How lucky were we? To say I leave a lot to be desired in the planning department would be an understatement. Thankfully I couldn't have not planned this trip any better, thanks in spades to Julius.

As we were flying to Kenya on Thursday March 13th (2008) and I suddenly realised it was March 12th, I thought I'd better do something about the arrangements for the 2 1/2 week trip my wife and I were about to embark on.

But firstly some background. We booked the flight with Virgin Atlantic (not at all impressed with them!) to Nairobi back in December, 3 days before the "troubles" began. We had set our hearts on a safari so unless the F&CO advised against travel, we knew we would definitely be going. I should say straight away that we saw absolutely no problems and all the Kenyans we spoke to were a tad perplexed that all of the tourists had deserted Kenya in its hour of need, so everyone please get back there ASAP (and book a safari with Julius of course).

Back to the review: I posted a Forum request in the Kenya section asking for advice and help, it came in buckets and thank-you to everyone who responded. One name that popped up a few times for assistance with the safari was JT. So I sent off a request to JT and others asking for the cost of a pick up in Nairobi and drop off in Mombasa for a 4 or 5 day Safari, with a itinerary suggested by them. I sent this at 18.45 (GMT) on Wednesday and within 30 mins I received a call from Julius to check some details - I was impressed! One hour later I received the quote and the itinerary (with a choice of accommodation) - it looked good and was less than I had budgeted for. Being a good Tripadvisor user I checked the accommodation and they all looked very good. It was now 21.00 and I received another call from Julius to check if the itinerary was satisfactory or whether I would like anything changed. I thought it sounded great but told him I was waiting for the responses to my other quotes and would contact him the following morning if his was the best. I checked the intinerary with some hardcore users in the Forum and they agreed it was a "steal". I won't labour on the other responses, they were similar but more expensive. It was to be JT for us. I was busy packing next morning and was only able to confirm the request with Julius when we were driving to Heathrow at 14.00 (GMT) and I asked that we be picked up at 07.00 next morning in Nairobi. Talk about cutting it fine. He agreed that we would pay for the safari on arrival in Mombasa (wow - what a guarantee of quality (and trust) this was) and that my wife and I would have sole use of the van and driver for the 5 days. Super!

Next morning when we arrived we were a little apprehensive as to whether anyone would be there to collect us (I hadn't exactly given much notice or information) but thankfully there was our driver and new friend, Cyrus. He was holding a sign stating "Ian x 2", at which point I realised how little information I had given Julius (he didn't even know my surname). In the van we got, it was very nice and off we went. Cyrus was incredibly careful (we've seen the average level of driving in the majority of countries we've visited and it leaves a lot to be desired) and we felt at ease. Cyrus told us everything we needed to know and made sure we had plenty of water for the journey. Five hours later we arrived at Amboseli and the Oltukai lodge - this was starting to look to good to be true. Cyrus sorted our rooms and lunch, and told us he would be back in 3 hours for our first game drive.

If anyone is staring to feel bored at this point I should say now that the service provided by Julius was second to none, I cannot recommend him highly enough. More importantly I can't thank him enough for ensuring the whole holiday (even after we had been dropped off at our hotel in Mombasa) was perfect. He cannot do enough for his customers and deeply cares about their needs.

In short, we also stayed at Voyager Ziwani (excellent), Ngulia lodge (you get to see a leopard up close and personal) and Voi Wildlife (very nice) in the Tsavo parks. We also had a night safari and a walking safari. It was a wonderful 5 days. Julius also called us every day to check that everything was ok which we thought was a nice touch.

Cyrus was an incredibly good driver (we trusted him enough to fall asleep in the back when driving between parks), knowledgeable, passionate about ensuring you see as much game as possible (the only animal we didn't see was a rhino, but we felt Cyrus was more disappointed than we were) and ensuring you are having a great time.

But it didn't end there, we hadn't booked a hotel and didn't even know what resort we were going to head for. In the end we chose the South Mombasa coast as this was near to JT's base (the orange hut outside Neptune village), Cyrus agreed to stay with us until we settled on a hotel and told us he would take us to as many as we wanted to go to. To cut a long story short, I started leaving the wife in the van and just took Cyrus around for his opinion on the hotels, we eventually agreed on Koli Koli at Diani Beach and Cyrus helped us negotiate a discount.

We then went and met Julius to thank him and settle the bill. We couldn't thank him enough and he gave us a gift to remember the safari, a very nice touch! After a few question about what we wanted to do over the next 12 days, Julius asked us not to use the matatu's but instead to call him and he would take us anywhere (shopping etc, I don't think he meant to Nairobi or anywhere far afield), for free! This really was too good to be true. We took advantage of this a good few times, in part just so we could see Cyrus again, and it was probably the closest we'll ever come to a concierge service.

