Interesting city, defintely an up and coming city. Stayed at the Crowne Plaza (give it a miss) and had two days around the Karen area, which is the posh side of town. Went to the elephant orphanage, which is a great experiance, but be sure to go between 11-12, it's the only time you'll see the elephants. Had nice cab drivers, although the one ripped us off so I won't recommend him, but try Fred K Chege +254 722 700 500 (f1chege@yahoo.com), he came recommended by our safari guide and has been used by the family for years, so trustworthy guy. Paid him about $50 (4000shl) for about 4/5 hours of his time.

The roads aren't great and try avoid driving at night, the driving seems to be worse.

Really friendly people, but don't be shy to offer half the price on anything you get offerred, because it's one big tourist trap!

I just got back from a trip to Kenya and Tanzania that I booked through Adventure Panorama Safaris.

I would highly recommend Adventure Panorama Safaris. They were extremely professional throughout my trip. Prior to leaving Nickson Ogilo was very prompt and helpful in answering my e-mails and advising me on what I would need for the tour.

I booked a 12 day tour of the Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru, Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire. I was also in Nairobi for three nights staying at Country Lodge which was great.

The food and accommodations throughout the tour were fantastic. I stayed in a tented campsite in the Mara, a budget hotel in Nakuru and lodges in Tanzania. The lodges had amazing views and were very comfortable and luxurious.

My tour guides in both Kenya and Tanzania were excellent. Both had around 20 years of experience and were extremely knowledgeable about the animals and local culture. They really went out of their way to make sure my group had a good time. We saw so many animals, the highlights being lions, cheetahs and a leopard.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Adventure Panorama Safaris. My only regret was not climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. I will definitely be contacting Nickson to arrange this for me in the future!

This is actually a review of my experience with the Adventure Panorama Safaris - a tour company based in Nairobi who arranged a safari tour for us to the Masaai Mara.

First, I want to state that our requirement was for a budget safari with places that were clean and of course we still wanted to have great game viewing.

We were a bit hesitant with who to go with as there weren’t many reviews at the time we went (April 2010) for budget safaris. We eventually decided to go with Adventure Panorama Safaris and were glad we did.

We met with Nickson Ogilo at the airport. He was there on time and transported us to our hotel Parkside. It was clean and there were some good fast food restaurants open directly opposite the hotel although we were advised not to walk about late at night.

The following morning we were transported to the Masaai Mara. We stopped along the way to view the Great Rift Valley (beautiful sight).

We then reached our camp. It was clean and the food was good (we had special requirements as well and these were catered for).

The one interesting thing about the camp was that the lights went totally off at night (it was at about 9pm if my memory serves me correct) and you needed to be sure you did everything you needed to by then. However we were told of this on arrival so it was not an issue.

The following two days we had some excellent game viewing experiences. We were joined together with some other tourists (about 6 of us in total – which was very comfortable). I joked with Nickson on meeting with him that a leopard was a fake animal – a marketing tactic designed to get tourists to come on to these safaris as I had never seen one in many years of going to game parks.

Well, you can imagine my delight when we did get to see a leopard the second day. The Masaai Mara has the most brilliant game viewing experiences (we saw a cheetah feeding as well as two lionesses on the hunt).

After two great days of game viewing we were transported back to Nairobi. The roads are really bad but our driver was quite entertaining. We also didn’t feel unsafe although we bounced around a lot.

So in conclusion I would really recommend Nickson and Adventure Panorama Safaris for a great budget safari.

P.S. Nickson dropped me an email after the whole trip titled "Now you know a LEOPARD exists"

I love Kenya and would recommend anyone here. Kenya is one of the leading tourism destinations in Africa. Kenya is a small country with marvelous scenery.

1. THE MAASAI MARA
Here there is the beautiful view of wild animals of every kind from the master of the jungle the lions, antelopes, gazelles monkeys jumping from tree to tree, snakes of different types and creeping animals and insects.
You can have the pleasure of watching how these animals survive in the wild by watching nature of “survival for the fittest” with your own eyes.

THE MAASAI COMMUNITY
These is a very unique community in Kenya that have refused to embrace change, we are in the 21st century but they still make their houses using thatched grass and cow dung, they drink animal blood and sometimes eat raw meat. They still have their cultural practices that include a young boy fighting with a lion to be termed as a man in that community and they also circumcise their females.
They Maasai community does not allow women to make any decisions concerning matters in the community and that is why The Maasai are a main tourism attraction in Kenya.

2. WILDEBEAST MIGRATION
This was termed as the 7th wonders of the world. By visiting Kenya you will have the pleasure of seeing the migration in person in the Serengeti. Wildebeest from the big ones to the young ones crossing a river infested with big vicious crocodiles that attack them as they cross. This is one of the beautiful scenes you can enjoy from just a distance away.

3. THE GREAT RIFTVALLEY
From Nairobi as you travel to your different destinations you have the pleasure of viewing the Great Rift Valley escarpment.
4. KAKAMEGA
This is a town in the western part of Kenya that has a great touristic attraction, The Crying Stone”. The stone oozes water and no one can understand where the water is coming from.

5. MACHAKOS
This is a town in the eastern part of Kenya just one and a half hours from Nairobi whereby there is a place where gravity does not occur. You can try it for yourself and beat Newton’s Law of Gravity.