hiya scuba glad you managed to sort out your hols to..
hopefully we will see you in kenya next year lol.

Thanks Mike

Your priorities are different to mine ! I like diving to see the fish and you like catching them ! We were headed for Baobab Kole Kole Wing in Diani whilst you were going to be about 30 miles north of us - never mind we may meet on the plane ex Manchester ( unless of course you fly from Gatwick LOL ).

Hope you enjoy Cuba

Dick

ha ha dick guess what we were flying from gatwick lol. oh well will wave from the plane instead...
mike

Foreign Office relaxes Kenya travel advice

The Foreign Office has relaxed its advice on travel to Kenya but is still warning travellers to stay away from certain parts of the country.

In an update released on Friday, the FO said it no longer advised against all but essential travel to the African country.

But it continues to advise against the Western and Nyanza provinces, Rift Valley province between Narok and Kitale, the central business district, Kibera, Mathare and Eastleigh areas of the capital Nairobi, Uhuru Park and Mombasa town.

Despite the relaxing of travel restrictions, the FO warned that the security and political situation in Kenya "remains unpredictable".

"Some tour operators are cancelling forthcoming holidays to Kenya. You should contact your tour operator for confirmation of this," the FO said.

"International flights continue to operate but you should check with your airline before travelling to the airport."

The FO added: "If you are currently in Kenya you should exercise extreme caution and seek advice locally either from your tour operator of the local authorities, particularly if you need to travel."

With permission from Travelmole

To check for any further Foreign Office amendments since that article was published, please click here.
David HT Mod

Both Thomson and First Choice have cancelled all trips to Kenya from their winter schedule ie up to May. We were due to go out in April and are awaiting a full refund without any admin or penalty charges.

Marion

I am booked to go to Kenya on the 10th February on a direct charter flight with First Choice to Mombasa. The tour operator (Hayes & Jarvis) are just telling us to wait (and they will give us 72 hours notice because the situation might change). As Thomsons cancelled all their holidays to Kenya quite a while ago now and I don't know when First Choice did but they seem to have, why is yet another TUI group company not following the same policy? I have no heart in preparing what I am going to take with me at all as I fear it will all be a waste. And we've had to spend £92 on yellow fever jabs and £84 on antimalarials since the trouble that we probably won't need and won't be any use anywhere else. Does anyone know what is happening with Hayes & Jarvis in particular?

Hi Safari Girl

First Choice have only just cancelled the rest of their winter season to Kenya. As they are operating their own flights with First Choice Airline it would seem that Hayes and Jarvis will have no flights for their clients and so inevitably must cancell their holidays too. I would expect the cancellation to be notified very quickly ( ie tomorrow at latest ) and they will then have to offer you an alternative holiday or a full refund.

Be patient for a day or two and monitor the H & J website for info, I'm sure it will all be sorted very soon. Maybe you will get offered Tanzania as an alternative in which case your jabs and tabs will not be wasted.

Hope it works out to your satisfaction

Scubaman ( now booked to Mexico instead of Kenya )

Thanks Scubaman. Hayes & Jarvis are still offering the holiday, but instead of the nice direct flight with premium economy seats at a very reasonable extra cost you can book it with a flight from Manchester wih Kenya Airways (changing in 2 places). We're obviously worried about them putting us on this flight instead. In their terms and conditions I see if they change your flight it is not seen as a major change, though changing your destination airport in the UK is. As First Choice is their parent company and Thompson a fellow subsidiary of TUI I don't see why they all couldn't have implemented the same policy from the outset. At least I can accept the refund and book for another time as I'm self employed and my mum I was going with is retired - and if we go next year I think the malaria pills will still be in date, as will the jabs. I once accepted a rebooking at the last minute on a holiday to Madeira because my employer needed 3 months notice of holidays. It was the worst holiday I've ever been on and I wished I'd stayed at home. Hope Mexico is good.

Hi Safari Girl,

If I were in your position I guess I would take the full refund which would enable me to rebook whatever I fancied from any tour operator not just H & J.

I reckon you could easily find an alternative safari at short notice too. When we were in Kenya last year you could book them after you had got there. Although, we had independantly pre-booked to go to the Govenors camp in the Masai Mara ( which was absolutely superb ).

If we had wanted a similar experience this year I would be looking at the Serengeti, which is the continuation of the Masai Mara after it crosses the border into Tanzania, but we were primarily looking for some quality R & R hence booking a Premier hotel in Mexico instead.

Good luck with your search and rebooking

Scubaman

At last - First Choice have definitely cancelled their flights for the winter season (ie up to May this year) and Hayes and Jarvis are not insisting you accept a non-direct flight instead. Apparently if you are going to Mombasa at the moment the tourist police are escorting people from the airport to their hotels. I'm not sure if that will prevent or cause trouble. H&J are trying to rebook us to Barbados on the same dates, but I am lucky that I can go another and I am prepared to wait until next year to go if I can't get exactly what I want - the dogs will be pleased they won't have to go into kennels. Good luck to everyone else having all this hassle.

Charter flights resume to Kenya

African Safari Airways has re-started weekly flights to Kenya to serve beach, safari holidays and a cruise ship.

Flights from Gatwick will run on Saturdays until April 26 using the African Safari Club's 233-passenger Airbus A310 - the first since disputed elections in the country prompted the cancellation of holidays on Foreign Office advice.

The resumption of charter flights follows travel advice being renewed by the Foreign Office on Friday. Travellers are still advised to "exercise extreme caution" when visiting Kenya.

ASC's sales marketing and business development director Daniel Sykes said: "Following the cancellation of all UK registered charter flights to Kenya, hundreds of our existing customers have been left without flights.

"All of our hotels are situated along the coast, some distance north of Mombasa, and we are in constant liaison with our hotel managers, who have reported that since the unrest begun all has remained calm and customers are enjoying their holidays.

"In fact, nearly all of the areas affected by the unrest are over 350 miles from our hotels, approximately the same distance as London to Glasgow."

African Safari Club is contacting existing customers to advise them of their revised flight details.

Sykes added: "The majority of our existing customers who have been contacted are happy that their holidays are still going ahead.

"Further to this, we are also able to offer flights and holidays to those who have had their holidays cancelled by other tour operators who are no longer flying."

With permission from Travelmole



To check latest Foreign Office advice and watch for any further amendments, please click here.
David HT Mod

Husband has just returned from a fishing holiday. He had a fab time, stayed 2 hours south of Mombassa. He heard the main trouble is in the Nairobi slums. He said there were lots of tourists around Mombassa.