While we know thsi is going to be very expensive and the trip of a lifetime, I would prefer not to overpay at the same time. So if any like minded people have any suggestions and could point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful. Thank you in advance for any help and advice you can provide.

Hi, mariadillon

I have not yet been on my first safari, but just finished planning the itinerary.

I finally went with Sardius Tours, and got a very reasonable price.

Just to give you an idea, my mother and I are traveling together for 11 days in Kenya, then I am continuing on into Tanzania alone for another week.

The portion in Kenya is:
-shared accommodations, of course
-all private game drives, guide, driver, etc
-one in country flight from Maasai Mara to Nairobi (to cut down travel time from Mara to Amboseli)
-flight (for mom) from Amboseli back to Nairobi for international departure

My mother's total cost was $3440 for the 11 days.

To give you further idea, in Kenya, we are staying at:

Larsen's Tented Camp (2 nts) - http://www.wildernesslodges.co.ke/

Sweetwater Tented Camp (2 nts) - http://www.africanmeccasafaris.com/k...waterscamp.asp

Lake Nakuru Sarova Lion Hill Lodge (1 nt) - http://www.sarovahotels.com/lionhill/lhill_history.htm

Mara Sarova Tented Camp (3 nts) - http://www.sarovahotels.com/mara/history.htm

Ol Tukai Lodge (2 nts) - http://www.oltukailodge.com/

These were all very suitable accommodations for us. I don't know that they are considered "luxury" but it will give you an idea.

A couple of other safari planners helped me a great deal, and came in with very competitive prices for the Kenya portion. It was the Tanzania portion (with me as a single traveler) that was the killer. Those other companies are:

Africa Serendipity: http://www.africaserendipity.com/index.htm Sandi was fantastic to work with. If I remember correctly, she left today for Africa, so might be a bit of a delay in getting ahold of her, but she was great.

Eastern & Southern: http://www.essafari.co.ke/ Very pleasant to work with. It just came down to budget. A coworker of mine planned a 3 week safari with them and got a very reasonable price. I believe they stayed, for the most part, at Serena and Sopa lodges though. Not many tented camps. So depends on what you are looking for.

Those are the 2 that stick out the most for me, although I did talk to a few others.

Seems like quite a few Fodorites have used Africa Adventure Company http://www.africa-adventure.com/ I talked with Andre and he was very helpful and pleasant, just a bit out of our budget.

I'm sure you will get lots of advice here. I know I did. Others are definitely more expert than I am, but having been a "newbie" and just gone through the same thing, thought I'd offer my little bit of knowledge. Hope it's helpful.

Oh, and I learned that you can't say the trip of a lifetime. Apparently it's like a Lay's potato chip - you can't eat (read go to Africa) just one [time]. ;-)

Good luck with the planning.

Shane

Sorry, should have included Sardius' link as well

http://www.sardiustours.com/

Thanks Shane, I will start here. Have a wonderful trip.

Eastern & Southern can book any accomodation you want. Their standard itineraries use Serena/Sopa type lodges but those are just examples. I've used them for 3 custom trips and have been very happy with their services.

In addition to the ones Shane listed, Southern Cross Safaris and Gamewatchers Safaris have been used and recommended for Kenya by posters here.

You may be interested in reading the wonderful East Africa trip report index compiled by Lynda http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34860283

Good luck!

Great advice so far. Another reason not to pay too much is this may very well not be a the trip of a lifetime. You may get hooked.

Been on 5 Tauck Tours.

Used Roy Safari's and upgraded a Tauck itinerary and saved thousands and have a private safari.

Check it out yourself.

Good luck.

Thanks so much for all of the advice. I have just emailed three of the companies you suggested for proposals for a March 2008 trip we are planning to Kenya.

Been on Tauck safari in Tanzania and Kenya: Spectacular!

They use Tanzania Photographic as the host and those drivers sure do know how to position you so that you'll get amazing photos.

Saw the big 5 in the first 4 days and the Tauck guide was absolutely the best. The personnel at every lodge adored him and he took fond care of us too.

Enjoy your safari.

We did a Kenya/Tanzania safari well organised by skyview of africa (www.skyviewofafrica.com).You can try them also.Good luck.
Ted

I am sure you know this (but after the gigolo post I have to say "you never know"....). Always click on the name of a poster recommending a company. You'll see all their posts and can read what they are about.... easy way to see whether or not the infomation is from the heart.

We used Southern Cross for our Kenya trip last August. However, African Serendipity and Eastern & Southern were also very competitive.

What is the itinerary you are thinking about?

