4-Days Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru Park Safari Tour - Joining Group Kenya Tour

We picked Wild Race Africa Safari Tours due to the overall very good reviews on Tripadvisor and Safaribookings and were not disappointed. Simon was quick to reply, and arranging/negotiating the tour from home wasn't a problem. When we started the tour, we were picked up by a driver and brought to their office in Nairobi for the payment. The day before we noticed that our cards have a daily withdrawal limit, and Simon arranged that the driver brings us to an ATM first. That worked without problem and we managed to pick up the full amount in KES. When we arrived at the office, there seemed to be some miscommunication, since the office was closed, but the driver eventually reached Simon, we paid what was agreed beforehand, and were brought to the tour van. Our driver John took us to Masai Mara (there were 3 other tourists in the car besides us), dropped us off at the lodge and then picked us up again in the evening for a game drive. On the next day we would have had a full-day game drive, but that had to be canceled for us, since I got sick. We let Simon know via Whatsapp and agreed that we would stay one extra night in the lodge, and do the game drive with another group the next day. This extra night in the Mara Chui lodge + park fees cost $150 per person. The lodge staff was very helpful and friendly and even upgraded us to a better type of house for that extra night. The next day we managed to do the game drive with another group in a Landcruiser. Even though the tire broke twice, we managed to see many animals over the whole day! After that we went to Lake Nakuru (Lake Nakuru Lodge). The driver from the whole-day game drive ended up bringing us to somewhere halfway to Nairobi where we had lunch, after which another driver (Alex) picked us up. In that case we were essentially upgraded to a private tour, as there were no other passengers. Alex showed us the Lake Nakuru NP and explained us very much about the animals, and about life in Kenya in general. Alex was very attentive and made a real effort to find all the animals (rhinos, leopards, lions especially). That was all very interesting! Alex drove us to the airport and helped us buy our flight onwards at the counter. Overall, we can definitely recommend Wild Race as a tour operator.

The 4 Day trip turned out to be very exiting and rewarding. Little too exiting the first night when the van got stuck in the mud for 6 hours and the hyenas came with the darkness. But our hero guide Mr Obama (yes, related and one of very few gold-ranked guides) managed to deal with local Maasai and a tractor pulled us out. The next day we saw more wild life than any other group staying at the lodge thanks to Obama’s knowledge and contact network. The only missing rhino keeping us from a full big five during first day was spotted in Lake Nakuru the day after leaving the Mara. We can highly recommend Obama’s guiding services.

There are a lot of options out there to go on a Masai Mara Safari. Starting from some very low prices and up to whatever your pocket can afford. We didn't have a high budget , but we still wanted some decent accommodation alongside a good safari experience. Fortunately, Simon did lived up to our exceptions. From our safari experice, we learnt that it doesn't matter how much money you spend. What matters the most is the driver. An experienced driver with love for the wildlife and savannah will make all the difference. We were lucky to have such a driver. Hands down to Mato, he is the best. Now let's go with the downsides of our experience. Firstly you need to know what you want to get from our safari and expressly ask for it. We have to be very careful on all the details and need to make sure everything is well agreed upon and confirmed. Otherwise they will likely cut corners for things you would otherwise take for granted. But if you have a specific request they will give their best to satisfy it. For example, we agreed to be no more than 8 people in a van, each with window seats. Throughout our journey, this number varied from 9 to 11. During our safari, indeed, everyone had an window seat and we saw the animals without an issue. We paid by bank transfer without any guarantees that we will get anything when we get to Kenya. But Simon, is, largely speaking, a man of his word. As for the accommodation, compared to other safari providers, they offer excellent accommodation for the price you pay. We had the medium price package, but the accommodation conditions were excellent. In Masai mara we stayed at Mara Chui camp.They have amazing breakfast, great rooms and they have non-stop running hot water and electricity, which is uncommon among budget accommodations. At Lake Nakuru we stayed at Lake Nakuru Lodge which gives you a feeling of a high class accommodation. We definitely enjoyed our experience and if we had to pick again, we would definitely choose Simon and his team.