We also went on the Wasini excursion, again driven by Cyrus in "our" van, and saw the dolphins - well worth it.

Julius then organised our return to Nairobi via the bus from Mombasa (even ensuring we were taken directly to the airport) and arranged for Cyrus to pick us up from the hotel, take us for dinner in Mombasa, and then get us on the bus. He even stayed (we were there with 1 hour to spare) and waved us off. We told him he should go home but he wouldn't listen, insisting he would stay until he saw the bus leave with us safely on it.

Thank you Julius and Cyrus for such a wonderful visit. What a pleasure Kenya was and we look forward to returning soon and seeing you both. Keep up the great work and I hope you're business continues to grow and flourish. I have no doubt it will if you continue with the excellent service you gave us.

Last week we returned from a magnificent holiday in Kenya. In spite of the political situation, it has been a great experience. The absolute highlight was our six day safari to Tsavo West, Amboseli and Tsavo East. We booked this in advance with the local touroperator Julius, which we had chosen because of the excellent reviews and recommendations. It turned to be out to be our best holiday experience ever (and we travel a lot)! From the very first moment we contacted Julius somewhere in October 2007, everything went smooth as silk. We arranged a tailor-made private safari including a not common trip to Ziwani tented camp (=Tsavo voyager camp) in the southern part of Tsavo West, from which we had heard it must be like the garden of Eden. Julius gave us a really great offer, and even contacted us personally by phone to make sure that everything should be according our wishes.
Because of the raids due to the elections in Kenya, it became uncertain for us whether we were able to travel, but Julius convinced us that everything should be safe, so we decided to go anyway.
From the moment Julius and his driver picked us up in Malindi at February 22, almost all our dreams came through. Julius promised us to give us the best safari-experience you could imagine, as he did for sure. He even told us in advance what he probably could not give to us: spotting a Rhino because there are a very few of them, and unfortunately, he was right. But instead we did see almost all big animals from the reserves: the remaining BIG 4 (buffalos, (a lot of) elephants, lions AND leopards), there were hippos, 7 or 8 types of antelopes, giraffes, zebras, hyenas, jackals, ostriches, all kinds of birds, but also the difficult to spot cheetah and even a civet cat. The lodges we had chosen (Ngulia Bandas, Ziwani, Ol Tukai and Voi Wildlife) were luxurious and agreeable, with perfect service and excellent food. Even the trip to a Masai-village, of which we were told that it was mainly a commercial happening, turned out to be wonderful. However, the most remarkable thing to mention about Julius is his ability to improvise: on the second day of our safari, when we stayed in the beautiful Ziwani camp (were we had also a walking safari and a night safari with a local guide), our original driver got seriously ill and we didn’t want to take the risk to go on with him. We informed Julius about this around 10 p.m., and he managed to replace this driver-guide within 12 hours! Although the new driver, called Lucky, had to come down from Mombasa, which is a trip for many hours since Ziwani is rather isolated, he arrived on time the next day at 9 am, thus giving us a minimum delay of only 2 hours. This delay was made up by prolonged game drives in the late afternoon and the perfect skills of Lucky, who’s hawk eyes spotted every animal crossing our paths.
The money we were asked to lend and the extra telephone costs, both because of the necessary replacement of the driver, were fully returned to us at the end of the trip.
It leaves us to one conclusion: there can’t be a better safari-operator than JT Safaris. There is no other option for us than to choose for Julius again if we go on safari, even when we decide to go to Tanzania (Julius organises safaris from Arusha as well). If you go with Julius: don’t worry or: Hakuna Matata.

our guide was excellent and well knowledged from animals ,birds and plant life.we stayed at two lodges which were great we went for the basic rooms.you can choose different grades of rooms.the food was great breakfast,lunch and dinner.you do have to pay for your drinks which does not matter when your eating great food which was included in safari price.we saw 4 out of the big 5.but there is so many other animals 2 see.we will use julius again he is very professional and gives good customer service.emma and allanx

I contacted Julius Safaris in advance of our trip to Diani Beach Resort in Kenya, a very quality hotel by the way. Julius was extremely helpful in answering questions and helping us to sort through the options for a Safari as part of our holiday. Phone calls and emails were answered in good time and Julius came to the hotel in advance of our trip to walk through the details
My Girlfriend had been on Safari a few times before, so I needed to make sure this last minute extension to the holiday was definitely well above average. A 2-day fly-in safari to the Masai Mara National Park started with us being picked up and taken to the local airstrip, it was great not to travel to Nairobi. All the tickets, transfers and arrangements were made – and worked with no issue. We stayed at the Kichwa Tembo camp and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, a fantastic Camp and service to match.
Julius was also happy to sort out a driver to help us to go shopping – we were looked after and that just made the experience even better
Brian