Kenya

The heaven with wildlife

Most watched channels at our home are Sony BBC Earth, Discovery, Animal Planet, Nat Geo Wild. We are big time animal lovers! Masai Mara and Serengeti had developed an unsaid familiarity. Travel to Africa was like a dream come true after years and years on watching animals on screen

Independent travel is quite difficult in Kenya with limited or no public transport, and camps at quite remote locations into national parks. Most camps with decent reviews are priced above $300-500 per night. Since this was our first trip to Africa, we were not sure how reliable small tour operators are. We wanted to avoid situations of money getting stuck if another wave of COVID came in

We chose Natural World Safaris. They were 20-25% higher priced than the cheapest quote we got. They had a lot of positive reviews and initial interactions seemed very professional. They did not try to upsell or be pushy about closing the decision of going with them. We had good set of guides both in Kenya and Tanzania. They seamlessly covered Kenya and Tanzania with a smooth handoff, and also gave us each a Masai Shukha as a souvenir which was a sweet gesture

We wanted to spend a good amount of time to cover the wide variety of animals and landscapes. You can do even a one day tour to cover key animals and get a sense of what a safari looks like. We took a 10 day safari with 6 days in Kenya, 4 in Tanzania. It never felt repetitive, probably due to our love for animals and for the fact that the landscapes were actually varied

Pictures and even hours of shows on Nat Geo don’t do justice to the real safari experience. You need to experience it to feel the enormous amount of animals that share the expansive grasslands!

Best time to visit

We picked August to witness the great migration. It gets expensive, but we didn’t want to be stuck in rains during rainy season (March-May). June to October dry season is good. December to February is good to see animal babies

Visa

When we visited, an e-visa was required costing $32.5 which we applied for here. Kenya has now become visa free for Indians

Getting In

We entered Nairobi from Mumbai through Kenya Airways. Indigo airlines has started cheaper flights to Nairobi now

Currency

USD was accepted everywhere and we didn’t exchange any money into local currency. At some places, we got change in local currency

Things to know

1. Vaccinations: Some websites mentioned a yellow fever vaccination certificate is required if entering through African countries like Tanzania. We got our yellow fever from Mumbai at Girgaon for INR 300 and Polio vaccine from South Municipal Dispensary at Parel before leaving. You can find other centers here

• List of yellow fever vaccine centres in India
• List of oral polio vaccine centres in India

It is expensive to take one in Nairobi at $50+, so ensure you get one from India

2. Safari bookings is a good website to find safari operators and compare prices

3. Validate authenticity of operators extensively through reviews on multiple sites. Many of them are fraudulent and change their names as they get bad reviews. Ensure they are authorized by organizations like KATO, TATO

4. Kenya single entry visa is sufficient to enter into and come back from Tanzania

5. Although we went in August during great migration season, we could not see the famous river crossing of wildebeest escaping the crocodiles. It requires immense patience and waiting time to witness river crossings. We did see large herds of wildebeest, zebra coming into Masai Mara behind each other

Places to visit in Kenya

We covered these national parks in Kenya in addition to ones in Tanzania which we will cover separately

• Tsavo West– For mountain climbing elephants covered in red dust. This was the only place where we saw Kudu with beautiful long, curved horns

• Amboseli- For animals in water and marshy landscapes

• Masai Mara– For the world famous great migration and lots of lions

• Nakuru– For rhinos and flamingos

• Naivasha– For hippos and an opportunity to walk with the animals. You are typically not allowed to get out of the safari Jeep, but here you can walk freely as there are no carnivorous animals

• Nairobi National Park– To cover a spare day and try our luck at spotting black rhinos

We also visited Giraffe centre, Nairobi National Museum and snake park in the city before taking our flight. We couldn’t visit Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage which requires advance booking before months.

The Giraffe centre has 3 varieties of giraffes- Masai, reticulated and Rothschild giraffes. The male giraffes have a weird way of checking if the female is in heat by tasting their urine which we witnessed live!

We spotted a variety of animals and birds over 10+ days including

Where we stayed

Natural World Safari provides a list of accommodation options on their website. You can select a preferred one basis reviews and finalize. The places you stay at make a big difference to the experience since many sightings happen close to your camps

Tsavo West- Kilaguni Serena Safari lodge: This was the first and among the two best camp lodges. We had woodpeckers trying to come into the rooms. There is a waterhole with night lighting. You will see some animal or the other always by the waterhole. Herds of giraffes and elephants stop by here as they keep moving in the national park. You have storks on the top, colorful fowls in the garden, and many visiting birds come frequently. If you are keen, you can register to be woken up at night if a specific animals of your choice visit

Amboseli Sopa Lodge: Nice, round, individual hut like rooms

Losokwan Camp Maasai Mara

Nakuru– Sentrim Elementaita Lodge

Naivasha– Elsamere Lodge: This is where Joy Adamson of “Born Free” fame spent many years of her life. The property names after the lion Elsa has some tortoises, owls and many colobus monkeys that eat up left overs from the restaurant if left outside. You can watch a documentary about her life which is very inspiring

At night, you can see giraffes come in and eat the leaves from bushes just outside your room. At times if you are lucky, you can also see hippos around at night

How much does it cost

This has been the most expensive trip for us so far. We spent around $6000 per person for 11 days in Kenya and Tanzania. We paid tour cost to the agency via wire transfer to avoid card fees

• Flights: $920 (Mumbai- Nairobi return and domestic flights to Mumbai). Indigo has started much cheaper flights now
• Hotel + Tour including breakfast, lunch, dinner and transport from – to Nairobi: $4650 (for 11 days including 4 days in Tanzania)
• Food- coffees: $40
• Visa: $85
• Tips: $130. You are expected to tip $10 per person per day and additional $1-5 for bell boys depending on number of bags
• Insurance: $15

Explore next

• Tanzania
• Egypt
• Jordan
• Turkey