Classic Luxury 4 X 4 Masai Mara Safari

My husband booked this trip as a surprise birthday present for me so I had no idea what to expect when I got onto the plane to Nairobi. In the morning Dixon our guide picked us up from the hotel to begin our adventure. We opted for a 4x4 private tour and was worth every penny! Dixon was very knowledgeable about all the animals and I asked alot of questions. He spoke very good English and was a brilliant driver! The roads are very bumpy going at times but Dixon made sure we were comfortable the whole time. The drives between the two parks was quiet long but the hours flew by as you drove through the little villages and children running up to say hi. I wish I had taken sweets for them! Dixon would always give more information about the villages too. The game drives were out of this world! We have never seen so many different types of animal's and we were so lucky to see the big 5 in just 3 days. The tour company also helped organise a sunrise hot air balloon ride which honestly was out of this world beautiful. Yes it was a very very early start but believe me if you can go on one please do we saw all 3 cats from the balloon plus elephants, giraffes, zebras plus much more, topped off with a nice champagne breakfast. The two camps we stayed at, were exactly what we wanted. We are used to camping all over the world so this was luxury for us, we even had enough sun and time between drives to enjoy a swim and relax by the pool. The Loyk camp was defiently my favourite camp, stunning location and the staff were so friendly and very accommodating to any food intolerances (I am gluten free) or if your vegetarian etc. There is so much to say about our trip with memories for a life time! If you are thinking about a company to use, we would 100% recommend classic journey's for safari tours. We are already planning our next trip with them to Tanzania.

Our interaction with Classic journeys began atleast 4 months before the trip. They were prompt and extremely accommodating of what we wanted to do on our trip to Kenya. We altered our itinerary ateast 12 times but Classic was patient & offered us the best rates (we were speaking to 4 other tour operators). We did Masai Mara & Diani beach, Mombasa for 8 days in total. Elvis Ayieko was our manager & managed our trip beautifully. The day we landed in Nairobi, we were picked up by our tour guide who helped us load our bags & with local sim cards. The Eka hotel was lovely as the location was perfect and room was done up for our honeymoon. The next day we left for our road trip to Masai Mara in our private jeep with our tour guide. He was fun loving and enthusiastic. Entertained us with stories & history of Kenya. We stayed at Ashnil Mara camp in a private cottage. It was more beautiful than the pictures. Right on the banks of the Mara river, we could see the hippos & crocs sunbathing. The room was luxurious with an ensuite bathroom and toilet. Just perfect for our honeymoon. The restaurant was great too with a variety of dishes including Indian food. The next 4 days were filled with game drives into the jungle & our guide didn't fail us. We got to see the Big 5 and multiple kills. Our guide just knew where to take us and what we wanted to see! It was breathtaking just to see the lions roam around us. Our guide even stopped under a beautiful tree for a picnic lunch, amidst zebras and deer. Words cannot describe how beautiful this experience was - a must do! The guide even suggested we do the Masai village tour, which we did - again, a great experience! We then flew to Diani where we stayed at the Swahili beach resort (recommended by Elvis from Classic) - and man, was it the most beautiful resort on earth! With more pools than the days in the week, it was designed with an arabic flavour - all in white. We were upgraded to the honeymoon suite (since our room wasn't ready) and it was massive! Massive enough to fit in 20 people. After our wonderful stay, we were dropped off at the Mombasa airport, for our flight back to India. I highly recommend Classic journey to anyone looking for a private, real experience of the Mara.