pvgman

Taking the new east bypass should allow you to get there within 30min, immigration won't take you long if you are in business, only unknown can be an official state visit in which case they tend to block the road

Thunderroad

A very belated thanks for that information, pvgman.

Any recent stays/reviews to share?

Thunderroad

Does the $81 pp conservation fee apply even if we don't go into the conservancy on a given day? That is, if we simply fly out on our final day without doing a safari, do we get charged the fee anyway?

Thunderroad

Bumping this question. Thanks for any information.

niehaubs

What is the best way to ride out to the hotel from NBO?
We certainly will not arrive in time to transfer to Wilson and fly out but we do not want to overnight in Nairobi. Can anyone recommend a company they have used or advise their best method?

Thunderroad

One key consideration in getting good advice here might be, what time will your flight arrive?

niehaubs

We land at 14:10 at NBO on a Friday.
The last flight from Wilson is too close to that time for us to make. I believe it is 14:45 or something like that.
I have been advised that cars can't drive out to the Mara after about 18:00 for whatever reason so I think I am stuck overnighting in Nairobi. Which is not like the end of the world, but we wanted to get all the way to the Mara on arrival day.
Alas, it seems not to be.

nmenaker

pick where you stay wisely, and I would recommend maybe using the hotels transportation (if not better even from a tour operator?)

Thunderroad

Stayed at the Mara Safari Club for four days earlier this month. It was great! Just some assorted observations here:

1. The driver/guide is obviously a big part of the experience, and we were lucky enough to have Samuel for this role. Wonderful, warm, enlightening fellow and guide. We also briefly met Moses, who also seemed great.
2. The room reservations manager, Stephen, was also very helpful, including in explaining our perks and benefits (more on this below).
3. The location of the hotel and all of the rooms/tents, on the bend of a river, is beautiful. I was a bit under the weather one day and just hung out there. I really enjoyed it.
4. The hippos are a gas! While we were there, all 80 or so hung out, basked in the sun during the day and occasionally bellowed on a spot between tents 11 and 12. For what it's worth, I don't think you can actually see them from either of those tents' porches, but there is a shaded viewing structure between the tents and from which you can easily view them. We did see them swimming upstream and back each evening and morning, when they went out to graze for the night.
5. Much is rightfully said about the great wildlife observation trips twice a day (at 6:30 am for two hours in the morning and at 3:30 pm for three hours in the afternoon), which is what makes this a unique vacation after all. But just riding around the landscape is beautiful, regardless of what wildlife you see.
6. As for the wildlife: We saw lots of lions, elephants, hyenas, giraffes (my personal favorites, given that they lumber along like something out of Jurassic Park), zebras, buffaloes, various kinds of antelopes, jackals, wildebeasts, warthogs, etc. as well as a couple of rhinos and a leopard and a cheetah. It's not as though we were constantly seeing the wildlife by any means - there were certainly long spells when we were simply riding around with Samuel the guide looking for wildlife - but we certainly saw plenty and, as noted, simply the terrain itself is beautiful. A few more action-oriented interactions, including one lion stalking a jackal and another a warthog, and a couple of jackals trying to get at a young antelope protected by its mother. Thankfully (at least as far as we were concerned), none of the predators were successful, though obviously success can go with the territory.
7. As for the perks...I'm a bit confused about what my Fairmont status is these days, if that has any relevance now that Accor has taken over (I'm Accor Gold, FWIW). But by virtue of my current or (pre-Accor) legacy Fairmont status, I was entitled to a free night after staying two paid nights. What this meant in practice for the free night is that the room itself was free, but I had to pay for our meals (at a set rate, but was able to apply a total of $100 Fairmont Willow Creek dining discounts my wife and I had) and of course the mandatory conservancy fee; I also had to pay for any of the game drives that my wife and I took that day (at a rate of $70 per person per drive) - which ended up being only one by my wife, since I was a bit ill and she decided to forego one and sleep in a bit that day. Room manager Stephen was great in explaining this to me beforehand via email, especially since the otherwise helpful Fairmont reservations agents didn't have a clue about this.
8. The hotel medic was friendly and helpful in digging up some Dayquil to help me deal with my cold.
9. Food was good - not superb dining by any means, but very decent buffets and occasional a la carte (on the days when the hotel was not busy). Somewhat annoying that they charge for water at the restaurant, though - both for the (modest) charge and for having to hang around and settle a bill for the otherwise free meal.
10. For the most part, very friendly and helpful staff.
11. Though this is of course a matter of individual taste, we found the four days just about right for us. We liked taking a bit of a break from the game drives to hang around our deck one day, even though the game drives were fantastic. We mostly just spent spare time around our tent and patio, but the pool area seemed pleasant and the lodge/common area is roomy and comfortable.
12. Surprisingly few bugs, I supposed because it gets cool at night and the climate (at least when we were there) was dry. I don't think we saw a mosquito the whole time, and never felt a need to put on the insect repellent we'd brought. With one or two minor exceptions, closing the zippers on the tent kept them out, and even when we kept the flaps open during the day we didn't have a problem with them.
13. We had a deluxe room, again by virtue of my Fairmont status. It had the advantage of a large outdoor shower area, which was a great place to wash off during the relative heat of the day. I'm not sure what the difference was otherwise, if any, from the regular rooms.
14. We met some folks who had a room with two beds in it. It seemed larger than the single-bedded rooms (including our own), though all rooms are comfortable.
15. Our room was about a one-minute walk from the gate, in the 40's (perhaps 45 or 47?). In any event, it did not seem to us like a long walk to the dining area - maybe ten minutes at most. But the room location was a bit convenient in that we could be picked up and dropped off at the gate for every drive.
16. No internet access in the tent; decent internet access in the dining/lounge area.
17. We used SafariLink to fly in and out of the Ngerende air strip (about a ten-minute drive from the hotel) from Wilson, the Nairobi domestic airport. It was fine, though we did have to go with the flow of taking three quick flights to get back to Wilson when we left. (I suspect that all of the domestic airlines flying to the Mara do this sometimes.) We found that the weight limit of 20 kg per person was no problem for us. We stored our extra stuff in another bag, with SafariLink at Wilson.

