1P

A very useful TR for anyone contemplating an African safari.

I may have missed it, but I didn't see the total air itinerary anywhere. A bit puzzled as to why you booked such a short layover in DOH. These days, short layovers are asking for trouble. Where in times gone by one might have booked an hour and a half with confidence, IMO four hours is about the safe minimum now, to allow for delays — for any trip you are taking unless you know for sure that the same plane is being used for the next leg. Makes everything much less stressful, especially if you can use a lounge between flights. I have certainly changed my travel habits to reflect the new normal which is that something will probably go wrong.

pjs

We only went to Kenya. Serengeti is in Tanzania (although it's basically a much larger continuation of Masai Mara in Kenya.) We weren't there in high season (July-August or holiday time) so I'm sure it's busier then. The animals are definitely not scared of the vehicles as they are used to them. We had a few scenes to ourselves and a few with a bunch of vehicles, but I wouldn't call it crowded.

Sure - if you can go ahead and find 4 business class saver level award tickets on the same flights with multiple options for layovers
Every other day in the weeks before and after our flight, there would have been no issue with making the connection. I knew there was a later flight and that it wasn't sold out, so even if we ended up on economy for the shorter hop to NBO, it wouldn't have ruined the whole trip. As it turned out, they put us in business anyway. There are exactly 2 flights per day from DOH-NBO and one from ORD-DOH. This isn't exactly LHR-CDG or ORD-LGA.

pjs

Our chariot inflates

I’ll have a full review of our camp and Masai Mara in general in the next segment, but I wanted to highlight our game drives and our add-on balloon ride as there are just so many great pictures to share.
Our first game drive was on the afternoon we arrived. We saw wildebeest, a cheetah, antelopes, elephants, a jackal, lion, giraffes and lots of other wildlife relatively close to our camp.



On our return to camp, we were given a briefing by the balloon company on how our excursion would operate the next morning. We had a 4:30am wake up call from the camp’s Masai warrior security guard and coffee at the reception area before our vehicle arrived at 5am to take us to the balloon launching site. The balloon left from another camp about 30 minutes away. On the way there, we drove through the local village and saw some hyenas on the road.
At the other camp, there was more tea and coffee available and we waited to be led out to the field where the balloon was inflating.



We were given a quick safety briefing by the pilot, an Aussie, and got into the basket. There were three slots on each side of the pilot with room for four people in each slot. We were on the outside with great views all around. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t cooperate much and we tried to find some at different altitudes. The sunrise was pretty and the ride itself was really smooth and enjoyable. My older daughter didn’t really enjoy it and mostly stayed down in the basket.



We landed inside Masai Mara reserve and were met by a truck (to transport the balloon back to camp) and several vehicles to drive us to breakfast.



Breakfast was in a large field within the reserve. There was a full hot and cold buffet, coffee, tea and a bar with bloody mary, mimosa, and gin and tonic available. We enjoyed a relaxing breakfast and chatted with some of our fellow riders and the pilot and his wife, who had retired to Luxembourg, but were back visiting Kenya for a few months and picking up some balloon driving shifts while he was there.



We were driven back to camp and took a nap. Later that afternoon, we visited a Masai village and had a similar demonstration as our earlier one in Samburu: dances and songs from the tribe, a visit to a hut, a fire-making demonstration and a chance to shop at their market made just for us.



On the way back to our camp, we went on another game drive with Kehara. This time we saw more lions enjoying a kill and lots of other interesting wildlife.



The next morning we were scheduled to do an early walk with a Masai warrior and then a half-day game drive, but my younger daughter wasn’t feeling great so we decided to postpone those activities. Instead, we did two shorter game drives that day and finally completed our big five checklist when we saw a leopard up close and personal.



On our last day in Masai Mara, we went on the early walking safari with the Masai warrior, although my wife and younger daughter ended up cutting it short. My older daughter and I completed the walk (about 4 miles) and learned quite a bit about the flora and fauna of the area, along with some more information about tribal life.


Hippo footprint



After breakfast, we left on a longer game drive to the Mara River so that we could see hippos and crocodiles. On the way, we stopped at a viewpoint.



