My FIRST Safari!
Hakuna Matata in Kenya
Throughout my career in travel, both as an advisor for three years, and now at KAI for nearly four, I’ve had the opportunity to travel extensively, particularly throughout Asia and South America. But since my change in role— in the summer of 2020— from focusing on Asia to now repping our entire collection, I hadn’t had the opportunity to go on safari. Until now. Having worked with Dave “Safari” Kartagener for the last four years, my expectations for my first safari were HIGH, like “high as the hot air balloon I rode over the Mara” high.
My high expectations were met, exceeded, wrapped and tied with a bow, and exceeded even more. This trip was already incredibly special as I was visiting three different KAI clients (much more on that later) and traveling with four of my cousins. One of my highlights of the trip was seeing my people experience their first safari and first trip using a DMC and seeing the benefits of what a travel advisor can provide. Surprise dinners? Check. Unexpected Sundowners? You got it. Safari hats and other swag? Love it! Upgrades at every hotel? Obviously!!! We in the travel industry can grow to expect quite a lot, because we know all the dazzle is possible, and seeing it be given to the less expecting is a gift in its own right.
For my first visit to Kenya, I went to Nairobi, the Maasai Mara, Lake Elmenteita, and Amboseli National Park and experienced three different KAI clients: Liberty Africa Safaris DMC, Sarova Hotels & Resorts, and Naibor Camp.
Liberty is the ultimate expert when it comes to tailoring an African experience to exceed your expectations. From the moment we landed we were happy with the quality of vehicle we received, and more importantly how our guide immediately felt like an extended family member. For the next 9 days we considered ourselves The Big 6, my family and our driver-guide Julius. On our way to our first hotel night we were already taught several words in Swahili and given the low down on what to expect for the trip. What we weren’t expecting was to cry nine days later when we had to say goodbye to Julius.
Liberty provided us with a seamless experience in Kenya. We felt safe, happy, and eager for more and more game drives to see all of the wonderful animals.
If you’re unaware of Sarova Hotels then I am pleased to introduce you to the wonderful Kenyan brand of hotels. Sarova has seven properties in Kenya and while on this trip I got to stay at two of them and do a site inspection at a third. One thing that is clear about Sarova properties: The customer service is some of the best customer service I have EVER had. It embodies the world renown Kenyan hospitality.
Sarova Stanley:
The history of Sarova Stanley dates back to 1902 as it is home to Kenya’s first hotel, stock exchange, first postal service and for all of you ‘The Crown’ fans it is where Queen Elizabeth stayed on her famous visit to Kenya when she in fact became the Queen! It is the go-to property for dignitaries alike. My personal highlights include:
Beautiful and historical artwork throughout the hotel
Convenient location right in the heart of Nairobi
The most delicious Thai food at Thai Chi
Sarova Panafric:
Sarova Panafric is in the works of completely refurbishing and redoing all of their rooms and the hotel itself. It offers exquisite artwork throughout the hotel that provides the perfect sense of place utilizing African art and textiles. My highlights include:
Extremely futuristic technology in the rooms that can be controlled via iPhones
They created an “Eve” floor which is for female travelers only
Sarova Mara Game Camp:
The general consensus upon arrival was that we all had died and gone to heaven. Sarova Mara Game Camp is made up of beautiful luxury tents and is home to “Sarova Mara Game Camp Chef’s Organic Garden” a huge garden that produces around 60% of all of the vegetables and fruits that are served at Sarova Mara. It also offers offers fishing, mini golf, kayaking, volleyball all on property. My highlights include:
Amazing customer service. My two cousins don’t eat pork and during our first lunch the chef came to our table to ask if they found something they enjoyed eating
We got to plant a tree! Sarova is driving an initiative to plant trees, and providing guests with an incentive to come back and check on their tree. We named ours TLC after our Toyota Land Cruiser we were using for all of our game drives
Surprise dinners overlooking the Mara - we were asked to go on a “night game drive” on a golf cart and were brought to the most gorgeous dinner setting with our own private chef. For the end of the night they brought over the guitarist and singer for our private show. It was INCREDIBLE.
Naibor was a highlight for us all! Naibor, meaning space in Maasai, is an 11-tented room camp deep in the Mara. It combines some of the best Kenyan hospitality with being completely wild in nature and utilizing the space it has to provide the most tranquil and peaceful setting. At Naibor all of the luxury tents are overlooking River Talek which is filled with hippos, and for a large part of one afternoon we had the best time relaxing, looking at the river and watching the hippos chase baboons. The real beauty of Naibor was how luxurious and comfortable we felt while being completely in the wild. The food, service, views, and experience was definitely one of the most memorable parts of the trip. My highlights included:
Our guide Jacson - he took us out for a game drive and immediately showed us baby hyenas, we got two feet from a lioness, and had an incredible leopard sighting
The most amazing sundowners. I’ve had more gin and tonics on this trip than I’d like to admit and half of them might have been on these sundowners with the most beautiful sunsets we have seen
The cuisine was outstanding. From our packed lunches, to breakfast sandwiches in the bush, to garlic steak, it was incredible.
Other highlights from the trip included:
A visit to the Giraffe Center in Nairobi - we got to pet, feed and be licked by giraffes. The giraffes at the Giraffe Center are the same exact giraffes that are at Giraffe Manor, so if clients can’t make it to the Manor this is an exceptional opton
Lunch at the Karen Blixen Coffee Garden Restaurant in Nairobi - the food is great but the real winner is the dawa’s, a delicious Kenyan cocktail made up of vodka, honey, brown sugar and lime
A hot air balloon ride in the Mara! Words can’t do it justice - here is a highlight reel I made from the experience.
Learning about the many, many different types of antelope in the Mara. Ranging from the small dik dik to the massive eland.
Watching the elephants be covered in mud up to their ears at Amboseli National Park
Baby hyenas! I feel like Lion King gave hyenas a bad wrap, but they’re opportunistic creatures and I couldn't help but love them
Every.Single.Cat.Sighting - I cannot stress this enough! Doesn’t matter if it was a cheetah or a lion pride of 12, every single cat sighting was exhilarating.
All in all, this was a life changing trip and it has set the stage for all safaris (and there will be many more safaris!) to come. There’s no real way to describe how incredible it is to be so close to these beautiful, lethal and many times endangered animals. We all left Kenya feeling incredibly grateful to have experienced so much of life’s beauty.
And as our friends from Liberty said, “You can take the girl out of Africa, but you can’t take Africa out of the girl.”
If you have any questions on Kenya, Liberty Africa Safaris, Sarova Hotels & Resorts or Naibor Camp please feel free to reach out to me at jessica@kainyc.com.
