Michelle’s clients travelled as a family, and both sent in feedback about their East Africa safari. Their journey included a stay at Masai Mara – Encounter Mara, Gibbs Farm in the Ngorongoro Crater region, Dunia Camp in the Serengeti and Kwihala Camp in Ruaha.
Here is their feedback :
Hi, Michelle. Thanks for checking in with us after our return from East Africa.
Our trip was amazing! Everything worked out so beautifully and smoothly. We loved it all. It was clearly a trip of a lifetime, and we thank you for all of your guidance and support in helping us make some incredible memories.
Since Karyn led this effort from our end, I’ll leave it to her to share more specific feedback about the different locations, etc. with you.
We will happily provide whatever online reviews are most helpful to you and to the camps themselves.
Many of our friends have begun expressing interest in safaris and will be turning to us for guidance. We will, of course, highly recommend you and your colleagues.
Warm wishes for a happy holiday season.
Jeanne & Joe Lebens
Hi Michelle – thanks for your note. Encounter Mara was a great suggestion – we loved the staff, had a great driver, and loved the ability to off road and participate in night game drives and walking safaris. We also loved the landscape and contrast that Ruaha offered. Overall the hospitality at all the Asilia camps exceeded our expectations and the food was also quite good (and did a really nice job accommodating food restrictions / allergies). We also appreciated someone greeting us at the airport in Nairobi and helping make sure we got where we needed to on our first day. While the wildlife is always the “wildcard”, we were grateful for all of the cat sightings we had. One particularly special experience was a night drive where a male lion roared right next to our vehicle – something we will never forget!
There are a few things I would suggest or that we may have done differently based on our experience:
1.) The transfer from Kenya to Tanzania and from the Crater to Dunia was a much longer and tougher drive than expected and the car really didn’t fit our group size + luggage. I would suggest outlining in the itineraries the travel time and road conditions where they are windy and/or bumpy.
2.) The staff at Dunia Camp went above and beyond to make our stay special. Unfortunately the amount of tsese flies coming in and out of the camp were unexpected. Thankfully they wore off after the first and last 15 minutes of each drive.
3.) Overall, comparing this experience with South Africa we realize now the difference with 3 of the 4 places where we were not allowed to drive off road. While we want to respect the parks and the conservancy efforts, we were often pretty far from the wildlife and had some periods of several hours without sightings. If the guide is not great or early in their training, the experience feels more like a hired driver versus a nature guide skilled at finding wildlife and discussing it.
Thanks again for your help in planning this trip and hope you have a wonderful holiday season.
Karyn
