Kenya in my heart with Giovanni of In2Kenya

We planned this trip wanting to experience life outside the villages, and our expectations were fully met! We are used to travelling independently, and for Kenya too we wanted to give it a try. The idea was to book the flight ourselves, then do a safari and a few days by the sea to rest, but at the same time travel around, see and get to know the place. After contacting various organisations, we immediately clicked with Giovanni. He was clear and precise, and he was also able to say no to requests that might have seemed easy to us, explaining the difficulties of putting them into practice. We were a little afraid of entrusting ourselves entirely to a stranger to organise our trip. But after reading a lot and after several emails exchanged, we decided to do it! So we arranged both the safari and the resort in Watamu with him.

Basically we took care of the flight from Italy, he took care of everything else. Once the trip was agreed, we sent a deposit, he sent us the receipt and what we had booked, and then it was time to leave. When we arrived in Nairobi we found him waiting for us outside the airport. He gave us a Kenyan sim card, so we could phone for very little. Before leaving for the safari he advised us to change a little money into shillings so we would have no problems if we wanted to buy something during the safari. And so we set off on our safari: Masai Mara, Amboseli and Tsavo East. Even the landscape you meet on the way to the park is a spectacle. The colours, the people, the children in their school uniforms. The lost little villages. It all steals your heart. Then we arrived at the park. What can I say — something boundless: grassland, animals roaming freely, wildebeest, zebras, giraffes.

We no longer knew which way to look. Giovanni told us the migration was over, but honestly we didn't care. The thought, though, was immediate: if it's like this already, imagine what paradise it must be during the migration. We spent 3 days in the Masai Mara and saw so many animals (lions with cubs, my dream) and cheetahs. After this park we set off for Amboseli; here the landscape is different, there are lots and lots of elephants. Here too luck was with us, and we saw 2 cheetahs going hunting, passing right by our jeep. Or as Giovanni puts it: under the tyre. Here we slept beneath Kilimanjaro, and how beautiful it is! The last stop of the safari was Tsavo; as soon as we entered we headed for a spot with a hill made entirely of rock, and we climbed it on foot. We had the whole savannah below us, as far as the eye could see.

Throughout the safari Giovanni never tired of answering our thousand questions; he was always kind and helpful. At the end of the safari we reached Watamu, and here he took us to the resort he had booked for us. Spartan, but clean, with a beautiful garden, large rooms, right in the centre of the village, very close to the beach. We stayed there for 7 days; the staff were always kind and helpful, and they prepared us some superb fish feasts! At that point we said to ourselves: we've gone this far, let's go all the way, so we had them organise the blue safari (I think it's called that because the blue of the sky pours into the blue of the sea), then we went to the Marafa canyon, where the colours are red, yellow, orange and pink, beautiful. And we spent a day visiting Mombasa. Well, I didn't think it deserved it.

Chaotic, but there are various things to see, things we had no idea about — cathedrals, an old Portuguese fort, Indian temples. It really is worth it. We also went to the town's various beaches, and I assure you they are a spectacle. And so the time came to leave; the holiday was over, and Giovanni accompanied us to Mombasa for our journey home. It was a wonderful holiday, thanks to him too, as he was always present without ever being intrusive. Kind, discreet, attentive, friendly, funny and professional! Thanks Giò, we hope to see you soon. If you want to contact him you can visit his website, very nice, complete, varied and precise. Samantha and Carlo