Kenya safari/beach tips!

[LovelyMonster]

Hi DH and I are about to plan a well deserved trip to Kenya. We are hoping to spend 14 days away, spending 3-4 on safari and the rest of the time relaxing at a beach. Does anyone have any tips on what are the best beaches to look into or any good experiences with hotels (or safaris)? We are looking at middle of the range. There seem to be so many options!!!! Any advise welcome!

oops i mean advice..

Do treetops if you can for one night it is really special.
We enjoyed the masai mara too.
Didnt enjoy the beach resort that much as it was too dangerous to go outside of the hotel grounds at the time.(1997)

We went for about fifteen nights, three of which were spent on safari, the rest on the beach.

Went with Kuoni, through their s star brochure. Stayed at the Voyager resort. Very good value for money, would very much recommend!

3 star

It is a while since I have been to kenya, but I used to live there until 4 years ago.

I would say that any Serena chain hotels are worth going to - always had a great experience with them.

When we were there, the best safari we had was a Lewa - a tented camp near to Mount kenya.

We also had a great time at Tsavo - again staying in a Serena camp at Kilaguni - it was really lovely.

We stayed in a beach resort near Mombasa (I think it was called Bamburi Beach). TBH it was horrible. All resorts were fenced off from the locals which I hated. Then the locals would clamour at the fence trying to sell goods and it felt so disrespectful. The food was horrible and everyone got ill. It totally put me off package holidays (it was my first and last if you don't count specialist SCUBA holidays).

We did a safari and Tsavo East which was an 8 hour car journey on teh worst road in the world. I wish we had gone to the Serengeti which is meant to be spectacular.

The one nice part of teh holiday was a two day trip to an area called Shimba Hills which had some safari wildlife and was stunning.

I have heard Lamu(sp?) and the islands are meant to be lovely.

Oh yes, can'y say i'd recommend the beach part, as the couple of times I was down on the coast it was too dangerous to be outside the hotel.

however, Breezes Beach Club would prob be good (owned by the same people as a compund in Nairobi that I knew well) but prob not mid-range price tbh.

we did this for our honeymoon, it was lovely, we went with kuoni adn stayed on the coast near mombasa then went into tsavo for 3 nights - 9 years ago now!

I meant to finish on a more positive note by saying we did safari and beach in Mozambique wich was stunning and adventurous and the best holiday ever.

The roads are appalling. If possible, i would fly to the resorts. we flew to the Mara from nairobi (and also drove once - was hideous), and also to Samburu (towards the end of our time there samburu was a bit off-limits due to violence, but might be ok again). we drove to mount kenya, and the road wasn't too bad.

The road to Tsavo is really bad, though...

voyagerresort

yes, road to tsavo appalling!!

oh yes remeber the roads, we did a week on safari, the journey from one reserve to another was awful but was worth it for the scenery. IIRC we did 2 nights at masai, one at Lake Navaisha, one at treetops and one at Samburu. It was all fab. We then stayed at a hotle called 'Whitesands' ( I think) near Mombassa for a week, I was sick for the first 3 days, DH for the last 3 days.
Could you spend the beach bit in the seychelles instead?

oh yes, lake naivasha lovely too - fab tented camp there called Crater Lake - beauttiful with loads of flamingoes - fantastic sight when they all take off.

I would say that treetops is overpriced (especially for tourists) but it does have the reputation...

We went to the

Indian Ocean Beach Club on Diani beach for our honeymoon. It was 5 star and fantastic. Included in the fortnight was an overnight safari trip to Shimba Hills

Very very highly recommended.

Fab advice ladies thanks so much! Have also had some advice from a friend who had her honeymoon in zanzibar so may consider that too. We had our honeymoon in thailand so if anyone needs any tips no probs!