Arina Wild Adventures

Thank you Arina Wild Adventures -> It was indeed a wild adventure :-)

The two of us booked a 7-day (non-private) Safari to explore the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha and last but not least Amboseli National Park. A week before the start of the Safari, we proactively reached out to Arina to double check whether everything was still on track and were informed that for our last destination (Amboseli) we would need to upgrade to private, because the group's composition had changed, which increased our cost unexpectedly and so we were caught a bit off-guard by that.

For the first part of the tour (Mara, Nakuru and Naivasha) we very lucky to tour with a very nice group and also had the best guide, Richard, who got out of his way to ensure that we had the best experience before, during and after each game drive and who guaranteed an excellent communication with Arina Wild Adventures as well as with other guides, so that we witnessed all of the big five (elephants, lions, leopards, buffaloes and rhinos), hippos, giraffes, crocodiles,... Read more cheetahs, hyenas, antelopes, zebras, pumbas, a variety of birds incl. ostriches, vultures and eagles and many more animals. The overnight stays Arina choose for us were all of high quality, with excellent food buffets and friendly staff.

We also booked a hot air balloon ride (1 hour starting very early in the morning before sunset) which blew our minds. This one was also very well organized, and we received further unforgettable memories. Initially I thought the price was a bit high, but in hindsight it was totally worth it. At Lake Naivasha we also booked a boat tour to Crescent Island, which was another unbelievable experience, since you can walk down the island with a guide and come very close to the animals there without being in a car for a change.

After that, we felt our luck decreasing a bit, because we traveled shortly before the Christmas season and most Kenyans naturally try to visit their families then and so we experienced unusual heavy traffic between Naivasha and Amboseli. Unfortunately, our new private tour guide for Amboseli got stuck in traffic too and could not pick us up from Naivasha and so had to organize a substitute on the fly. The substitute did his best to ensure we would arrive in Amboseli on time, but we still missed a game drive there. The next day we started a nice game drive and saw lots of elephant herds, but unfortunately it started to rain heavily and so we had to cut it short. On our last day, before heading to the airport, we were supposed to have a last early morning game drive, but the substitute argued to skip it in case of another heavy traffic jam on the way to the airport. In the end we then arrived there 4 hours early.

Overall, we would rate Arina with 4 out 5 stars, because the first non-private part was just perfect, whereas the second private part was a bit disappointing, although we recognize that Arina cannot control the traffic nor the weather, but could have pro-actively communicated better.

Next time we will book Arina again!