Our Kenya Safari And Beach Vacation Was Perfectly Organized

I want to first begin with the pre-arrangements that AfricanMecca did or us. It was absolutely perfectly organized in that they told us how to get our immunizations, what immunizations we needed, our visa requirements, they explained to us what we should be taking on the trip, along with how to pack lightly, and what we would experience when we got to Kenya, and I have to tell you that everything was accurate in terms of what they told us to do, what they told us to pack, the logistics of the trip, how it would work.

Everything actually turned out to work exactly the way they told us it would be. With regard to prearrangements we had a good time. We had a pre-Kenya party where we traveled with a group of 6 people, and we got together and talked about what we were packing, what we wanted to accomplish on the trip, what we wanted to see, and we made it a positive fun experience but AfricanMecca took care of the logistics of the entire trip and everything they told us would happen, in fact did happen, exactly the way they told us it would happen. So for us that was a great thing because we don’t have a lot of time to prepare for the trip, we don’t have the time to spend attending to the details.

They took care of all those small details and others that we probably didn’t even know required attention. So I can absolutely say that I was pleased with the pre-arrangements for the trip.  The trip itself I want to tell you was probably the best vacation I have ever taken. I highly recommend AfricanMecca and Kenya to you. We went with a group of six people and I think all six of us came away with an experience that was an experience of a lifetime. We did a lot of research on Kenya, we did a lot of research on various travel groups that were running trips to Kenya, and we felt that AfricanMecca provided the most services for the most reasonable price.

We were concerned a lot about our safety on the trip, and they assured us we would be perfectly safe, and in fact we were perfectly safe. We felt safer on this trip that than I do on a lot of my Caribbean Beach Vacations. They did a lot with recommending to us what types of optional tours we might want to take. We took a Mombasa beach vacation, which I highly recommend because you need the time to unwind from the safari.

The safari itself was absolutely fun, it was educational; it was something that I never thought I would be able to do in my lifetime; I didn’t think I would be able to afford it. I was concerned about the accommodations, and I tell you, the first trip we took was to Amboseli. We got up at 8 o’clock after staying at the Hilton, and we went to Amboseli. It was about a four and four and half-hour drive to Amboseli, and our drive John was just entertaining the entire way.

He told us a lot of factual information; he had us laughing. We enjoyed the trip as much as we enjoyed the safari part. When we got to Amboseli we were just shocked at how nice the accommodations were. Everything was again the way appeared on the website. We had the opportunity to view the accommodations, and we were very much pleased with all the lodges that we stayed at. I particularly liked the Amboseli. And the food! Let me tell you about the food. I went to Kenya assuming that I would lose weight; that I was going to go on a diet, and I even packed some beef jerky and some extra food in case I wouldn’t get enough, and I in fact gained weight on this trip.

There was more food, it was abundant, and it was absolutely wonderfully prepared. And the people that worked in the lodges including the wait staff were the friendliest people that I have ever encountered. They were knowledgeable about Kenya. They talked us about their personal lives and they were just genuinely happy to have us in Kenya and visiting their lodge. When we went out on the safari trips – the game drive, our first one was at 6 AM, and we got up and we were all excited about seeing animals.

We were concerned that we might not see any animals and we were just pleased as pleased could be to see the variety of animals, how close we got to animals. We drove within a foot of a hyena that walked by, we saw a pride of lions, we just saw animals that I never thought I would be able to get close to and see how they operate in their natural habitat.  It was really an exciting thing for us.

We did some optional tours; we did a balloon ride and that Masai Mara balloon ride was really magnificent. The views from the balloon were absolutely gorgeous. We got to meet some other tourists from the United Kingdom and we enjoyed socializing with them. There was a champagne breakfast, and we got to enjoy that, and we got to really see the countryside from a different angle from the balloon, and that was first time I had been up in a hot air balloon and was just a really neat thing to do, and I recommend that you do that.

We also had the opportunity to stop at the Carnivore Restaurant and whether you are a vegetarian or meat eater, it is something that you have to see. Seeing them prepared the different meats on the spit was really neat. Again, the service was top notch. It was just like you would get at a five-star hotel here in the States. And the opportunity to eat some of the different meats that offered was just a very neat thing. And in fact when we came back from Kenya, the Carnivore was kind of a conversation piece because many of the people that I know had heard of that restaurant, and they were very interested to learn what our experience was there.