The crocs and hippos were not hard to find when we got to the river. Sorry these were a bit blurry but they were across the river and down the bank from us a decent distance.



On the way back, we saw a bunch of lion cubs with their mothers.



I’m glad we saved Masai Mara for the last place we visited on the safari as it certainly had the most variety of wildlife. We enjoyed all of our game drives and the balloon ride (well most of us) immensely.

Up Next: Masai Mara and Tipilikwani Camp

pjs

Map of Masai Mara

I split the Masai Mara segments in two so I could give it full coverage. In this segment, I will cover the ride to Masai Mara and the camp where we spent four nights, Tipilikwani. When we left Nakuru, we drove back to the south with good views as it was a clear morning.



We turned off in a generally southwestern direction toward Narok, which is a large town on the way to and from Masai Mara. We stopped in Narok so I could get some more Kenyan shillings from the ATM so that I would have enough for tips and the Masai village. The Samburu village souvenirs pretty much wiped me out.

We arrived at the camp around 1pm and were shown to our tents. This camp did not have mosquito nets over the beds like the previous ones.



We had lunch at the restaurant. This camp had about 20 tents but only four or five were occupied at any point during our stay including the two we were using. The employees said they were waiting for the Chinese tourists to return soon.
That night, after our game drive, we enjoyed some drinks at the bar. I found that I preferred Pilsner to Tusker and stuck to that for the rest of the trip. Large beers (500ml) were a real bargain at 200KES (about $1.60). Wi-Fi was available in the restaurant/bar area so if we needed to download something, we hung out there. It wasn’t always fast, but it was usually available. There was no Wi-Fi in the tents, but my Verizon service surprisingly picked up decent 4G connections at the camp and in most places across Masai Mara.



The next morning we had our balloon ride and tribal visit, and then enjoyed several great game drives over the four days we spent in Masai Mara. The camp is in an excellent location just on the Talek River. Apparently, the river gets quite high during rainy season, but during our visit it was quite low. It was cool to see animals on the ridge across the river from our tent.

There was also a Masai warrior who worked overnight and patrolled the camp to protect guests from unwanted visitors like hyenas and lions. We did hear some hyena howls overnight. The camp employees were all friendly and provided great service. The food was not quite as good or varied as Elephant Bedroom in Samburu, but I suppose we were getting a lot of the same dishes throughout the week at the three camps and with a small number of guests, they probably couldn’t order too much variety.

Overall, we really enjoyed our stay. It was very relaxing and pleasant. The location was good as we did not have to drive too far into the park to see wildlife and there is an ability for vehicles to park across the river (there’s a footbridge) for even easier access to game drives.

Up Next: Back to Nairobi and Carnivore

pjs

Stopping at the Rift Valley

It was hard to believe that this was our last day in Kenya. We still had a long drive and two long flights ahead of us, but we enjoyed a last breakfast at Tipilikwani with Kehara and got ready to leave for Nairobi. We left the camp around 10am for the drive back to Nairobi. We pretty much drove straight out of the park, but we made a quick detour to see some lions with a freshly killed giant antelope.



We exited the park and drove toward Narok, where we stopped quickly for me to get my last batch of Kenyan shillings from an ATM so that I had some cash for souvenir shopping and a tip for Kehara.
Past Narok, we continued on to Nairobi and saw some different landscapes. We made a stop at the Great Rift Valley that runs from Lebanon to Southern Africa.



It was pretty scary on the mountain roads and switchbacks with big trucks passing blindly, but we made it to Nairobi and stopped at a few places, including a great souvenir store, a bead factory and a leather factory.
Around 6pm, we made it to Carnivore, a world-famous churrascaria restaurant in the Nairobi suburbs. Imraan had graciously paid for our dinner there as a birthday present to me and we also invited Kehara to join us.



We started with the specialty drink and the salads and then enjoyed the varied meats on offer.


Specialty drink: Dawa

At the end of dinner, a birthday dessert with a sparkler was brought out and the staff sang Happy Birthday to me. Imraan stopped by to say goodbye and bring us some souvenir tribal blankets. I heartily recommend Best Camping & Tours as they provided great service throughout the booking (and re-booking) process and on the ground in Kenya.

