Reviewed 22 Mar 2011 by Wayne Rollins
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?
The game drives. Our whole point in going to Africa was seeing wildlife close up, and it was abundant. Both the Porini Camps on their private conservancies, and the Masai Mara National Preserve offered spectacular game viewing. We couldn't have asked for more.
2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?
Concentrate in the Mara area. Other guests at our camps had travelled to Amboseli and other areas, and it's a shame to spend entire days traveling between camps that could be spent viewing animals. Everything that you hope to see is resident in the Mara. You won't be bored there.
3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes. The Masai guides and camp staff were clearly financially comfortable with the money they receive from tips. Also, one need only look at the school building near the hardscrabble villages to see the benefits that have come from designating the conservancy lands.
4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?
Excellent! All of the details were taken care of seamlessly, and it was exactly the sort of vacation we'd hoped for when we started looking for a trip to Africa.
Reviewed 16 Aug 2010 by Paul Edelson
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?
Karen Cottages a great place to unwind. Wonderful food and accommodations and a picturesque location. Our stay at Mara Porini was all that we could have asked for. Imagine having a smile on my face for four days...I didn't think it was still possible.
2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?
Not inexpensive, but an excellent value.
3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes. Mutual understanding of cultural differences.
4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?
I did not know what to expect - first trip to Africa - so if the purpose of travel is to broaden one's perspective and provide for memorable activities, this trip was among my best.
Reviewed 30 Jun 2009 by Chris Hurford
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?
Three moments will stick with us forever - racing to the scene of a lion kill of a baby giraffe that happened minutes before, seeing an elusive leopard after a perfect day in the mara, and being invited into the home of a masai chief's son.
2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?
Only go with this operator, or its sister companies that have tented camps within the Masai conservancies (and which are run by the Masai), rather than the bigger hotel-like lodges based in the Mara. We went to Mara Porini and Porini Lion camps. Excellently managed, food great, great guides and drivers (Simon, Robert, Jared and Ken!) Jared and Ken in particular seemed to have a personal interest in what we saw and how we understood things - which gave my 14 year old daughter a life-changing trip. Please thank them!
3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Absolutely. This is the one unique and hugely impressive feature of this operator that means it stands above the others (for us at least). I am an aid and development worker, so know about projects that aim to reconcile the needs of local people, of the environment, and of foreigners. This truly seems to be a viable and sustainable win-win solution to the needs to protect the wildlife of the Mara with its human populations.
4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?
Exceptional. Especially given the ethos (above), the professionalism but relaxed friendliness of the Masai and the camp managers, and a sensitive, cultural approach to safaris. And we saw every animal we wanted to see - in abundance!
Reviewed 01 Dec 2008 by Louise Race
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?
How can I choose the most memorable moment? Listening to two lions roaring in the bush as the sun went down, a close and solitary encounter with a cheetah and her three cubs, or even watching hyenas and vultures compete with ferocious obsession over a lion-kill buffalo corpse - these were all unforgettable.
2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?
Forget the credit-crunch and go ahead and book it! They can take away your savings, your stocks, your pension, your house - but they can't take away your memories!
3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Now more than ever, this vacation benefits local people, who are feeling the absence of tourists. This is one way of supporting the local economy without causing great stress to the environment: staying in a solar-powered tented camp, without pool, the real luxury is provided by the closeness to nature, such as waking to the sound of monkeys playing on the roof of our tent.
4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?
Following our stay at the Porini Mara camp in the Maasai Mara, we went down to Kizingo in Lamu, which is run in similarly environmentally-conscious way, with a lot of effort put into the preservation of turtles. Both stages of the vacation were superb.
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