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Holiday to Kenya & Tanzania
Emily Crawford, 17th July 2024We had a great time exploring two parts of Africa: Kenya and Zanzibar! It was wonderful to have two distinct parts to our trip: safari and beach. We loved Kenya. Everyone we met was very nice and friendly. We found Zanzibar to be a bit difficult. Everything was far away, Stone Town was chaotic, and the people were not as friendly. It was also very difficult to get home from Zanzibar. In hindsight, we wish we had stayed in Kenya and just gone to the shore there.
Accommodation Visited
Ol Seki Hemingways Mara
“This place is amazing. The details were impeccable! We stayed in the newly opened Chui family tent. The views were amazing. We ate our dinners to the sounds of lions and watched giraffes walking to the river during the day. We couldn’t have asked for better staff or accommodations. We absolutely loved it! Lastly, we underestimated what it meant to be staying in the Naboisho Reserve. Being allowed off of the main roads in the jeeps gave us access to very close animal encounters. All safari drives were excellent!”
The Residence Zanzibar
“The property at The Residence is absolutely beautiful. Riding bikes around the property with lots of monkeys was fun, and the main pool area was also stunning.
However, we have mixed feelings about this property. We didn’t love the location, as it was very far south on the island, far from other tourist attractions. We felt slightly isolated at this resort, which seemed to encourage us to stay and spend money on their food and organized tours only. We booked our own fishing and snorkeling day out in Paje, and the hotel staff had many questions about how we made those arrangements. We found the hotel prices to be very high— for example, a mojito at The Residence was $17, while in Paje, it was $5. The beach at The Residence was not nice; we didn’t see anyone swimming, and there was a lot of seaweed. This area is not as beautiful as the beaches in Paje. We were surprised to see trash and seaweed all over the property’s beach. We wished we had stayed in a more central location with more options for walking and doing our own thing. We felt very stuck at this resort.
At times, we didn’t feel like this was a 5-star property. The lights and the phone were not working when we arrived, the wrong bike was delivered, and we had to ask multiple times for a new bike. Service at meals was slow, and housekeeping didn’t clean our room until 4 p.m. among other issues.”
Staff Review
“Karen was great. We thought the service and her attention to detail was great.”
