In February 2025, the Nelson Lilly's set out on our next big adventure- an African Safari! This trip was very different from our previous adventures in that we would be less active (more driving, less walking and biking), would use drivers and a (wonderful, local to Kenya, female owned) travel agency rather than DIY and would be a new continent for all but me (I've been lucky enough to go to Ghana, Egypt, Morocco and Mauritania the past). However the love for and immersion in nature would be the same as would be our sense of adventure and go with the flow spirit!
I felt very grateful to stumble upon
Excel Getaways travel through a Facebook group I'm a member of called Mama Docs Travel. It is a small, Kenyan female owned (Nancy is great!) agency that specializes in Kenya travel. Because it's small there aren't a ton of online reviews- but the families I talked to had an amazing time so I felt comfortable. Because it's locally owned, it's much cheaper than American or European run agencies. Don't think twice about using Excel. I unequivocally recommend! I messaged the owner, Nancy, about my desire for a roughly two week safari and my budget and she promptly gave me an itinerary (I did zero research on camps, or trip details prior to our initial communication). I then researched the itinerary, decided I'd rather stay longer at 3 camps rather than shorter at 4, and decided I'd rather fly to shorten travel time than drive most days so modified the itinerary to our final plan of
Arrival night in Nairobi- Tamarind Tree Hotel
3 nights in Samburu National Park at Elephant Bedroom Camp
3 nights in Ol Pejeta Conservancy at Serena Sweetwaters Resort
3 nights in Masai Mara National Reserve at Tipilikwani Camp
1 night in Nairobi prior to late night departure for home (Tamarind)
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| Pool at the Tamarind Tree Hotel |
Please click on the hyperlinks for blog posts about each camp. I will go into detail on what I recommend, would do differently, etc. This post will be general thoughts, tips, tricks on how to think about and plan for your Kenyan safari adventure!
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| No zoom-he's that close |
First of all, why Kenya? There are many countries one could visit for a safari, probably most popular are Tanzania, Botswana, S Africa and Kenya though there certainly are others and one should be careful to not lump the many diverse African nations into the catchall term of the continent "Africa". My choice was simply and quickly made. I previously thought an African safari was out of reach for our family based on our young children (11, 7 and 2 at the time of travel) and cost (I had seen quotes of 1K/person/day, WHAT??). My decision to go to Kenya was my decision to use
Excel Getaways- two families of young kids posted how great their experiences was and I was sold. They expressed how friendly the Kenyan people were, and how kid loving, how open the camps were to children and BAM sold. The price tag fit, so I was in. I didn't research anywhere else. As an aside, I plan to go to Rwanda or Uganda to hike to the mountain gorillas when I am 50/Z is 15. I'd also love to go to South Africa to hike and frankly a thousand other places in Africa. But the key is to start somewhere. So for our family right now, Kenya! It was a great choice.
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We flew to JKF then direct to Nairobi - about a 14 hour flight. Was easy, no problem. Economy is how we roll (or fly). Simple drive to the hotel (driver picked us up). We did bring carseats for city/highway driving- highly recommend the WAYB Pico foldable high back 5 point booster, fit easily in the overhead compartment of even the small shuttle flight b/t NYC and Chicago so we were able to fly our usual carry on only. Throw the diapers and wipes in the carseat bag. Perfection.
Usually, on big time change trips, I reserve the first two days for jet lag recovery before starting the main events, particularly if the main event requires the kids to exert energy hiking (New Zealand, Switzerland) or biking (Sweden). But I didn't know how we would occupy ourselves in a hotel in Nairobi where it's not so easy to walk to a playground or spontaneously find things to do without a driver or any knowledge of the area. So I opted to push forward with us getting up early the next day to head the airport for our first bush plane to our first camp. Ollie (7) felt the brunt of this decision getting a bit plane sick and having a rough rough two hour ride. Both Zooey (11) and Ollie (7) had a rough time the first couple days- they were just utterly exhausted. That's not to say they didn't enjoy it. If I ask them now all the remember are the elephants one foot from our tent porch, the monkeys, the impala in camp, the cheetahs, the warthogs, etc, etc. And they kept themselves together perfectly well in terms of politeness, going with the flow etc. But it was hard to watch them struggle and I caved into more screen time than I typically would. Would I do it differently and fly to the middle east and spend a couple nights in Dubai to adjust? Idk, travel days are the pits and there's a lot to be said for just being at your destination. So I think with a flexible mind set and a grown up willing to stay back when kids just must nap or sleep, going straight through is the way to do it.
Fynnie, 2, had no trouble. He slept in the carrier when he needed to. He didn't have trouble being woken up for game drives at any time of day. He was the easiest one.
