Hi all! Finally got our internet sorted - yippee! Been a busy few months since I last posted, moved to Ashbourne & love it, met some lovely people & found a superb dog walker for Molster.  Started a new job, just about got to grips with it & met some nice people, I do miss working in Nottingham city centre though.  Wedding plans are full steam ahead, still can't believe it's this year! Just sorting out honeymoon, looking at Kenya for a safari/beach -anyone been? I'm also booked in for wedding dress fittings in Feb Argh!!

So how is everyone else? What have I missed? & who won the funshow????

hi were not far from ashbourne, in alfreton, welcome back :-)

Glad to see you back gembo,sounds like you have settled in your new home and molly is happy.

Wont be long for that big day it will soon come round.
Dont know about the fun show,i have not heard anymore about it.

Hi!  Welcome back...pleased everything is going so well for you.

We did beach/safari in Kenya in October '09...feel free to throw any questions you like at me :-)

We did a Kenya beach hol with a 3 day 2 night Safari in 07, Mombasa and Tsavo East and West parks. Went back last year to celebrate a friends 60th and did a week on safari, Aberdaires, Samburu, Mount Kenya and the Masai, and finished with a week in Zanzibar.

Both were fantastic and would definately go back again, managed to see the big 5 plus Cheetahs last year.

Happy to answer any questions, are you looking to do half and half (beach/safari), or mainly beach as it's a honeymoon?

Both times our safaris were arranged by Somak - I think they're the largest operator in Kenya, but they do now have a UK office - can't fault the service. Some people on our safari last year booked direct with SOmak, we booked through an agent.

T

Good to see you back gembo :)

> We did beach/safari in Kenya in October '09.

Superb! What do you think of this - we're thinking of 3 or 5 nights staying at a camp (luxury tents - governors, piorini lion camp or kicheche mara) in the masai mara then fly to Mombassa for a further 5 nights at the Diani Reef Beach resort.  We've done safari before but only at the Eastern Cape parks in South Africa, very keen to see lots of wildlife & hopefully the big 5.  Beach part is last as we found safari not exactly relaxing, early starts etc but we're open to suggestions.  We've been quoted with trailfinders at around £5.5k but it looks cheaper if you book direct with the camps esp Kicheche.  What would you do???

*ø¤º°*¨`*:»Whoop!«:*¨`*°º¤ø*
Good to see you Missus! (I was worried you'd turned into a 'Bride-zilla' ;-) :-P )

We booked 2 weeks at Voyager in Mombasa and booked our safari separately with a local Kenyan company.  We spent 3 nights (4 days) at Tsavo East, West & Amboseli.  It was the perfect arrangement for us because it meant we could take the safari when we chose to (we had it bang in the middle of our holiday) as I didn't want to go straight out on safari on landing in Kenya like many of the packages booked in the UK do. Plus, we were able to book to have exclusive use of our safari jeep...means you don't have to fight for window seats or jostle around for the best views of the wildlife, and you can dictate how long you stop at any time.

I reckon you could get it cheaper booking camps directly or using one of the Kenyan companies...there are many excellent local safari companies who use exactly the same camps as the UK tour operators and you can tailor make your safari to suit yourselves.  You're getting married in September, yes?  I just had a quick look using random September dates on First Choice website and Diani Beach resort is around £950 per person for 7 nights (and £1240 per person for 2 weeks).  So, that means trailfinders are pricing at around £3k+ for safari...that sounds like a lot to me, even for the luxury camps.  I'd advise you to shop around a bit first before committing yourselves. 

Lots of people at our hotel at been out to Maasai Mara and had a brilliant safari experience.  We plan to go back to Kenya in future to do the Mara and Samburu :-) We had a fantastic safari but I'd love to try to catch the migration next time...you're going at just about the right time to stand a chance of catching it :-)  OH wants to climb Kilimanjaro too :-o . Personally, I was happy just to see it from the ground! :-D

Gembo are these the same safari's.. Booking direct covers the flight there, think from Nairobi? NOt checked in details
http://www.porini.com/home.html

TBH the Diani Reef is basic accommodation, though depends on what you are looking for. Its nice, clean etc. I know we all have a budget, so sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear, just don't see it as honeymoon type hotel.
I used to work for Virgin and worked alongside a Kenyan lady who told us which hotels to avoid and never send people there, unless they were desperate for a cheap price.
Here are some more hotels located on Diani beach: http://www.dianibeach.com/hotels/index.htm

Also its worth considering where exactly you want to be located, see the map below, Mombasa is a small place, the beaches run north and south where the hotels are..
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=diani%20beach&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

>TBH the Diani Reef is basic accommodation, though depends on what you are looking for. Its nice, clean etc. I know we all have a budget, so sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear, just don't see it as honeymoon type hotel.

I don't know much about the Diani Reef resort but I can say that Voyager was fantastic and there were quite a few honeymooners there at the same time as us...it's also a popular spot for weddings.  Rooms range from 'standard' which are perfectly nice to 'superior' which are bigger with a few more mod cons.

On an excursion we met some newlyweds who were staying at a place called 'Cove Retreat' which looks like a fantastic spot for honeymooners.