Lion (lyin') around in Masai Mara
In February 2020, I researched and booked a Kenya safari for my 50th birthday in January 2021. It was going to be an epic trip for the four of us in business class both ways and with a private guide and vehicle across Kenya. You can guess how that worked out. A month later, everything ground to a halt. We canceled in summer 2020 when it became obvious that things would not return to normal for a while. I hopefully rebooked for summer 2021, but by the end of 2020, I was concerned that there was now a testing requirement for returning to the US and couldn’t take the chance of getting stuck in Kenya for an extra 10 days. I canceled again and rebooked for January 2022. Everything looked good right up until December 2021 when the Omicron variant spiked and made it apparent that international travel was going to be difficult until the wave subsided. We canceled again about 10 days before we were scheduled to leave.

I rebooked yet again for January 2023 (leaving December 31, 2022) and hoped for the best. It was probably our last shot at all four of us being able to take the trip because of the kids’ school and work schedules. This time we did it!
The actual safari trip was booked with a company in Nairobi called Best Camping Tours & Safaris. I paid using a Chase Sapphire Reserve for 3x points on travel (although I had to pay a fee to use a credit card but that was preferable to me than bringing all that cash or using a wire transfer). We flew to Kenya on Qatar Airways booked with American Airlines miles (75k plus $40 taxes and fees per person) and flew home on KLM booked with Flying Blue miles (92.5k plus $400 taxes and fees per person). We stayed in Nairobi at the Sankara Nairobi, a Marriott Autograph Collection property using free night certificates.
Despite the odd hiccup, it was a great trip and I'll post the other segments here. They are also available on my blog at emptynestermiles.com