In message
"the_niner_nation" dipakREMOVE49ers@hotmaildotcom wrote:

I have plucked up the courage to re- visit Kenya ( I was born there, but
moved to England when I was a young boy) and was wondering if anyone could
reccomend a decent tour company.

Ideally, I'd like a 10-12 day safari with lots of game drives ( want to
especially see elephants , rhinos,buffalo & lion) and maybe a couple of days
bumming around on a beach after to relax for as cheap as possible...I have
stipulated Kenya purley for sentimental reasons as I was born there and I am
curious to see for myself the land of my birth.

I have done an online search for uk operators, but there is absloultey no
way of knowing who are decent or who are fly-by nights...pretty web pages
don't sucker me in so easily!

If anyone has any reccomendations or even general travel tips for a kenya
safari, i'd sincerley appreciate it.

I do know that Nairboi isn't that safe, esp when it gets dark!

Right, I was going to suggest some tailor-made companies, but I see
you mention price as an issue, so I'll suggest Kuoni. You can request
their Africa brochure from their website, or just browse the site, or
get it from some of the better High Street agencies (I can't find any
price advantage website/agency, maybe others can?) They have almost
certainly got the best range of safaris sold by a non tailor-making
company in the UK. Bangs for bucks, you won't get better, but be sure
to read between the lines. Anything which isn't mentioned in the
itinerary you'll have to pay for. I didn't notice any 'issues' in last
year's brochure, but I wasn't really fine-toothcombing. Also it's easy
to either take a combined safari/beach break or add a beach break on
to your trip, though I think the beach has to come after your safari
in each case (haven't looked at this year's brochure).

For lodge trips, I don't think you can get better bangs for bucks than
Kuoni within the ABTA/AITA system. For balance, and because I have no
connection with Kuoni, I'll say that there are also other companies
which do safaris, e.g. Hayes and Jarvis and Somak. In the UK it's dead
easy to see which companies are fly-by-night: they don't have ABTA/
ATOL bonding (and/or AITA for flights) (therefore can't legally
operate out of the UK). The bond is so high, that it's unlikely that
people would set up then abscond with your money. (If they did, the
bond would cover the cost.) There are a few 'grey areas' within that,
some operators work (legitimately) within another operator's bond
(some of the specialist nature/birding companies work that way), but
you'd have to check out individual cases for yourself. I suppose it
would also be possible for a company to post a bonding logo falsely,
so caveat emptor. If you're worried, check directly with the bonding
agencies.

Rhinos can be elusive, but if you spend a couple of nights at Lake
Nakuru, you'd be very unlucky not to see the introduced White Rhinos.
Elephants you'll see in most reserves other than Nairobi NP, lots at
Amboseli. You'd be fairly unlucky not to see Lion, though they usually
have lots of minibusses surrounding them. Buffalo are pretty
widespread too.

If lodge safaris are outwith your budget, there are people here who
can recommend camping operators. The 'established' UK names for
overlanding are Explore, Guerba and Dragoman.

If you're interested in tailor-making your own trip, I can suggest a
few names too. You could risk booking with a company in Kenya over the
internet, (no doubt you'll get some 'offers' as a result of this post)
and with the bigger names you might be OK, but of course in the event
of a problem, you have no comeback (e.g. if the company goes bust,
which isn't unheard of in Kenya, or if your plane is so late you need
an overnight stay, you'd have to pay).
Your choice!

Safari njema

Liz
(Lots of info on my site, nothing to buy!)
--
http://www.v-liz.com - Kenya; Tanzania; Namibia; India; Galapagos
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