Next, we went to Lake Nakuru, and it was interesting because they have a lot of flamingoes there. And again, I guess they were visiting the area but just the sight on Lake Nakuru and color coming off the lake was just absolutely amazing. That was, I believe, our first stop where we saw a leopard in a tree, which I had a hard time spotting, and my group gave me sort of a hard time about it but I had the opportunity to see a leopard close up in the tree with its kill in the tree and come down the tree, and scamper away.

But Lake Nakuru was a little bit different than Amboseli and Masai Mara. Again, Lake Nakuru the accommodations were wonderful, the food was great and I know I keep repeating myself about this but I can’t over emphasize how reluctant I was to eat the food but I was concerned it was all westernized food. They have some new things that we had the opportunity to try and everyone in our group just raved about it.

We only stayed in Lake Nakuru one night, although we had hoped to stay if we do it again, I shouldn’t say if but when we do it again, we would stay in Lake Nakuru some additional time. I think there was a lot there to see that we didn’t see but we made our way to Masai Mara, it was the group’s favorite place, and we saw a lot of different animals . We got to complete our big five, which was one of our goals; we wanted to see the big five and we did!

When we left the Masai Mara, and our driver made sure we didn’t leave until we saw them and again, each night that you are there, there is the driver and he is available to you 24 hours a day if you need to speak with him. He sort of takes care of our group, and makes sure we are not wanting for anything and if we have any difficulties, he was always there to give us recommendations, even about purchasing souvenirs, getting food, things like that, talking about the culture, and he was a valuable resource. He was very knowledgeable, very friendly and made the trip extremely pleasant.

Some of the other things we did – we did a bush dinner and that was there our first night I am sort digressing back to Amboseli. But the bush dinner was a fun thing for our group; we had six people and there was a seven-course dinner out in the bush, and the Masaai people did a dance for us and it was very interesting. We got to ask questions of the Masaai, and we got to experience the various types of food that are served there, and again we enjoyed that. And that is some again I recommend to anyone who is considering the type of trip we took. After we came back to the Hilton in Nairobi, and at that point in time we all split up, our group split up to do various things.

We went to Mombasa. We took a flight from Nairobi to Mombasa, and AfricanMecca made sure that the transfers were smooth. They took us to the airport and made sure that we got to the right gate. They took care of transferring our luggage. Basically, all we had to do was get on the plane, which we did. And we flew to Mombasa and when we arrived in Mombasa, we were actually late about three hours late. We were concerned that there was trouble on the plane. We were concerned that our representative won’t be there to meet us, but he was in fact there and he took us to the hotel, which was the Leopard Beach Hotel, and is comparable if not better than any of the first class hotels that I stayed out on the Caribbean.

The views were spectacular, the rooms were wonderful, and the food is absolutely just delicious. And the views on the property are great! And again, the people there are extremely friendly and extremely happy to have you visiting Kenya.

Mombasa Beach was quite relaxing for us because the entire safari experience is one where you don’t want to sleep because you are afraid you are going to miss something, and you take every advantage that you can in order to participate in activities that they have in the evenings at the various lodges so by the time you arrived at the Leopard Beach Hotel, we were ready to wind down, relax, and just sit by the beach or sit by the pool, and sort of reminisce about the trip a little bit.

We took two days there and you can probably take more, and that would be an ideal situation, and we flew back then from Mombasa to Nairobi, and again the AfricanMecca representative was there. We in fact had to leave luggage behind, and they were kind enough to store our luggage, and when we returned there was representative meeting us at the gate with our additional luggage. We checked in, everything went smooth, and we boarded the flight to come home. And I can tell that we came home, the trip was a conversation piece. With everyone that we met, at least I met through work and socially when I told them that I had been to Kenya, they couldn’t just believe it.

And I told what a wonderful trip it was and I can absolutely tell you today that it was the best vacation I had and we are in fact planning to go back to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, if we can. And we look forward to doing that. And when we got back, again, there was a representative of AfricanMecca there, in a snow storm, to pick us up to make sure that we got back to the Allentown area, and everything from the beginning of the trip to the end of the trip was absolutely a wonderful experience.

Jane Schoener, Allentown – Attorney, Schoener & Associates PC
United States

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