I repeat, the two year old had the easiest time. I no longer believe the prevailing doctrine that kids are hardest to travel with b/t walking and 3 yo. Not mine. He's now been to 4 continents. He's a joy- they all are. My advice- just go, I don't care the age!
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| Must noise cancel!! |
A two hour bush flight and a 40 minute drive (all logistics fully handled and super easy) later (with animal sightings along the way, omg we were so excited!!!!), we were at our first camp, the Elephant Bedroom Camp in Samburu National Park. We all loved this camp and this park. This camp was an upgrade due to availability changes during the time Nancy and I were going back and forth on itinerary. Everything happens for a reason, and damn this place was AMAZING!!! If you can afford this place, DO IT!! Frankly all 3 places we stayed were WAY nicer than we needed them to be. Thick canvas tents with comfy beds, full bathrooms with warm running water (warmer as the day goes on), entirely too incredible food with fancy place settings (3 forks, yikes) and too generous servings, pools at each place. Three nights was perfect for this location.
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| WAYB! |
We then set off on a very smooth 3 hour drive from Samburu National Park to Ol Pejeta. I went back and forth on driving between camps vs flying between camps mostly thinking about safety but also convenience and not wanting to waste in country time in transit. We settled on 3 bush flights and then this one driving day. Perfect balance for us. I didn't want to miss out on driving entirely because I wanted us to see the sights of rural and small town Kenya. Once out of the park, this drive was very smooth on a very well maintained highway. I was glad we had our WAYB high back booster 5 lb harness carseats both for safety and for ability to nap for our 2 and 7 year olds. I felt okay with the rest of us in lap belts. (I'm pretty safety conscious.)
We then spent 3 nights at Serena Sweetwaters Resort in Ol Pejeta Conservancy. I recommend this lovely resort as well. Samburu was desert, and Ol Pejeta was more lush, more savannah. This resulted in large herds of animals, so many animals of different species together! It was amazing! Definitely a lovely addition to the Samburu time and in retrospect I loved doing it exactly like this, in this order. Instead of elephants literally walking up to our porch, our plunge pool, our meal spot, we instead were treated to an incredible watering hole just steps from our porch with a huge diversity and number of animals.
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| Ol Peseta watering hole |
We then moved on to 3 nights in the Maasai Mara at the Tipilikwani Camp. Flying into the Mara was INCREDIBLE! Despite some air sickness on my part, I wouldn't trade landing on FOUR different airstrips in the Mara including our destination. The airstrips were literally strips of dirt in the middle of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. As we flew in/out, we saw elephants walking through the grasslands, Massai herding their goats and a zebra run across the runway as we were taking off! Incredible! I wouldn't necessarily recommend Tipilikwani - or more accurately, I'm wondering if there is someplace else worth trying. I'll go into detail in my post dedicated to this part of the trip. I do think the Mara is worth a visit though two nights might have been enough. Overall the safari part might have been 1 day too long for all of us.
We then flew from the Mara back to Nairobi and spent the afternoon at the pool and bathing at the Tamarind Tree Hotel-we were so dirty! While there was always running water available we bathed only a few times while in the bush and brought only 2 outfits so our clothes were pretty ripe. Was good to shower off and put on our clean travel day clothes!
Our last day was a bit too full and I'd advise planning this differently if there's an option. Our flight was at 11:30 pm. I don't remember but I have to assume we either didn't have another option or the other option was insanely more expensive, but ugh I think this late leave made jet lag super rough. We got up early (probably also a mistake) and did a final safari drive in Nairobi National Park (could skip), then to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage (recommend), a long fancy lunch, the Giraffe Center (definitely skip), and spent 7 hours in the airport before our flight. Flight back was easy through JFK and we are amazingly lucky that my parents picked us up at ORD and helped feed, bathe and sleep the youngest kiddos!!
Challenges/Things to Consider
--Malaria- we all took malarone. I thought this would be harder than it was. I thought we'd need to crush the pills or sneak them in a spoonful of apple sauce (thereby have to pack apple sauce). After a failed attempt at crushing (too bitter), Ollie (7) simply said "mom, can I just swallow this with water?" and just like that Ollie and Zooey swallow pills now. Fynn was a bit more challenging but easy enough to sneak it in a tasty treat like pudding. We were careful not to take these pills prior to flights or long drives cuz they did seem to cause some nausea and we did have a nausea/puking in flight incident.
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| All our gear, family of 5, two weeks |
--Yellow Fever- I was already vaccinated, the rest of them got this shot. It's a shot, it's done now. It lasts a lifetime and should happen before age 65 anyway so good they have it in them.
