<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JohnAx:
My experience is that for a week or so of safari'ing, Kruger National Park, 300 miles E of JNB, provides by far the best game-viewing experience for the buck.
Besides safety, the big problem in the Kenya area is poaching. There's little control, and besides diminishing the population, it makes the animals very skittish - without a great deal of luck or the services of a guide it's hard to get within a mile of anything interesting.
Contrast Kruger, where historically poaching has been well controlled - the animals are almost too comfortable with humans, so it's trivial to drive up to a herd of giraffe or a pride of lion in your self-drive.
Under the old government, the place was the weekend family outing for the locals, and was incredibly cheap for first-class accommodation. They're trying to get more tourist dollars out of it now, but it's still an incredible bargain for a great game-viewing experience. </font>
I suggest including tanzania - about 3 hours from nairobi to arusha - the safari center. Tanzania is considered by many to be the very best for game viewing and you can easily include it in safari starting in nairobi. Safety should not be an issue on safari - only in nairobi (or jnb).