When writer Peter Taylor-Whiffen went to Kenya on safari with his family, he saved hundreds of pounds by shopping around and booking every element himself. The total cost was around £1,500 per person for 10 nights in January – enabling him and his family to escape the dreariness of British winter skies for Kenyan sunsets and 27 degree heat. Here’s how he did it, in his own words.

The leopard crouches and we hold our breath. We’ve watched it slink, silently, stealthily, through the long grass. We’ve looked on as it’s coiled itself down on its haunches, never once taking its eyes off its target. And now it stops, tenses and prepares to strike.

That target, a beautiful blue-backed secretary bird, has not watched the leopard. It sits serenely on a scrub mound, seemingly oblivious to its impending violent demise. And we keep holding our breath.

The leopard leaps. The bird squawks – and suddenly, in a second, it’s over. With a ferocious, frantic flap of wings, it takes off in the nick of time, leaving its aggressor swiping at thin air. And the leopard, in the manner of humiliated cats everywhere, plays down its embarrassment by very deliberately closing its eyes and bending forward to lick its chest, as if to say: “Well, I obviously let it go on purpose.”

Best safari in Kenya

In our private 4×4, there’s an odd mix of relief and disappointment. A safari on Kenya’s Masai Mara is surely about seeing the barbarous unpredictability of nature in its visceral tooth and claw – but at the same time, we didn’t want to witness the end of a life.

We are, it turns out, very fortunate to have seen the leopard (though arguably not as lucky as the bird), for this is one of the most difficult animals to spot (pun intended) here. Only around 50 prowl this vast 1,500 sq km plain – so we were even more fortunate to see another one in another part of the reserve the next day. Along with, at different times, the rest of the Big Five – lions, buffalo, a black rhino and dozens, seriously dozens, of elephants. Not to mention a supporting cast of giraffes, zebras, bush bucks and hyenas.

This, this is seeing the world. A safari is like no other experience, because of that unpredictability. You don’t go to see the animals, rather you randomly happen across them. Which means you can see, as we did, pretty much any major species that lives on the plain within your first 24 hours – or spend a week there and see none at all.

So as the success of any safari is down to good luck, it makes sense to find a way to live this unforgettable experience as cheaply as possible. While package tours are popular, by booking flights, hotels and the safari package all separately, my family (me, Mrs TW and two young adult offspring) secured this once-in-a-lifetime trip for about half the price you’d pay through an agent.

Where to stay for your Kenyan safari

Having arrived in Africa to a day’s chilling by the pool at the comfortable CySuites Apartments Hotel in central Nairobi (above: four nights half board for just £147pp) we were collected the following dawn for our four-day jaunt into the bush with Jocky Tours.

At the wheel of our 4×4 – which we had entirely to ourselves – was a cheerful chap called Johnny Jackson, who proved as adept a driver as he would a guide as he sped out of the vibrant, colourful city and then carefully picked his way for four hours through the dusty, extremely bumpy pot-holed roads (“it’s the safari massage!” was his joyous description), to our first stop on the edge of the Mara, a tented camp called Lenchada (below).

The facilities were basic – the camp’s public toilet was four walls surrounding a hole in the ground – and it was unnerving at first to hear troops of baboons whooping as they thundered across the tent roof.

But the sparse rooms provided all that we needed in the way of comfortable beds, complete with what turned out to be necessary mosquito nets and a working en suite WC and shower. If you want rural Africa, you have to embrace its simplicity – and we did. And the staff’s welcome was as warm as the 27C equatorial heat.

What wildlife you’ll see on safari in Kenya

The Masai Mara was a gift that kept on giving. Over two days we came so close to its magnificent residents that on one occasion a pride of half a dozen lionesses walked right round our vehicle. On another we saw 20 elephants spraying themselves in a mud bath. An hour later we sat 20 yards from a cheetah as it dragged from a hiding place the body of a mongoose and contentedly devoured its lunch.

Being here, being part of this natural landscape, felt like not just an extraordinary experience, but an extraordinary privilege.

Strangely though, it felt thrilling without being scary. Although this may be down to my sudden realisation that if a wild African animal wanted me for its lunch, I didn’t necessarily need to outrun it, but just the person next to me.

Johnny’s tour was varied, too. On Day three, we left the Mara for Lake Naivasha national park, where we saw water-based wonders such as pelicans, flamingos and, gloriously, a beautiful pair of hippos, who stood resolutely, obstinately, in front of our 4×4 and challenged us to pass. “Do you think they’ll charge?” asked my son, nervously. I told him I presumed the park had to make money somehow. He told me to shut up.