Then it was time to head to the airport. Traffic was much heavier than when we arrived. Kehara dropped us at the busy SkyTeam international departures terminal around 9:15pm for our 11:59pm flight and we said our goodbyes. We were flying in business class, so we were able to stand in the much shorter line to enter the terminal. It still took about ½ hour to make it past the initial security check and inside the terminal. We were flying KLM business class NBO-AMS-ATL with a 10 hour layover in Amsterdam.

This time, we checked our bags all the way through to Atlanta and just brought our backpacks for the flights. We went through passport control where there was no wait and then through security where again there was no line.


Farewell Kenya

We found the Kenya Airways Pride Lounge fairly easily and waited there until it was time to board. Nobody was hungry, but I did get some pictures of the food and drink selection. There was a hot and cold buffet and a halal section too.



There was reliable and fast Wi-Fi for everyone to download some stuff to watch on the flights. There were also nice bathrooms with showers available. We did find the lounge (and the airport generally) a bit too warm, but given the climate in Nairobi (70s and 80s during the day and 50s and 60s at night pretty much all year round), I can see why they don't bother paying to install A/C most places.

Around 11pm, we walked over to our gate, passing some nice looking shops and restaurants. Then we had two more passport checks before being allowed into the holding pen for the flight. On the whole, the terminal at Nairobi is much nicer than T5 at ORD.

Up Next: KLM 777-300 NBO-AMS – Overnight to Europe

pjs

After our lounge visit in Nairobi, we were at the gate in our priority seats waiting to board. After wheelchairs and families with small children, business class boarding was called. We boarded a few minutes after the scheduled time and found our seats in the business class cabin.

KLM 566 NBO-AMS
Scheduled 23:59-6:35 (+1 day)
Actual 00:34-6:46

Despite being an older 2-2-2 product, the cabin looked pretty fresh and clean. These cabins will all be replaced by 1-2-1 reverse herringbone seats in the next year or two. I picked center seats in rows 3 and 4 near the middle of the forward cabin so that we would be as far away from galleys and toilets as possible and not have to climb over each other.



We had amenity kits at our seats along with pillows and blankets.
G

Pre-departure beverages were offered and it was a choice of orange juice, Heineken or sparkling wine (it was cava - I asked). The seat was much wider than the Qatar Airways A330 2-2-2 configuration as the 777 is a wider aircraft. It was nice and wide in the shoulders but somehow a bit narrow in the middle. We took off a bit late, but we were told we would make up some time in the air. I wasn’t too bothered as our reservations at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam were at 9:30am the next morning.

Here is the menu for the flight:


I decided to skip dinner and try and sleep. Unfortunately, we hit some rough air over northern Africa and it was hard to fall asleep. I mostly rested. My family all tried dinner and said it wasn’t very good. I ended up watching some episodes of The Crown. There was free messaging on board, but it ran pretty slow. I didn’t bother paying for internet access but here are the prices.


I finally slept for an hour or so. The lights came on around 4:45CET for breakfast, a bit early in my opinion as we still had about two hours to go. I ordered the pancakes and they were decent. You’ll have to take my word for it as I didn’t get a picture without the foil 😊


More airlines should keep the coffee warm like this. Love the KLM china.

We landed just about on time and our taxi put us at the gate about 10 minutes late. All in all, it was a pleasant enough flight. The flight attendants were great and of course, we all got the Delft gin houses that KLM is famous for distributing in business class.

Up Next: A Few Hours in Amsterdam

pjs

When I rebooked this trip for the final time, I could not get Turkish Airlines award flights to show up in LifeMiles so that left me not only with a huge balance of LifeMiles, but also no way home from Kenya. In the end, I found KLM award flights with a long layover in Amsterdam. My wife and I decided it would be nice to break up the trip with a few hours in the city, including taking our kids to the Anne Frank House. Our youngest is actually writing her thesis on certain aspects of the Holocaust so it would be particularly interesting for her.

