The Plains of Africa Kenya Wildlife Safari

It was the trip of a lifetime--the best trip that I have ever taken in my 73 years!!! While most, if not all, of my fellow travelers were there only to see the animals on safari, I was there just as much to experience the people, food, and culture of Kenya. When I travel, I like to immerse myself in the local culture, trying to learn some of the language, eating the regional foods, and really trying to get to know the people. Our tour guide was very accommodating to me, as were employees at the various resorts and hotel where we stayed. The food selections are meant to appeal to all tourists (which is great!), but I always asked which foods were native to the area and tried to stick with them as much as possible. The 3 tour guides for our group were all outstanding!! The tour manager and guide for our subgroup of 6 was Fanuel Maina--WOW!!!!! How fortunate were we to have him guide us and take care of us!!!!! The knowledge and skills of these guides is amazing! Because of them, we were privileged to see (much of it up close) more animals (including amazing birds) than I ever would have thought possible. Maina, as he had us call him, was also able to tell us so much about the animals, birds, trees, other plant-life, as well as sharing information about various tribes and villages, Kenya's government, African trade routes, etc, etc.--so interesting and educational! I am also grateful that Collette has a program that picked us up at our homes and transported us to the airport, and then back again. Booking our flights for us was another perk that I greatly appreciated. All in all, I cannot speak highly enough of this trip to Kenya.

Really enjoyed having knowledgable and caring guides and tour manager to lead us and teach us. Our time on the game drives produced lifelong memories. Loved getting to know and understand the culture and the people as well. Surprised by amazing and unique accommodations and the delicious variety of foods that were offered to us!

Several items were particularly outstanding. First, was the Tour Guide! Exemplary!! Very knowledgeable, helpful, courteous, would do anything to help! Noteworthy were the lions, elephants, rhinos, hippos, zebras, water buffalo, & giraffes. Outstanding were the visit to the Masai compound & the hot air balloon ride!

Our driver, Sam, was excellent! We couldn’t have asked for a better guide. And our tour manager, Minah, was so thorough and attentive to every detail. He looked after our every need, was full of information and had a great sense of humor! I have travelled around the world and experienced many guides/expedition leaders and I would rank Sam and Minah among the very best.

This trip was more than I could have imagined. So many favorite happenings. Mina was a great tour manager , however we really need to rave on our driver Sam. We fell in love with Sam. Also a big thank you to Steve and flori. Honestly we could have done without the visit to the Karen blixon house. Wish we could have had a little more time at some of the lodging.. we just loved this trip.

Loved this trip, our tour manager Minah was incredible. Beautiful accommodations, we were treated first class the whole trip. Loved the animals, the culture, the landscapes If you are on the fence, book this trip, you will be happy you did

This trip was BEYOND EXPECTATIONS!! Everybody in our group was so wonderful, our tour manager, driver, was THE BEST!! (Maina). There was nothing he didn’t know about EVERYTHING! He went out of his way to make sure we had everything we needed. I saw all animals, which I’m an animal lover. The accommodations were 5 star. The people of Kenya were such wonderful people, and they went out of their way for us. One of my favorite experiences was interacting with the blind rhino. We got to feed him. Seeing the lions were also at the top of my list. It’s hard to put down everything; the trip was perfect and Colette Tours were amazing!!

This tour exceeded all expectations. The accommodations, schedule, vehicles, and food were great and the weather and animals cooperated to provide an amazing trip. The crowning piece, however, was the tour guide, Chris Muriuki Gatu, from Liberty Tours. He was patient, impressively knowledgeable about ANYTHING we asked, and a safe and competent driver and guide. He MADE this tour spectacular. The Kenyan people were so friendly and hospitable. One change I would suggest would be to include a tour of the Kenyan National Museum instead of the Giraffe Rescue and Karen Blixen tour. It would be wonderful to learn more about the history and future of Kenya - politics, natural resources, plans for the future, etc.

The drivers were so knowledgeable, and we were able to see everything we hoped for and more! Our experience in seeing the animals was their top priority and I felt our drivers were more respectful of the animals than some of the other tour groups. Every place we stayed was a 5-star location; we couldn’t have asked for better accommodations

Excellent. All accommodations were wonderful. Our tour manager Chris and our driver John were about as good as you could have. Both were very knowledgeable and personable. Saw all the big 5 and enjoyed the landscape and birds. My favorite was seeing Micheal the Tusker elephant. What a wonderful and amazing animal. The picture is of our daughter videoing a lioness hunt for zebra. Looks like someone else was interested in that hunt also.

Small group tour of twelve we thought we would travel with was cut down to six and we were assigned a vehicle with a middle aged couple with two adult children. No one spoke and the whole family played on their phones for the three weeks we were stuck with them. The tour company guide refused to let us swap seats around so we could ride with other people once in a while. The extension to Tanzania wasn’t worth it. The Serengeti was scenic but the 3-night resort was very plain and far from the animals so the game drives had to be all day and the driver was a maniac, and the box lunches were terrible. The driver drove so fast and hard he broke the vehicle on one game drive and we were stuck in the hot Savannah for almost five hours with nothing around while his repair game our and they attempted to fix the vehicle. The whole day in Ngorogoro crater was cancelled. Some of the hotel stays were a waste of time and the side trips and bathroom stops (hard sell souvenir shop) were a waste of time and painful. The giraffe rehab center in Nairobi was so packed with tourist we could barely walk around and I couldn’t wait to get out of there. We spent half the drive driving there and it was a complete waste of time.