High praise for Kenya guide

On a 17-day private tour from mid-August into September 2018, my wife and I had a guide in Kenya who was certainly the best guide I’ve had in my 10 or so trips to Africa over the past three decades.

Mohamed Shariff was our driver/guide during the Kenya part of our Kenya/Tanzania tour set up through Monograms (Littleton, CO; 866/270-9841, monograms.com), a division of Globus that arranges private tours.

Many of Monograms’ tours are similar to Globus’ big tours and are marketed to people who either prefer to do private tours or can’t make the dates of regularly scheduled tours. Having to coordinate time off between two jobs, my wife and I fall into the latter category. This was our second tour with Monograms.

The overall price for our Kenya/Tanzania tour — including all internal transportation, flights, hotels, meals, guide services and tips (except for the main guide) — was about $16,000 for both of us. This included a fee that we paid for a Land Rover in Kenya.

All of our lodgings, except on the first night in Nairobi, were in the game parks in Kenya and either inside or right outside the game parks in Tanzania. And almost all of those were either Sopa or Serena lodges. This was one of the most expensive trips I’ve taken, but it was a private tour with superior lodging.

We were with Mohamed from the time we left Nairobi to when we were put on a plane in Maasai Mara, headed back to Nairobi. We traveled with him to the Samburu and Maasai Mara national reserves and Lake Nakuru National Park. Upon our return to Nairobi, we were met by someone else, who transported us to the border and handed us off to a Tanzanian representative, who took us to meet our Tanzanian guide.

Mohamed Shariff is a superb, if somewhat aggressive, driver who made certain we saw the most that was humanly possible, including the Big Five, while ensuring we were safe. I heartily recommend him.

GARY MOCKLI
Chesterfield, MO