After we disembarked our flight from Nairobi, we quickly got through immigration. The officer asked how long we were staying and I answered “about seven hours – we don’t just want to sit at the airport.” He seemed to find that amusing and we were through into the Netherlands. We found the baggage storage area downstairs and stowed our backpacks for six Euros for the day. Last time I did this in 2017, there were lockers, but now you have to send your bag through an x-ray into the storage area and get a ticket from the attendant.

Since we had plenty of time and it was morning rush hour, we decided that the train (about 20 Euros for the four of us) was a better idea than Uber (pricing at about 35 Euros). We went back upstairs and into the airport train station where I bought tickets from the machine and we found our track for the train into Centraal Station. We ended up in First Class by mistake, but nobody came along to check our tickets. It took about 20 minutes to get to Centraal.

It was still dark and drizzling when we exited the station. I decided that we would walk in a more circuitous route to the Anne Frank House to kill some time and show the kids some more of the city. Despite the gloomy weather, they enjoyed seeing a very different place than Kenya.



We found a nice-looking coffee bar called Il Momento on the way and stopped in for some coffee. We ended up getting to the museum just before 9am, but the crowds were light and they let us in early.


The outside of the museum - the older part of the building is behind this new façade. Note the flyby above.

Everyone took their time going through the museum. It’s really a must-see if you make it Amsterdam. The original hiding place has been well-preserved. No pictures are allowed inside.

When we were finished going through all the exhibits, it was around 10:15am. I had researched pancake restaurants and found a well-regarded one nearby called The Pancake Bakery. We walked down the canal the short distance to the restaurant. Everyone ordered something different and enjoyed it. I had the Dutch pancake with cinnamon ice cream, stroopwaffels and chocolate chips.



After our brunch, the weather had cleared and we walked all the way across town to the flower market and then around some other neighborhoods. In the end, we walked about seven miles total in Amsterdam.



Centraal Station

We caught another train back to the airport around 12:15pm and retrieved our bags back from the storage area. We already had our KLM boarding passes from check-in at Nairobi and our bags were checked through, so we headed straight to security. There was no wait at priority security and we walked to the KLM Crown Lounge 52 to wait for our flight.

Up Next: KLM Crown Lounge 52 AMS Review.

pjs

Lots of Delft houses

The flagship KLM Lounge in Amsterdam is available to business class (or first class) customers as well as elite Skyteam members from KLM and its partners. We had access through our business class award tickets on KLM.
The lounge is absolutely massive but was busy the entire time we were there from about 1pm to 3:45pm. When we arrived, we found some comfortable looking couch-type seats in the main seating area of the lounge with plenty of charging stations.


The different areas of the lounge

There is also an upper level with a huge premium bar and more seating, a restaurant area with a buffet and another bar, and a sort of mid-level with stairs through it that has more seating. The lounge also has showers, plenty of bathrooms and lockers if you want to store your bags and explore the lounge. I signed up for a shower when I arrived and there was a wait of about an hour. It wasn’t intuitive how to sign up but I eventually figured out the system was automated and then you receive an email with a QR code to enter the shower room within 10 minutes. Of course, it didn’t work so an attendant had to let me in anyway. The shower rooms do not also have toilets unlike most other lounge shower rooms I’ve seen in other airports. The shower was a good temperature and water pressure and the room was clean.

The buffet was quite extensive with sandwiches, salads, hot food, charcuterie and desserts. There were plenty of vegetarian and vegan selections as well.


Drinks were available at the bar, but anything beyond basic level liquors were only offered at the premium bar upstairs for a price (either in miles or Euros). In fact, I found KLM was stingier than Delta in terms of the brands offered for free and the prices for premium drinks.

There was another food and drink area on the far side of the lounge that was not open when we were there. My guess is that the lounge gets even busier before the evening flights and that’s when this area is opened. The lounge was a comfortable place to wait for our flights and provided some good food to snack on and had plenty of staff to pick up used plates and glasses. Around 3:45pm, we left the lounge and headed to our gate for our final flight of the trip.

