i went with african safari club with 4 day cruise indian ocean,safari i booked ind near hotel in shanzu 2 days safari 1 night in voi,about £180 for 2 adults 1 child,rest of holiday on trips or beach,best holiday we ever had

Just got back from fantastic safari in Tanzania (Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara), wonderful roomy vehicles, amazing driver guides and super accomodation in Serena Hotels; Kirawira Tented Camp (superb), Seronera Serena Lodge, Ngorongoro Serena Lodge, Lake Manyara Serena Lodge and Mountain Village (also Serena) outside Arusha. They were all good but the Mountain Village is absolutely gorgeous; was a coffee plantation 'manor' and has beautiful rooms and gardens. Then we flew down to Zanzibar and stayed at the Tembo in Stone Town and the Sunrise Inn at Bwejuu beach. Both excellent but not the Serena standards, deliberately as Zanzibar can be very expensive. We ended in Nairobi and stayed at the Mayfair Holiday Inn in Westlands (which is an oasis in that city!) and spent our last day in Africa down at Lake Naivasha. I lived in Africa for many years and have been back regularly; this was the best safari ever. We were in the middle of the zebra and wildebeste migration in the Serengeti, saw many lion, elephants close enough to touch, leopard 3 times and all the other animals one would expect. Your children would absolutely love it. Less crowded than Kenya everywhere except the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge which was packed. We used Wildersun Safaris and had first class service and organisation all the way. Highly recommended. (http://www.wildersun.com ). Make sure you're all taking a malaria prophilactic (wherever you go) and use insect repellant with DEET in it. OFF (deep woods) has it. Have a marvellous time, we did!

Hi

We're off to Kenya on safari next April. With the summer sales still on, I'm already thinking about what clothes to take. The sticky topic in this forum says that the best colours to wear are tan, beige, navy, cream, black or white. Can anyone who has been on safari confirm that this list is correct as I wasn't sure if white would really be ok or not?

Thanks in advance!

I wouldn't wear white, it will get filthy, I got covered in red dust when I was in Keyna a few years ago and it wouldn't wash out. Navy and black are not particularly cool colours to wear if it's very hot, I would stick to tan, beige or green.

Hi Judith

Thanks for the advice. My white clothes have already seen 'red dirt' action in the Gambia, amongst other destinations so I'm not bothered about getting things dirty. I really hate brown and beige clothes as they make me look washed out but I don't suppose the animals will be that bothered! Better hit the sales soon then.

I found the 'wear safari colours' slightly odd considering we were all driving round in white vehicles! Nevertheless, I bought tee shirts in the 'appropriate' colours even though I wouldn't normally been seen dead in beige/green/brown etc

Try Tesco, got tee shirts from their value range for a couple of quid each for both of us plus fleeces for a fiver. Dumped the whole lot along the way (left for the cleaners). All in all only 'wasted' about £30 worth of clothing and does the locals a favour. No point in lugging home stuff we may not wear again (until next safari!).

A male lion did let out something of a snarl when a girl in our minivan stood up to look at him. Think that was more to do with her surprising him by jumping up as opposed to the fact that he didn't like the look of her pink tee shirt.

Hi
We're off the Kenya next Monday (9th), staying at the Southern Palms including a 3 night safari, with First Choice.
We are packing zip off trousers, t.shirts, etc.
Do we need long sleeve tops and a fleece?.
Also how big a holdall are we allowed to take?
Any other tips and advice would be really helpfull.
Thanks
Steve & Karen

It's a long time since we did a safari so I can't remember if we wore long sleeves or not, possibly at night for the mozzies.

I would suggest wearing old clothes and dark socks as the safari dust gets everywhere and doesn't wash out easily.

luci

It can be a bit chilly out on the AM and evening game drives, we both had a lightweight fleece which came in handy although we never found we needed the fleece AND long trousers really. We were inside the van with a pop up roof so as long as your arms/top half isn't cold the rest of your body is usually OK.

I had a 'wrap' for the evenings in the lodges (to use over short sleeved tops) and a long sleeved muslin top but didn't really use either, hubby was fine in a short sleeved shirts.

Your safari luggage should be in soft holdalls, you'll find everyone interprets what they think is the correct 'size' differently. Just take what you need - it won't be all that much anyway so it'll be difficult for it to be too big - unless you are on a flying safari, in which case the holdalls mustn't weigh more than 15kg.

I have to pinch myself to believe I've just had the most fantastic holiday of my life.........Enjoy!

Has anyone here actually done the Hayes & Jarvis Masai Mara to Coast safari? I am having problems finding out if we can take extra luggage for our time on the beach afterwards (as we can only take £15kg on the safari itself). Any help would be great!

It's quite probable that H&J have storage facilities where they keep your 'beach' suitcase/s until you get back.

Certainly for our Kuoni driving safari that is what took place. We left our beach cases at the Nairobi Serena where we spent our first night and collected them on our way to catch our flight to Mombasa a week later.

Have you asked H&J what the arrangements are, you definitely WON'T be expected to manage with 15kg on safari then beach. If they can't give you the definitive answer try below link. LOADS of people there have been on H&J safaris and it's where I got the answer to my own 'luggage' question.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g294206-i9216-Kenya.html

Hi

Thanks for the post. The particular safari we are doing starts in Nairobi and ends in Mombasa, so we won't be going back to Nairobi at all. It's also the only safari in the brochure that stipulates a 15kg limit. I have been trying to phone H&J for weeks and have just been kept on hold for ages and they don't appear to have an email address. I'll try Trip Advisor as you suggest and see if anyone on there can help me.

can you tell me will i be able to use my hair dryer on safari thanks kaz

In the lodges in Kenya you can, UK voltage and UK style plugs.

hi just wondering if you need a really good camera with a long zoom to get any decent pictures. at the mo i have one that goes 200mm.

kind regards

dave

hi
you can still get good pics with a small zoom but obviously the bigger the zoom the closer you get to the action. My first trip back in the 90's . i only had a small 150 zoom ( on an old fashioned non digital camera)& still managed to get some really good piccies and even better with digital cameras now at least you can take hundreds & preview your pics whilst your there & keep trying until you get something you like.
if you dont have the £££ to splash out before you go im sure you'll still get some good pics. is your camera digital though?? thats the only thing id definitely want now wherever i go.

I took a Fuji S5000 (new models are S5500 and S5600) it has upto 380mm lanse and an adapter puts it upto 555mm, it was well worth it and we got some fantastic pics that would of just been dots without it. Don't forget the animals don't have to use the roads so some sightings can be a little distance away so remember to some small binoculars. Atleast one of the cameras I mentioned can be found new for around £150 and the adapter lense can be bought online although ebay was cheaper for me.
Have fun.

Barry.

Does anybody know what the weather is like in areas like Tsavo or Masai
Mara in March. I know it is very hot on the coast and March is probably the hottest month but just wandering if warm clothing will be needed in the safari parks which are usually to a certain degree much cooler.

Thanks

Does anybody know where i can book a 3 week holiday witrh sarifai