Thoughts on a Safari - Part 1

A few months back, we went on a safari, and its high time I blog about it.  For this trip, we went to Kenya with a recovery trip to Zanzibar, Tanzania.  

It feels like there is a lot to cover, so I am going to break this into a couple posts.  Today’s post will deal with the basics – where to go, where to stay and thoughts on Zanzibar.  Future posts will cover the animals, and the experience.

The Parks

We went to 3 parks - Nairobi National Park, Amboseli, and Maasai Mara.  

First we went to Nairobi National Park.  It is just outside of the city.  In fact, you can see the city sky line from much of the park.  We saw regular people driving their ordinary cars through the park.  The biggest plus of this park is it was the only place we saw Rhinos.

Next up was Amboseli.  This park is south of Nairobi on the border with Tanzania and has a fantastic view of Mount Kilimanjaro.  Aside from the view, the big advantage of this park is the Elephants.  This park has many, many elephants, and lots of opportunities to see them close up. 

Finally we went to the Maasai Mara.  Often when people think of safaris, they think of the Serengeti in Tanzania.  It turns out that the Serengeti and the Maasai Mara are one ecosystem.  The only difference is it is called Maasai Mara in Kenya, and Serengeti in Tanzania. 

Each park had its charms, and I am glad we did all three.  I think the order mattered because each one got successively better.  I am not sure I would have had such a good feeling about Nairobi park if we did it last. 

The Lodgings

At each park, we stayed at some great lodgings.  At Nairobi Park we stayed at the Ololo Lodge.  In fact, the lodge is inside the park and you have to pay a park entrance fee every day you are there in addition to the price of the lodge.  The lodge is old and had fallen into disrepair and closed.  A couple from Australia bought it, spent several years renovating it and recently reopened it. 

Their efforts have really paid off.  The resort itself was very nice.  Our room was a renovated horse stable.  The common areas were inviting.  The staff was great and attentive.  It was a very friendly atmosphere.  Also a big plus is the fact that all alcohol was included.  That is unusual for these types of places.

Not bad for a former horse stable.

At Amboseli we stayed at the Ol Tukai Lodge.  The day we traveled from Ololo to here, we had to get up early, take a bumpy road out of Nairobi park, get to the airport, fly to Amboseli, and take another drive to the lodge.  We have had much longer and harder travel days, but this was just hard enough to set the stage for a great first impression.  We arrived at the lodge just before breakfast was going to end, so we went into the dining room, attacked the buffet and sat.  And while sitting there, I looked out and there from the breakfast table, we can clearly see a heard of elephants walking past the lodge. WOW!

I had seen elephants before.  I had even ridden on one in Laos.  But this was the first time I had seen then in the wild.  And I did it from the dining table.

Ol Tukai is larger than Ololo.  It has a great bar, a fire pit, and spacious common rooms.  The guest rooms were nice – they were in small buildings of 4 rooms, each with its own porch and a couple chairs.  It is definitely a great place to stay.

But what made it really special was the view.  It looked out onto a plain that is part of the park, and the animals were always in site.  Elephants, hippos, zebras, cape buffalo, birds, monkeys and more.  Sit on your porch and watch.  How cool.

The view from our porch

In the Masai Mara we stayed at the Mara Intrepids.  To get to this lodge, we took a flight from Nairobi.  It was a smaller plane – a twin engine turbo prop like you take for smaller airports back in the US.  Before getting on the plain, they told us we would be the 3^rd stop.  Wait, what?  That’s right – you will be the 3^rd stop.  In this part of Kenya, each lodge has its own dirt runway.  At each stop a few people get off, and a few get on. Take off.  Fly 10 more minutes, land. 

At our stop, we got off, claimed our bags right on the runway and loaded up in trucks to drive to our lodge which was only a few hundred yards away. Nice.

At this lodge you stay in tents, but it is definitely “Glamping.”  The beds are comfortable.  There is electricity, indoor plumbing and fresh towels.  Really nice.  One of the more unusual touches was every night after dinner, your bed had been turned down and a hot water bottle placed in.  I think some of the ladies on our trip like the nice warm bed better than I did.  For me, it made me too warm.

Yes, this is a tent

Overall, my impression is that all of these types of lodges in Kenya cater to travelers who expect luxury, and they all deliver.  The rooms, the staff, the food – all top notch.  If you are going to go to Africa for a safari – live a little.  Pay for a great place and take full advantage of its amenities. 

Zanzibar.

I am rarely negative about the places we go, but I am not a fan of Zanzibar.  It simply was not a great experience.

When we arrived at the airport it was already late at night.  A van met us to take us to our lodge – 1 van for 9 adults.  It was tight.  The drive was long – an hour – and we were not expecting that.  What we could see from the van was pretty run down and poor.  The driver made a personal stop in a sketchy neighborhood while 9 people waited in the van.  So by the time we got to our lodge, I already had a poor first impression.

The part that bothered me most was the beach.  The lodge did not own or control the beach, so as soon as you left the resort, people were trying to sell you things.  You would try to take a walk on the beach, and people would come up to you acting all friendly.  If you were friendly back they would start to try to sell you something.  But if you tried to stop them, they would act offended and say they are just trying to be friendly.

The lodge itself was very nice.  By this point in the trip we had already done our safari, so this was already a bonus.  We spent most of our time lounging around, although we did go out to a spice farm one day and looked around Stone Town on our last day on the way to the airport.

Overall, I give Zanzibar a rating of Skip-able.

Freddie Mercury was born on Zanzibar.  Maybe it was not all bad.