Kenya & Tanzania with Masai Travel, Inc.

My husband, Steve, and I took a 2-week safari through Kenya and Tanzania, March 27-April 15, 2008, with Masai Travel, Inc. (800/587-1644, www.masaitravel.com), which advertises in ITN from time to time.

I cannot say enough about the trip, including the accommodations (each of the Serena lodges was unique), the food and the itinerary, not to mention the guides and the extent they went to to enable us to get up close and personal with the animals.

The reasonable price of $3,800 per person included airfare from New York to Nairobi, all lodgings, all meals and a guide for each country.

The only drawback was dealing with a man who called himself the vice president of Masai Travel, Jack Daniels. Once he got our monies, he was never there for us; he did not return e-mails or phone calls, and FedEx documents sat on his desk for days. Fortunately, the excellence of the whole trip made up for this minor annoyance.

The highlight of the trip, for me, besides viewing the magnificence of the lions, was visiting a Masai tribe in Kenya and another tribe in Tanzania. I had gone to the “dollar store” before we left home and bought school supplies, cosmetics, soaps, toothpaste, toothbrushes, brushes, mirrors, sunglasses, nonperishable packaged food and socks, plus pulled tennis shoes and baseball caps from our closets, to give out to the children of these villages.

They were very well behaved and appreciated everything I gave them. I loved communicating with them in English. My huge suitcase was empty at the end of the trip, but I was filled with a wonderful feeling of giving.

CLAUDIA REED

Las Vegas, NV

ITN sent a copy of the above letter to Masai Travel (19525 Business Center Dr., Northridge, CA 91324) and received no reply.