4. MYTH ABOUT AFRICA CHEAPERNESS AND A CHAPTER ON WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO CHOOSE HOTELS CORRECTLY
It’s expensive here, you just have to come to terms and accept it as a fact. Forget about Asian prices.
Yes, you can take a budget safari and spend the night in tents with a toilet on the street and dinners that the driver of the jeep and part-time cooked whip up at the stake. Or spend the night in ordinary hotels in cities, close to the entrances to national parks. And yes, you will see the same beasts and the same sunrises.
But you can’t even imagine how vivid emotions African lodges can cause. Living in them is in itself an unforgettable experience and will greatly affect your perception of Africa as a whole.
Take, for example, our lodge in Naivasha, more like some kind of fabulous town with hobbit houses and giant trees. It is located right on the lake.
Giraffes, zebras, antelopes roam freely around the hotel. And, most importantly, to many animals that you see in the savannah only from afar, you can come just at arm's length.
We were not even allowed to leave the room unaccompanied in the evening, because hippos roamed right under the windows of our houses.
In Masai Mara, we had a natural pool in the lodge with hippos that walked peacefully around the hotel in the evenings. And at sunset, you could order a glass of wine, watch the sunset in the savannah and watch the hippos take a bath.
And in the morning, opening his eyes, one could easily see an elephant or a zebra in a couple of tens of meters from the balcony of the room.
Drinking morning coffee in Amboseli overlooking Kilimanjaro is priceless. And also take a dip in the pool overlooking Kili before heading out for an evening game drive and seeing the elephant for the first time in the wild - this is always such a delight. And if this elephant also takes a mud bath overlooking Kilimanjaro - the enthusiasm multiplies many times.
In general, I highly recommend taking seriously the choice of places where you will spend the night on a safari, and not deprive yourself of the pleasure of fully immersing yourself in an African fairy tale.
5. OCEAN
After the safari, you will be overcome by a strong desire to dive for a couple of days in the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean. This can be done without leaving Kenya, on the beaches near Mombasa. But I would still advise flying to Zanzibar. Just an hour and a half - and you are in paradise.
And definitely choose the northern beaches of the island. Why? The tides that Zanzibar is so famous for are least felt there. And if you do not want to watch the ocean until 9 am and after 5 pm, then you definitely go north.
The girls and I fell in love with this island. What did we do for 4 days?
Long walks along the coast, sunsets, dawns, dinners in restaurants to the sound of the surf.
Swam with huge sea turtles in a natural aquarium and went snorkeling in a real pirate boat.
And one day we nevertheless broke away from the contemplation of all these shades of turquoise and a white sand beach, and set off to wander through the narrow streets of Stone Town - the island’s capital, with its colonial architecture flavored with local African flavor, coffee shops hidden in the maze of streets, shops, spices, seafood and a unique atmosphere.
I love places where every detail and every corner is literally saturated with the spirit of the times. Zanzibar coffee house just belongs to such.
We looped through the narrow streets for a long time, bought the most delicious mangoes in my life, barely pulled ourselves out of jewelry stores (we all went out with local Uru bracelets with tanzanite), photographed every carved door on our way, and finally reached this coffee shop. I remembered her from the last time. And especially this table near the window, the door opposite and passing girls in hijabs.
Since our travels are for girls, we try to include as many memorable moments in the program and think through the little things that we all love so much.
A pool overlooking Kilimanjaro, a glass of dry white dinner at a fine restaurant overlooking the African savannah, hippos right under the windows of our hotel in Naivasha, delicious food, turquoise Indian Ocean and snow-white beaches of the mysterious island of Zanzibar.
Narrow streets, shops, labyrinths, houses of the 19th century, coffee, fish with coconut sauce, ginger lemonade, a bustling port, carved balconies, crazy-looking doors.
Africa is all in details, moments, smells, emotions, and I really hope that you will remember her with such a crazy mixture of impressions.