--Motion Sickness- this was a problem for 3 of us at various times. Kids dramamine worked fine (for grown ups too) as did timing out the malarone not right before travel and with food.
--Car seats- you need to use carseats that are safe with lap belt only- and don't expect all the lap belts to work. We were fine- always at least 3 working lap belts in the vehicles we needed them in. Highly rec WAYB Pico which folds up into a backpack super easy. We did not use seatbelts/car seats on game drives but would have if we had an infant- or baby wear would work too.
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| Expensive nap |
--Bush planes: felt very safe- conditions are easy for flying. I did talk to my tour company, as well as a handful of Kenyan Americans about this. There are high safety standards for these tourist toting bush planes- an accident decimates their economy. And with relatively easy conditions flying onto flat runways, this is not as dangerous as say an Alaskan glacier landing or a Hawaiian helicopter tour. Bring noise cancelling headphones for all!
--Carry on only is absolutely key for this trip. Pack light. I did bring all our diapers and wipes and very limited GF snacks just in case but we didn't even use up my supply- food was plentiful.
--Cash- investigate and plan out your tips in advance - then bring more than you think you need. Our money goes far, seems the right thing to spread it around directly to individuals who are helping us. We bought one tiny souvenir each but tipped like it was going out of style.
--Schedule- this was the biggest challenge of the trip, even once jet lag had passed. Safari camp life has a certain rhythm to it- dawn (6 am) and dusk (4 pm) game drives, lunch at 1:00 pm, 7- 7:30 earliest dinner start time, with lots of free time during the middle of the day. This doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for sleeping in or going to bed early and my older two are not nappers. So they were chronically sleep deprived and just a little hungry. The hungry was probably good for them- we brought minimal snacks and were basically keeping those in case we couldn't find gluten free options for Z (turned out to not be a problem). It was great practice for them to just be a little hungry and make do until lunch time. Dinners were a little painful for all of us- we were ready for bed- but not the end of the world and good practice in manners even when you don't feel like it!
Rewards/Misconceptions:
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| Elephants from the bush flight, amazing! |
--So kid friendly. Aside from the food timing and the fact that animals are inconveniently most active at dawn and dusk, this is an ideal trip for kids! The game drives are super fun and bumpy on dirt roads and sometimes through washes, with animal sightings ALL THE TIME. Really minimal boredom and when bored it was really more tired and they would then fall asleep. The mid day free play time was great and the availability of a pool at every camp made for ready entertainment. The staff were incredibly wonderful with the kids and with us. We got to know the staff quickly- asking about their kids ad family life is very natural when they are asking about yours.
--Our youngest did the best. People love to say wait to travel. Wait until the kids are older or grown or some other random timepoint. I could not more strongly disagree. If you have the money to, go now. NOW. Tomorrow is not promised. The nonsense about kids being the most challenging to travel with as toddlers- nonsense that I myself once touted- is just not true. It's totally kid and trip dependent. This trip, Fynn aged 2.5 was the easiest. Jet lag was no problem for him, he adapted quickly, he slept anywhere and he didn't miss a single game drive. Zooey (11), who is an entirely easy going, adaptive travel had the hardest time and we modified to help her because I felt I was torturing her- she was just so tired. After about 3 days, everyone was doing fine, but the chronic fatigue definitely affected Z the most- not what one would expect on paper.
--Food/water a non issue. The food was varied, plentiful and we had NO trouble finding gluten free food everywhere we went. All camps and our safari guides provided filtered water.
--Bugs: next to none. Z got three bites. No one else had any. I didn't see any biting insects. It was dry season.
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| Sunrise |
--Cost: Out initial quote for an all driving itinerary, 12 days, 4 camps was 11K. I then changed it to involve 3 bush flights to save time driving, chose 3 camps so could be at each 3 nights and upgraded to Elephant Bedroom Camp (more expensive, she provided cheaper options but I chose Elephant after looking at reviews) totaling country was around 18K. Booked flights separately ($800 on Kenya Airways, economy). We tipped incredibly generously so that was a chunk of change but we went over the top and you could chose more moderate tips. Pre tip 22K for two weeks. You can easily easily easily spent that much for a family of 5 at Disney (lord help you if you go to Disney for two week), or in Hawaii, or in New Zealand or just about anywhere involving flights. It's real money, no doubt, and boy am I grateful that I have it to spend. But a destination seriously worth considering.
If you have young kids and an Africa safari is of interest to you, go to Kenya. This year, next year, ASAP! Do your first safari so you can start planning your second:)
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