Fantastic 4 week birding/wildlife tour of Kenya (January 2024)

Reviewed in January, 2024

We have just returned home after an amazing 4 week birding/wildlife safari organised by Cisticola Tours in Kenya. We had great communication with the Cisticola team from the word go and the tour they planned for us was perfect and took in everything we wanted to see.
Our guide and driver was Francis (Litason on the Cisticola website) His birding expertise is fantastic and bird spotting incredible! Not only that, his knowledge of plants, flowers and wildlife is extensive. We have had many bird guides who are only interested in birds and nothing else!
Our tour took us through a range of different terrains in this very diverse country – from mountain forest near Mt Kenya, savannah at Samburu, the grasslands of the Mara, lake shores of Naivasha and Nakuru, the plains/wetlands of Amboseli (with fantastic views of Kilimanjaro). There was the stunning volcanic scenery of the Tsavo West mountains with views down onto the savannah plains of Tsavo East. We ended our tour down by the mangrove swamps and coastal habitats of the Arabuko Sokoke and Mida Creek reserves with local guide Rafiki . Each place we visited was totally unique and we saw a total of 492 bird species with 207 life ticks over the 4 weeks. We had great wildlife viewing too with lion, leopard and cheetah in the Mara, huge herds of elephant in Amboseli, our first views of the graceful long necked Gerenuk antelope in Samburu and of course the colourful underwater world snorkelling in the Indian Ocean in the Watamu marine reserve.
It was a fabulous tour and we enjoyed the whole trip very much. Many thanks to Washington Wachira and the whole Cisticola team, especially Francis who guided/drove/looked after us so well for 4 weeks.

Reviewed by Siân B., Germany.