Up Next: KLM 777-200 AMS-ATL – Homeward Bound

pjs

KLM 777-200
After we walked to our gate from the lounge, we waited a few minutes in the Priority line. Boarding for business class was called and we boarded on time through door 1L. KLM had a split boarding jetway so that only business class boarded through 1L and economy boarded through 2L. I mentioned to the flight attendant how disappointing it was that we had the aircraft change from a 787 to a 777-200 and she agreed, but said they would make it a pleasant flight. She was right!
We had originally been in window seats on the 787 and had been reassigned to windows and aisles on the right and left side of row 4. We decided we would keep these seats despite the climbing over each other as it was a day flight. I sat with my older daughter as we both planned to try and stay awake while the other two planned to sleep during the flight.

KLM 621
Scheduled 16:50-20:25
Actual 17:14-20:30

I found it interesting that we waited for some last-minute connecting passengers given that Qatar Airways wouldn’t hold the flight even five minutes for us the previous week. Granted this is KLM’s only daily flight to Atlanta and we had another option seven hours later, but I was sort of ticked off at Qatar Airways all over again.

No pre-departure beverages were distributed, but amenity kits were passed out by the flight attendants. The seats were basically the same as the ones on the prior flight so you can see a picture of the seat in that post. We pushed back at 5:14pm, about 25 minutes late.

After takeoff, the drink cart came around quickly, and I ordered a Jack Daniels on the rocks. It was served with a ramekin of nuts. I decided to watch Everything Everywhere All at Once on my daughter’s recommendation. I enjoyed it but it was a bit hard to follow after the whiskey.

Here’s the menu:


I ordered the salmon with a glass of chardonnay and it was actually quite good.


The appetizers were a bit weird but the hummus with zucchini and the feta were actually good. I’m not sure who thought a nut salad was a good idea though.



The salmon was quite tasty and not dry.


Dessert was just ok.

So much for staying awake. Between the whiskey, the wine and my lack of sleep, I crashed after the movie. Thankfully, it was a smooth ride across the Atlantic and I slept for about four hours. My daughter next to me slept as well.
I woke up to an announcement that we were expecting turbulence for the last couple of hours of the flight. I noticed on the moving map that we went up to 40,000 feet and took a more westerly routing across the US before turning south. I knew there was some bad weather in Atlanta as my mother-in-law texted that the house was under a tornado watch with severe storms.

About 90 minutes before landing, the second meal was served. I decided to try the empanada and it was actually good if a bit too spicy. The chocolate cake for dessert was heavy but tasty.



We ended up not having any major turbulence despite the warning and thankfully, landed in Atlanta after the bad weather had moved through the area. As only two of us have Global Entry, I decided to try the new Mobile Passport app (it’s been updated and replaced). It worked out well as we sailed right through immigration, only to wait 30 minutes for our checked bags to come out. I was about to go to the baggage service office when the last set of bags finally emerged. I guess the 10 hour layover caused our bags to be loaded first and offloaded last. At least they all made it.

Then we had an adventure with Uber. I ordered an Uber XL as there were four of us with bags. The driver seemed to be a newbie who couldn’t find the international terminal arrivals area - twice! In the end, I canceled, called him not to pick up the ride, and re-ordered. Lucky for us, the price came down almost $50 and we got a much better driver.

We got home around 11pm and collapsed into bed. It was a great trip and I was so happy we were able to make it happen after three years of planning!

Up Next: Safari Tips and Advice

pjs

A pair of cheetahs

So, what did we learn from our trip. The airline-related lessons include:

• Don’t expect Qatar Airways to hold a flight for you even when you arrive before it takes off.
• Do expect aircraft changes and business class seat changes on international flights.
• Know your options if there’s a delay or missed connection.

Mostly though, I wanted to discuss some of the things we learned about how to plan and execute a safari in Kenya.