We saw more hippos and countless exotic birds on a boat trip, and the following day at Nakuru we took a safari on foot, literally walking among giraffes, zebras and buffalo. No barriers, no fences – they simply stood by the side of our path and watched us walk by.

That should have been enough for us, but we’re greedy souls, so after Johnny dropped us at the end of the tour back at our Nairobi hotel, we spent a night there before travelling another two hours north, to arguably Kenya’s most iconic accommodation – Treetops.

This lodge, in the Aberdare National Park (one night full-board: £137pp), is effectively an over-sized hide on stilts. It looks down on a watering hole where animals including elephants, buffalo, bush bucks and others regularly wander up for a drink. But it is legendary as the place where, in February 1952, young British royal Elizabeth climbed a ladder to bed as a princess and came down the next day as a queen, following the death in England of her father, King George VI.

There are no ladders today – what was in 1952 little more than a shack is now a beautifully comfortable hotel, with vast bedroom windows and an open air top-floor terrace, as well as a more discreet ground floor hide with tiny glassless windows for viewing the various beastly comings and goings.

And yet it retains a simplicity – this is still and will always be in the middle of a vast slice of nowhere. The danger in the surrounding bush is still present enough that you’re prohibited from walking anywhere. So even after emerging from your comfortable room, enjoying a wonderful dinner and nursing a delicious sundowner from the bar, this is so quiet and still that you can stand on that terrace, look out across the plains for miles and feel completely at one with nature.

For Kenya – Treetops, the Masai Mara, the colours, sights, sounds and smells of Nairobi – is a wholly immersive experience. Whether its elephants wandering past your window, lions eyeing up your jeep, hippos staring you down, baboons on your roof, even mozzies battering themselves against the net, you aren’t just on holiday.

You’re living it and breathing it all in. To be honest, the only disappointment was waking up to find I hadn’t inherited any regal powers, but it didn’t matter – I just looked at the view.

How to get to Kenya:

Flights: we flew from London Gatwick to Nairobi and then Nairobi to London Heathrow with Kenya Airways in January, £672pp. Flying out of Gatwick and back into Heathrow saved us about £200pp. It was a bit of a pain with parking and transfers between the two airports, but well worth it.

Is it safe for tourists in Nairobi?

We’d heard mixed reports of safety for tourists, but any issues appeared to be on the Somali border, 1,000 miles from Nairobi. We weren’t really sufficiently exposed to Nairobi to say if we felt safe or not. I wouldn’t have been worried about exploring because I have a naive faith in people. 

However, on our first ‘chill’ day we needed  to find a pharmacy and were directed to one around 15 minutes’ walk from the hotel. My wife asked if it was safe and I expected the receptionist to reply “Of course!” but she said: “It’s still light at the moment, so you should be okay….”, which did give some cause for concern!

On another occasion, as we came back into Nairobi and stopped at a roundabout, Johnny, the driver, called back to us really urgently: “Quick, close your windows! The street boys will lean in and steal your phones!”

But, it has to be said, every local we spoke to was extremely friendly and helpful throughout the week – for instance, at the airport, or when we went to the pharmacy and asked directions along the way.

What’s the food like in Kenya?

Outside of the hotel (which in addition to Kenyan fare also offered an international menu of Chinese, burgers, pizzas, fries etc) the food at every other place we stayed was pretty much the same: a choice of chicken with potatoes and green vegetables – usually spinach or kale – or beef stew, with little other choice or variation.

I have to say that the meat was never very good quality, was usually overcooked compared to British cuisine and while the food filled us up, meal times were a bit of a trial, taste wise.

I’m happy to try most things, and was, for instance, in Egypt a couple of years ago and loved the food there – but I didn’t love this! It was, however, cheap, working out at about £5/6 per head. Even at the CySuites with its hotel prices, the burgers were around £8 – about half what you’d pay in the UK.

What you need to know:

Safari: five-day, four-night safari in a private 4×4, with transfers to and from Nairobi, taking in Masai Mara, Laike Naivasha and Nakuru including all food and accommodation with Jocky Tours, £460pp.

Transfers: a return taxi from Nairobi to Treetops (arranged by Treetops), cost £220 for four people for both journeys.

Inoculations: it’s essential to get jabs to protect against yellow fever, rabies, typhoid, hepatitis. Most of these aren’t available on the NHS. Approx cost: £400pp

• • You will also need:
  • Malaria tablets: £35pp
  • Kenya ETA (electronic travel authorisation) visa: Approx £35pp (must be acquired in advance).

Want to read more of Peter’s travel reviews? You can find out about his train journey from Prague to Budapest here and find out what he thought about Dubai here (spoiler: he wasn’t a fan).