Kevin from California

I just came back from a wonderful safari in Kenya. I used a new company BellAfric. They used the large Toyota Landcruiser while most safaris in Kenya are in lighter jeeps or vans.

Our guide, ask for Shikaya, was fantastic. After other vehicles left, he said let's stay and we watched a leopard wake up, stand on the tree limb and walk down the tree. Another time he said let's wait for the sleeping male and female lions to wake and we did and they mated. Great pictures.

Just two of us in this great big heavy vehicle. The floor even had rubber mats which is nice on the steel floor. Other other more jexpensive companies like A&K and Tauck had 4-5-6 passengers in the same vehicles or even smaller in size and without padding on the vehicle floors. When your feet are on steel all day, the padding matters.

Also, I checked out the prices of A&K and Tauck and we had a private guide-vehicle for a lower daily rate.

The website is nothing to speak about, but when we arrived in Nairobi and came out of the airport and there were hundreds of people waiting for passengers and 20-30 signs from safari companies, it was nice that ours was the biggest printed sign.

That told me we were off to a good start. Andrew Shikaya, our guide spoke great English. Also, he tried to avoid other vehicles at all times. His vast years of experience gave us great photo shooting after other vehicles had moved on on both the leopard and lion. We were the only ones to get the great shots of both leopard and lion waking up.

Tell the sales rep, Juma, that Richard Leeds said you want Shikaya as your guide. You will not regret it and the price will be better than 9 out of 10 safari companies. I know. Also, your vehicle will be about the best and newest operating.

Have fun.

The email for BellAfric is [email protected] or www.bellafricexpeditions.com

Also, I suggest you spend the money and stay at tented camps. Safari lodges have 50-100 going to meals at the same time.

I loved the following tented camps:
Larsen Camp and Tortillis Camp in Kenya and Mbalageti Serena in the Serengeti.

If this is a once in a lifetime trip to east Africa spend a few nights in the tented camps and the balance in the lodges. If you do lodges, you will miss the real feeling of Africa before all of these lodges were build during the last 10-20 years.

Richard - sounds fantastic. can you tell me a little more about your itinerary? I am definately interested in the tented camps. Thanks.

Bookmarking for future reference. Thanks everyone!

Hi mariadillon

to get an impression of the kind of itineraries there are and what r they all about look at this index by LyndaS:

<font color="red"><i>NEW</i></font> EAST AFRICA Trip Report Index

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...Text=New+INDEX

aby

Hi Mariadillon,

I wanted a private safari vehicle because I wanted to call the shots on how much time we spent waiting for things to happen.

This is why our guide, Shikaya, was able to show us lions mating and a leopard getting up on a tree, standing and walking on down the tree with no other trucks.

What I liked about our June trip was the lack of other tourists in Kenya. We had no rain and we saw all the animals you could want.

We spent two nights in Nairobi at the Karen Blixen cottages and coffee garden. The restaurant was the best we had in 3 weeks on safari in East Africa. The cottages are on land that was Karen Blixen's coffee plantation (the home of her plantation manager is on this property). Then we went to the Serena Mountain Lodge for one night. There were only 8 rooms out of 30 taken, so it was very nice. I loved the opportunity to shoot water buffalo, elephants, etc., from our balcony at 20 yards, and do go down to the ground &quot;hide&quot; and shoot elephant and cape buffalo from 5-10 feet away. You can hear them breathing and eating grass, etc. This place is worth one night.

Then we went to Larsen's Camp for 2 nights. Loved having a tent and patio looking out on this big river with big crocodiles and elephants crossing the river. You will love the lunch dining platform on the river.

Then we went to Sweetwaters for a night. The chimp sanctuary was OK, nothing special. I liked taking pictures with the adult rhino, holding onto his horn for a picture. He was orphaned at six months and is tame. You could cut out this location if you are looking for places to cut.

We also went to the Mt. Kenya Safari club for a night. This does not feel like Africa at all.

We then went to Lake Naivasha for two nights and stayed at the Lake Naivasha Simba Lodge, the newest place in this area. We were one of 3 occupied rooms the first night, then a tour group came in the second night. I loved this area.

The next morning we went out on a private boat on the lake and visited the three herds of hippo in the lake. You get very close for pictures and being on the water with them is very different from land pictures. Then we were dropped off at Crescent Island. This is the estate where they filmed Out of Africa with Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The private owners actually live here with their two airplanes and the landing strip where they shot those movie scenes. All the wildlife was brought here for the movie and has been here for 20 years without preditors. Getting close to zebra and giraffes and getting pictures out on the ground on foot with our own private guide, Moses, was one of the highlights of our 3 week trip on Safari.