niehaubs

OK, I solved my time into NBO issue so I can get to the Mara on any of the flights from Wilson. Landing at 11:30 PM and hanging out until the earliest flight from Wilson, but it's better than losing a day.

Anyway, searching for flights, I am missing something. I don't know how to determine which flights stop at which airstrips, except AirKenya flights list them all in the destinations. Do they all stop at every strip, or do I have to find a list of who stops where?
Or can someone tell me which flights from Wilson go to Ngerende? Will the hotel pick me up at any place other than that airstrip?

I also emailed the hotel for this advice/info, but they are very slow to respond. I thought I'd ask the experts.
Many thanks, again.

Thunderroad

No, any given flight definitely does not stop at every strip, though one plane may well stop at more than one strip. (I was a bit confused by this as well, when first planning our trip.) On our outbound, for instance, our plane continued on to another strip after its first stop at Ngerende. On our return, I can't recall whether we were scheduled to fly non-stop or one-stop back to Wilson, but we ended up on three different planes, the first two of perhaps ten minutes each, before getting back to Wilson. It wasn't a problem,as the planes are so small and we were traveling so light that retrieving our luggage at each stop was easy. I suspect all the airlines sometimes juggle passengers this way.

I think you have to look at each domestic airline's site to find its flight schedule to Ngerende. For SafariLink, which is what we flew, the pull-down menu lists it as Mara Ngerende. We found the specific schedule and price by first selecting Nairobi Wilson and then Mara Ngerende.

Not sure I understand your question about being picked up somewhere other than the air strip. I suppose that you could make arrangements to be picked up by the hotel somewhere else, but I don't know why you'd want to do so or where that somewhere else would be (unless you're staying at some other hotel first). FWIW, the Ngerende strip is a pleasant 10-minute drive from the hotel, and you might even see some wildlife on the way.

I didn't do a lot of research on which domestic airline to fly. But when I asked on Tripadvisor, the advice I got was that SafariLink and AirKenya were the best.

Also, not to second-guess you, but I'm not sure I understand your plan to arrive at 11:30 pm at the international airport (NBO), hang out there through the night, and then catch the earliest flight from Wilson. An initial word of caution on this: Perhaps you'll land and de-board at the main terminal cluster, which certainly seems like it has places to hang out (though I have no idea what it's like at 4 am). But we landed and came out at what was basically a big hangar, with no such facilities - just a baggage area and restrooms after Immigration. (We were on Etihad from Abu Dhabi.) I don't think we could have then accessed the main buildings to hang out after that. If you stick with your plan, you might want to check on this.

