Our driver, John was amazing. The whole trip ...
Kenya
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Jan 28 - Feb 6, 2025
Our driver, John was amazing. The whole trip was made by having him with us every day and in every park. Since all the accommodations were over 4 hours apart we spent a lot of time together, (in my opinion this is something that should have been explained during the booking process and planning).
I will say the accommodations started off strong but got worse as the time went on. The first place, Fair acres was nice although the bathroom area did not seem to clean. The second accommodation, Sweetwater was by far the best. The ease of being in the park was well worth the money. The food was absolutely amazing and the wait staff was so attentive. Lake Nakuru lodge was okay, with food that was just okay. We were glad to only stay there for one night. The Masai Mara cultural camp was amazing, and I wish we were able to stay in the regular accommodations for a night. The food was delicious. We did the bush camp which I wish was explained a little better before we booked, but it was a good experience. The last camping was Mara Kimana which was the worst accommodation by far. I would have rather stayed in the park to bypass the streets everyday and made the game drives easier. The caliber of food was not nearly as good as we were used to. The staff was nice, but I had to ask about my laundry multiple times. For dropping it off the bag was forgotten, and then for the delivery we did not get it until around 9pm, when we were leaving early the next morning.
After the safari was completed we went to the airstrip to get a flight to Nairobi to connect to Diani. It was disappointing to learn when we got to the airstrip that an option to go straight to Diani and not stop in Nairobi was an option. I wish this would have been provided for us and given as an option to upgrade for additional cost, we lost most of our day traveling. when we arrived in Diani we were disappointed in our accommodations. We personally do not like all-inclusive, and this place was just that. While the beach was beautiful, the room was okay and the bug net was impossible to work. Any time you tried to close it, the other side opened. Which was stressful in the middle of the night when you got up and then basically had to rearrange all the sides of it.
All in all we appreciate everything Kim Kim did but we would have liked a better explanation of the trip and what it entailed. We did not previously look up anything about traveling to Kenya so we knew nothing of what to expect and I feel like that could have been discussed and explained better.
Hotel Reviews
This place was a little far from the airport, and considering we had to drive back closer to the airport on our first day of travel it probably would have been better if we were in a different location. The staff made it easy to check in, the food that was available was okay. It was close to Karen Blixen and Bomas which we did that day. When we arrived the shower did not have any clean towels, but the staff brought some right away. The shower did seem like it needed to be cleaned, especially the doors and the floor.
This was the best hotel we stayed at, we loved the staff and the cleanliness of the accommodations. The front desk was so welcoming, they had tea and coffee available at all hours, and the food for breakfast, lunch and dinner was amazing. There was a decent amount of options every time. At night they would give you a heating pack to sleep with since the tent can get a little cold, and it stayed warm almost all night. We loved staying inside the park so the game drive began as soon as we left in the morning.
I would say the only positive thing about this hotel is that it is located in the park. The bed we slept on was by far the most uncomfortable and felt the same as sleeping on the floor. The food was okay, but they did not have that much variety. We would not recommend this place to other travelers.
We had a wonderful time here learning about the community and what they have created. We would have liked to have more of an explanation of what this camp entailed. The walk to the bush camp was quite a hike and I would not recommend it for everyone. Once you are up at the camp there is no running water. While they do have a “washroom” it is just a wooden toilet that is covered by an enclosure. We were hesitant to participate in eating the goat, but after seeing it cooked we became much more comfortable. They had informed us that no one has every gotten sick from eating it and that was also comforting. I would have felt better if this was explained to me beforehand. All the staff was very sweet, and we really enjoyed the food offered.
We would not recommend this hotel to other travelers. Because it was outside the park getting into the park every day was a hassle, and you had to go through town and be swarmed by people trying to sell you stuff. The tent we were booked was entirely too big for us and had a master and a separate bedroom with 3 beds in it as well. For us, it seemed like a waste and we would have rather been booked inside the park at a nicer accommodation. When we got there I asked about laundry and they informed me they would bring a bag before dinner. This did not happen and I had to go to the front desk to remind them. The shower we took there was freezing and they had to work on the water heater. They did not have many food options for dinner. The WiFi in the tent did not work at all, you basically had to be in the reception area to be able to do anything on your phone. I was told the laundry would be completed before dinner the next night, when we left to go to dinner we still did not have the laundry. I was in the room during turn-down service and she said she would have it after dinner which left us not a lot of time to pack considering we were leaving early in the morning.
I had read some reviews on google and trip advisor and requested to change this accommodation but only when it was too late. This was an all-inclusive hotel which would have been nice to know before it was booked. Me and my husband personally do not like these sorts of accommodations and would have rather been booked elsewhere. The room seemed clean, except the bathroom shower pretty much couldn’t drain due to the way it was built and water would get everywhere since there was no door. One of the weirdest things they did was have reusable water bottles full of “clean water” to brush teeth with and such but the fact that they were plastic reusable bottles was very weird. I didn’t want to put my mouth on something someone else had used. They had no water bottles anywhere for purchase, they just used a big jug to fill up everyone’s water. While this is fine, I would have liked to have access to water bottles while in the room. I could see how people get sick from the food. During all services some of the food that probably should have been cold was just left out, who knows how long this was for considering they had to set up for the service. We stuck to food that had been heated or was cooked right in front of us and I think that’s why we didn’t get sick. The bug net that was in the room was a mess. If you tried to close it on one side it opened on the other and felt like it was constantly open. It’s not that hard to have an easy to use bug net so this was really frustrating. We were worried about this because when you closed the door it still looked like it was open, there was cracks on all side that were decently big for plenty of insects to come in. I was thinking since this accommodation was on the beach that there would be beach loungers but unfortunately there was not, all the loungers are on the grass overlooking the beach. It felt like unless you got out there early you couldn’t get a lounger which was pretty annoying. People would leave their stuff there even if they weren’t using it all day. The service was pretty slow since it was all-inclusive. The outside pool bar usually had 2-3 guys working and about 10+ people waiting. At one point I waited 15 minutes for a coffee before I gave up because there was still someone in front of me that hadn’t ordered yet. there was an inside bar but everytime I went over there it was closed, so I’m not sure if they even use that. This place was close to the airport which was nice, but I would not recommend anyone else stay here. It was just okay.
Activity Reviews
We enjoyed both drives
This was a much more difficult hike than I thought it was going to be and we are very active, working out daily and have been on previous hikes before. We would not recommend this activity to other travelers, it is basically all uphill with very little plateaus.
Should be explained more what this entailes with pictures of where you will be staying, that there is a hike up there, etc.