We went to Lake Nakuru National Park to see the one million flamingos. Except for one bus, we were all alone on the lake and the bus left, so we got great pictures.

Then we went to Amboseli and Larsens Tented Camp. The best food here on safari in 3 weeks. In this park we only saw about 3-4 vehicles each day. Being here in early June gave us great pictures of elephants and we felt like we were by ourselves. The tented camp was half empty, in July, August and September it is full.

Our guide and the prices were better than every other company we received quotes from. I suggest you use my name and tell them that Richard Leeds suggested you use them only if you get Shikaya as your guide. We were one of the very few Toyota Land Cruiser stretch versions in Kenya. Not only do you get more windows to shoot pictures from, the opening of the lift up top is larger and gives you more space to move around. Also, our vehicle had rubber mats on the floor which makes it softer on the feet when you are standing on a 1-2-3 hour game drive. Take my word, it is much better to have floor mats under your feet than the other 90% of the vehicles that are just light weight vans without any flooring.

BellAfric is at www.bellaricexpeditions.com

The website is nothing to speak about, but email them at [email protected]

If they commit to giving you Shikaya as your guide and the Toyota Land Cruiser stretch version, you will have the best safari. You can tell them that Richard Leeds suggested them and that he says you must have Shikaya your guide. Shikaya is in his early 50's. He was always asking how we were doing, do we need to stop, and he was very protective of us.

In Tanzania we stayed at mostly Serena Lodges. The architecture is nice but we felt like the Africa experience is compromised by lodges where 50-100 people eat together in a large dining room.

If you can afford tented camps the experience will be more what Africa feels like. Remember, none of these 100 person capacity lodges existed 20 years ago. So to experience Africa the way it was meant to be splurge and do the tented camps. In June the prices of the tented camps are about 25% cheaper than July, August and September, and we had great weather, no issues with grass being too high, etc.

In Tanzania, we stayed at the Serena Lake Manyara Lodege, The Serena Serengeti Lodge, The Serena Ngorogora, The Mbalageti Serengeti Tented Camp Chalets, The Kisima Ngeda Tented Camp, The Kikoti Tented Camps.

The Serenas were fully booked during the second half of June and just felt like resort lodges.

My favorite places of the 3 week safari were the Karen Blixen Cottages in Nairobi, the Serena Mountain Lodge, for the more traditional type places. The best views and best accomodations of the trip were in the western Serengeti. Go here for two nights and stay in the Mbalageti Serengeti Tented Chalets. The views were the best of any place we stayed on Safari. The tented camp chalets were the best of any tented camp we stayed at.

We did not like the Kikoti Camp, after seeing the Sopa Lodge in Tarangire, I would stay at this Lodge for two nights while in Tarangire.

Go stay in Mbalageti Serengeti Tented Camp Chalets. The dining room sits high up on a hill and you will have the best views of any place in East Africa.

I would do one night at the Serena in the Central Serengeti and two nights in the Western Serengeti at Mbalageti Serengeti. In the Western Serengeti we saw a family of 7 lions, 5 walked across a field and watched all 5 climb up into the tree and go to sleep.

Use BellAfric and ask for Shikaya. If invoking my name helps you get him as your guide you will not regret it. He dropped up at the border of Tanzania, he waited with us for our guide and vehicle from the Tanzania company to pick us up. This company was Sunny Safari and they were not as good on follow through.

Go with BellAFric in Kenya and ask them to coordinate your Tanzania safari with a Tanzania company. Most companies booking East Africa use two different companies, you might as go direct without using a middle man or travel agent. We did not do this and we had a wonderful safari and saved a couple of thousand dollars.

One last comment. We went for two days to Lake Eyasi and stayed at Kisima Ngeda Tented Camp. The site directly on the lake and the restaurant are outstanding. Fresh fish at meals, not the frozen fish everywhere else. We loved the two day break at this lake from Safari drives and we loved going hunting with the last hunter-gathering tribe in East Africa, the Hazde.

Hope this helps.

We loved our trip from June 5 - July 3, 2007. We finished up with 5 days in Zanzibar and Chumbe island. Chumbe Island was worth the two days, Zanzibar was anti-climatic after safari. We probably should have come home after the 22 days on safari.

Richard, We are signed up for Kikoti next feb. What did you find wrong with it. We may want to change . tks Janet

Janetmac,

You asked what we did not like about Kikoti Camp. The accomodations were so-so. The screens do not have any coverings, so you see lights from walkways and adjoining accomodations. Also, it takes a 30 minute drive each way to get to the park entrance, whereas, the Sopa Lodge is inside the camp and it is an impressive Lodge. So, you gain one hour a day in the park. This adds up when you stay two nights like we did.