More generally, is there a reason you would spend seven or eight hours just hanging out at NBO and wouldn't want to get a decent though short night's sleep at either a hotel near NBO (the Four Points Sheraton airport hotel gets good reviews) or within a relatively easy drive of Wilson (we stayed at the Acacia Tree Lodge, which is a modest but very nice and well-run establishment that will arrange an airport pick-up)? You'll miss the 6:30 am morning game drive in any event, and if you take a mid-morning flight from Wilson you'll arrive in plenty of time for the 3:30 pm game drive.

If you do opt for a hotel, I'd recommend actually going to Acacia (perhaps a 25-minute drive from Wilson) or some other hotel relatively close to Wilson, since I think at midnight from NBO you'd avoid the horrible Nairobi traffic that you'd encounter trying to get to Wilson during rush hour in the morning. In either event, though, you should arrange a pick-up at the airport by whatever hotel you're staying at.

niehaubs

For the record, we weren't exactly choosing to, but I was not thinking well enough to realize I should just get a room It failed to register that getting out there by 9 am was not going to give us anything to do until lunch.
So we got a room, and we are on the 10:30 AirKenya to Ngerende.

Thanks for the help and advice.

We are all booked, QR business class from US to NBO, arrive 11:30 PM, 'sleep' a night, then Fairmont Safari Club for 4 nights. Home on New Year's Day. Should be great!

Braswch

Planning 3-4 nights in August, Wife and 2 kids.
So far just have the flights to NBO.
It seems that a lot of regional flights aren't loaded that far in advance. There's some regional flights that I can find available 3-6 months out but not beyond that.
Reason I'm looking at that is I'm trying to plan our return to NYC.
I'm looking at what else I should plan to do on the same trip.
My struggle is lack of direct flights. Getting lots of places seems to take a long time.
Anyone have any suggestions? It could be in the same area, in Kenya, elsewhere in Africa etc.
I'm trying to understand to where I can fly direct from either MRE or NBO/WIL.
Perfect would be a single flight out of NBO to somehwere and spend a couple days in that somewhere and then from there fly back to the USA.
For example I realized I can fly direct from Casablanca back to the states that would be cool. BUT the problem is getting TO casablanca. From NBO I think the fastest time was around 14 hours VIA PARIS! LOL!

Any suggestions pointers?

Thanks!

Thunderroad

If you're only talking about a couple of days to spare, then I'd suggest simply spending them in Nairobi. The city itself isn't the most charming and the traffic can be a real hassle. But for kids of all ages, you could do what my wife and I did during our one full day in Nairobi: Go to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage to see baby elephants in the morning, then do a bit of handicraft shopping (though I wouldn't make this a priority, especially if the kids aren't into it), then the very pleasant Karen Blixen Cafe (not to be confused with the Karen Blixen House, which sounds like a mediocre mini-museum) for lunch, then the Giraffe Center, then back to the Sheldrick facility late afternoon for a less crowded baby elephant experience (you might be required to adopt an elephant for $50/year in order to do this - it's a great contribution to conservation - and might need to buy that during the morning visit, but I'm not clear on this). Or some combination of those activities.

I'm sure the kids would love both the Sheldrick and Giraffe Centers, including the adopt-a-baby-elephant aspect, where you get to pick which one you want to adopt. At the Giraffe Center, the gentle giants come right up to an elevated platform to take little nuggets of food from your hands or even from between your teeth (really!).

Stay in the suburban, pretty, peaceful Karen neighborhood, which is fairly close to all of the above and to Wilson Airport. We liked the modest, well-run, moderately priced Acacia Tree Lodge a lot, but there are other options in that area as well, including more expensive ones.

For reviews and more information on all of the above, check out their reviews on Tripadvisor.

If you have an an additional day, there's a very nice national forest about an hour's drive or less from the Karen neighborhood, but I can't recall the name and I haven't actually been there. Again, check Tripadvisor under Things to Do in Nairobi.

Now, if you have more than a couple of days to spare, you also could hop up to Fairmont's Mt. Kenya property from Wilson. I don't know much about it except it could be a nice change of pace.

Hope this helps!

lefrid

Any reason why all availability has been zeroed after 30 june 2019?
Leaving Accor?