Anyone recommend a beach/safari holiday in Kenya?

[OurLadyOfPerpetualSupper]

I'm doing that thing of going round in circles on t'interweb - I think I've found something good and check on Trip Advisor only to find that the 150th review says 'a waiter punched my wife in the face' (thankyou Michael McIntyre).

Or a resort sounds idyllic and someone says it's best for couples.

We'd like to stay in a decent hotel/beach resort suitable for older children (9, 12 and 15), and also do a safari for a few nights; any suggestions from recent travellers would be much appreciated.

(Would also be thrilled not to have to spend the £12k+ most searches seem to come up with.)
Tia.

?

Resurrecting hopefully?

We went to
Indian Ocean Beach Club

Twas fab and the package includes swapping a night there, for one at their safari lodge Shimba Hills

We found that this was just right for us, as we did both the twilight safari thing, plus the following morning, the early morning safari.

Saw loads, highly recommend it, particularly as the Indian Ocean Beach Club was so lovely too (think 5 course dinners every night ).

Thanks so much for that - have looked briefly and it looks gorgeous! Hadn't come across that one either.

May I ask:
Which company did you go with?
Did you book the safari locally or at home along with the holiday?
Is one night's safari enough?
Was it a long drive to get to Shimba?
Would teenagers enjoy it?
Oh, and what about the clientele dress code?

Looking forward to having a good browse later.

Just looked at Thomas Cook and it's fully booked. Narrows the field down a bit I suppose.

I got it from

Tropical Places

They do very good prices usually.

Didn't need to arrange the Shimba Trip until we got there. The hotel rep sorted that out for us. We were there on our honeymoon, but we made friends with some other people who had older teenagers with them and they (the teenagers) really loved it.

Sorry, can't remember how far it was to get to Shimba Hills. Don't think it was too far though, as we could have gone on other mini safaris arranged through the hotel, and we chose not to, because they involved too much travelling time. Our mini trip was perfect, just enough to have that Safari experience, without having to commit too much of the holiday to it.

Shimba Hills itself is built round a watering hole, so as soon as we arrived there we saw elephants amongst the trees and bush babies came down and sat on the railings near where we were eating. It was amazing!

Tropical Places don't seem to have that hotel on their website any more.
I also tried Direct Line and Hayes and Jarvis but no luck there either.
Looks like lots of other people think it looks lovely as well!
I think I remember seeing somewhere that Shimba is reasonably clue to Diani, so I'll try looking for somewhere else there.
Thanks for all your help.

That's a shame. Hope you manage to sort out what you want.

Good luck!

Thanks both - we booked yesterday with Nielson to go to their beach club at Kilifi.

So excited as this was what we wanted to do in the first place but they said they were booked.

Then we begged them again and some clever person managed to co-ordinate the flights.

Hurrah!

I got married at Shimba Hills about 11.5 years ago. It was lovely

lucky you , we wanted to go to neilson's beach club in kenya but then noticed the kids clubs do not start until 8 yrs and our youngest is 5 . i knew what would happen....dh would be off diving, dd1 would be off doing stuff with club and i would see my relax on beach holiday evaporate as i entertained dd2 all day and she would not be happy about not doing all the stuff her sis is doing!!! so we are going to one of their resorts in turkey. we wanted to go the first 2 weeks in july and all the resorts in greece were full, we got the last 2 interconnecting rooms in turket and couldn't get seats on the manchester filghts so have to go at ungodly hr from gatwick ...and i htoguht there was a recession. these hols are not cheap .

lucky you , we wanted to go to neilson's beach club in kenya but then noticed the kids clubs do not start until 8 yrs and our youngest is 5 . i knew what would happen....dh would be off diving, dd1 would be off doing stuff with club and i would see my relax on beach holiday evaporate as i entertained dd2 all day and she would not be happy about not doing all the stuff her sis is doing!!! so we are going to one of their resorts in turkey. we wanted to go the first 2 weeks in july and all the resorts in greece were full, we got the last 2 interconnecting rooms in turket and couldn't get seats on the manchester filghts so have to go at ungodly hr from gatwick ...and i htoguht there was a recession. these hols are not cheap .

No, they're not cheap but they're good value as they're the only hols I've ever been on where I come home feeling completely relaxed and rested.

This will be the first beach-based stay we've done with them since DS1 was 17 mo (13 years ago).

You'll have a great time in Turkey I'm sure.

We have found a great deal with Somak holidays (better than RealAfrica, Virgin, Kuoni & many others we went to as budget was set)