• Use a local safari company. Imraan and his company worked with us every step of the way in planning and executing the trip. I did check with a few other companies just to compare prices, but in the end, I was very happy with the decision to use Best Camping & Tours. Even so, I had a lot of questions about logistics and the camps he selected. Don’t be afraid to ask tons of questions and get satisfactory answers. You are probably spending a lot and need to be comfortable with the itinerary.
• Don’t buy a camera just for the trip. Yes, if you have a great DSLR or mirrorless camera and lenses that you use often, bring them (in your carry-on). If you’re typically a smartphone photographer, don’t bother buying a new camera just for the trip unless you have many hours to figure out how to use it before you leave. There’s no sense in trying to figure out all the settings while the rhino or leopard walks past your vehicle and is gone before you can say f-stop. Smartphone cameras are great and can take excellent pictures and video. Yes, they are not as sharp as a DSLR camera, but you can still get some good pictures, especially if you have a good driver/guide who gets close to the action.
• Make sure you understand the entry requirements for where you are going. Kenya’s requirements changed several times over the three years we were planning and re-planning this trip. Don’t forget the needed documents and print things out just in case your phone dies or you can’t get Wi-Fi at the airport on arrival.
• Plan for all medical contingencies. You’ll be in remote areas, so plan to bring a course of antibiotics for each person in your group, mosquito repellant, sunscreen, anti-diarrheal medicine, a small first aid kit including antibiotic cream and any other medication that might be needed. I went to a travel clinic and picked up anti-malarial pills for our family and they also gave me a Cipro prescription for all of us. Everything was free (covered by insurance). You may also want to bring something for motion sickness if you have someone who suffers from it in your group, as you get the “African massage” from the safari vehicle and the bumpy trails.
• Figure out your most cost-effective way to get some local cash. It’s best if you have an ATM card from Schwab that reimburses all ATM fees, but if not, you can arrange with your safari company to exchange some money or use the exchange booth at the airport. You’ll need some cash for souvenirs at the villages, tips for porters, waiters and other staff at the camps, and for a nice tip for your driver/guide at the end.
• Pack light. We all managed to bring carry-on luggage for a 13 day trip. Yes, we checked it on the way home, but there’s less risk if something gets delayed or lost on the trip home. We were able to do laundry (except underwear) when we got to Tipilikwani Camp so we had plenty to wear. You do not need to bring any nice clothes for dinner as everyone is casual. You will need some warmer layers for the evenings and early mornings.
• Enjoy all aspects of the trip. It’s not just about the animals. We also enjoyed two different tribal village visits, shopping for souvenirs in Nairobi, getting to know the staff at the camps and other locals we met along the way, seeing different landscapes on our road trips, and some excellent and much-needed downtime relaxing with a book or downloaded show or just spending time together.

I hope you enjoyed reading this trip report as much as I enjoyed writing it and reliving our trip. Feel free to ask any questions about the trip or the planning.

Next up in April: I finally take the wife to Liverpool (via Singapore IAH-MAN and Virgin A350 LHR-JFK in biz).

offerendum

Personally I'm not a friend of these experiences. Otherwise the experience of nature is of course priceless.

pjs

I understand that it can appear a bit exploitative, but you really can't just walk into the villages without planning it. How else will you get some exposure to the local culture? It's also a fundraising exercise for these villages who do not get enough support from the government as drought and other factors cause their agricultural livelihoods to be threatened.

chica

I appreciate your report. It was nicely done. Did you feel satisfied with the animal sightings? Why did you choose Kenya vs South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, etc.?

pjs

Very satisfied with the animal sightings. I wish we could have seen a live lion or cheetah kill, but those are obviously very lucky (or unlucky as one of our daughters didn't want to see one anyway).

I think it came down to Kenya or Tanzania or both when I first chose as I decided South Africa would be a different trip some other time with just my wife - as it's more of a self-drive, both city and safari type trip and easier for 2 than 4. Some of the other countries have less tourist infrastructure and/or were just too expensive (Rwanda/Uganda gorilla trekking). In the end, Kenya seemed to be a bit more stable than Tanzania, was a bit less expensive, and had more flight options for 4 of us in business class, especially post-pandemic. Crossing the border seemed a bit more complicated as well with yellow fever vaccines required and more visa requirements than I felt like dealing with.

lamphs

I really enjoyed this report and will reference it for future planning. I read most of it on my phone, but this is a case where seeing the pics on my notebook are so much better. Safe travels!