Birding safari and a whole lot more! (May 2023)

Reviewed in May, 2023

I had a GREAT 17-day birding safari in Kenya with Simon, who is extremely knowledgeable about birds and other wildlife we encountered. He is a remarkable bird guide, finding and identifying birds by ear, and sharing field marks to separate different closely related birds. Cisticola Tours planned a great itinerary for me; we visited many different habitats, including mountains, savanna, forest, and lakes/wetlands, and saw over 400 species of birds, remarkable for a time of year when migrants are largely not present.

My camera malfunctioned the morning of Day 3; by the afternoon of Day 4, I had a new camera in hand, thanks to the quick, efficient, and very welcome service of the Cisticola team, who procure a camera for me in Nairobi and drove out to our lunch location. The whole safari was an amazing, wonderful time, enhanced by two excellent local bird guides who knew where to find species we hadn’t seen yet. In addition to birds, we saw many other animal species, including three big cats (lions, cheetahs, leopard) in the first couple of hours we were in Maasai Mara.

Reviewed by Alice A., USA.