I Wish I Could Go Here to Start Every Safari Trip
Plus, Frontier guns for Southwest customers, a gay cruise rescues refugees adrift, Mt. Fuji fees, and San Francisco asks itself if it's boring
Safaris are one of the most memorable vacations you’ll ever take, but the routine can be taxing. Pre-sunrise wakeups, rocky roads, a lot of sitting, and often a lot of booze. And all of that is often after a draining series of flights.
I mentioned last week that I placed my trip in the hands of Stanley Safaris, as I find navigating the array of safari lodges and camps across eastern and southern Africa mind-numbing. After sorting out the lodges, I still had the question of where I’d stay when I landed in Nairobi. My daytime flight from Paris on Kenya Airways was inexplicably canceled (a not-too-infrequent occurrence with Kenya Airways, I have since learned), so I would be flying overnight on Ethiopian and connecting in Addis Ababa. Shaun, the owner, of Stanley Safaris, sent me a property I’d never heard of—Manzili House—and said it was one he used for clients staying in Nairobi.
Now, pictures aren’t everything, but Manzili House looked beautiful in photos. Strangely, although it was well-reviewed by past guests, there was little else in terms of media coverage. I even ran it by some writers who are encyclopedic when it comes to chic stays around the world—they didn’t know it either.
Found up a gravel drive lined with flowers and herbs in the posh suburb of Karen, Manzili House felt like a fever dream after a brutal overnight journey. The cream-colored single-story complex is inspired by the Swahili architecture and design found on the ultra-chic Kenyan island of Lamu. The owner is a French ex-pat, one of those colorful characters who are in thrall to somewhere far from home. She designed and built the six-bedroom property during COVID.
A whopping 15 artisans came in from Lamu to construct the complex, and their touches can be seen everywhere from elaborate plasterwork carvings to the crenelated walls surrounding the gardens. In between the two cottages that make up the property is an elegant pool, shaded by a smattering of trees, palms, and bushes and decorated with statues. Inside, guests share an open-plan living and dining room filled with artwork and books, and the bedrooms are spacious and decorated with restraint. Each opens up onto a semi-private garden area.
After a hellish night of flying, we recouped our energy and dignity unwinding by the pool and lounging in the sun-dappled bedrooms.
At sunset, the owner and/or other members of her family swing by for sundowners by the pool, sharing their insights on Kenya and what they thought of our choices of safari. While only breakfast is included, you can add on dinner and lunch. Individuals rooms start at $480 per person, per night, although each of the two cottages can be bought out (roughly $2,000 for the smaller or $3,700 for the larger).
Lazing about, all I could think about was how lucky I was to be at such a true oasis before embarking on the more grueling pace of safari travel. In the days since, it’s also prompted me to think about how much value there is in having somebody “in the know” in this era of mass tourism and reams of what seems like helpful information on the internet.
As a test, I opened ChatGPT and put it through a series of prompts. First I asked for a chic or stylish hotel in Nairobi. Manzili wasn’t listed. Boutique? Unique? No Manzili. On and on I prompted it and yet all the options were ones anybody who spent just a little time Googling could have come up with.
I’m not saying that whatever we now call AI isn’t useful, but for now I think asking people with taste remains unbeatable.
DEPARTMENT OF GRIEVANCES
I don’t have a working theory yet as to why India is struggling to bring in foreign tourists (its numbers still lag behind its pre-COVID stats). I will say that from a press perspective, the country and its operators do very little in the way of promotion, press/FAM trips, etc in comparison to other established destinations like Japan and France, or even smaller countries like Croatia or Vietnam. I visited more than a decade ago and am dying to get back but other spots keep grabbing my attention and time, in part because they invest money in being on peoples’ mind.
Is it the end of spring break in Miami as we know it? The Miami Herald is reporting that this year has been noticeably quieter than in past years after increased measures by the city and police to curtail partying. If you live there, it’s probably wonderful that this has happened, though it means that a) somebody else is getting all the rowdy crowds and b) it’s a sign that Miami really is becoming somewhere very different.
San Francisco is the most beautiful major city in the U.S., both naturally and in terms of the built environment. Despite that, I can’t remember the last time I let my mind wander and thought to myself, “Oh, I haven’t been to SF in a while, I really should try to get back!” Whereas that’s often the case with NYC, Chicago, LA, and Miami. Which makes sense if you read The San Francisco Chronicle’s survey asking local readers the very simple question: Is San Francisco Boring?
Getting Around is supposed to be as politics-free as possible, but it’s impossible to talk about travel right now without talking about the effects of politics. I don’t know what the final fallout will be for tourism-driven towns and cities in the U.S., airports and airlines, and hotels of the stories about abuse at the border of tourists and residents coming into the U.S., but it can’t be great. (Although it might finally make domestic tourism affordable.) In February alone, 500,000 fewer people traveled from Canada to the U.S. than the same month a year before. The top five states with tourists from Canada are Florida, California, Nevada, New York, and Texas, according to the U.S. Travel Association. And now Denmark, the UK, Germany, and Finland have added travel warnings to their citizens about visiting the U.S.
The Washington Post has a handy guide on your rights at the U.S. border. It covers citizens, permanent residents, and visitors.
A few fascinating bits from this Wall Street Journal profile of David Neeleman, who has founded WestJet, JetBlue, Azul, and now Breeze Airways. His daughter-in-law’s social media account and ranch Ballerina Farm were more profitable than Breeze at one point. He has a take on Spirit’s troubles: 90% of their routes overlapped with other airlines. He gave his cell to more than 500 pilots when the airline was having trouble retaining them. BUT I did want to know if any of the pilots texted him and if so what they said! He seems a classic case of a man who can’t be tamed, such that even people he’s making money for get so fed up they push him out.
There is little hope on my part when it comes to rail in the U.S., but nearly every time a rail route or system lowers prices or adds frequency, ridership increases. The latest example is Amtrak’s Winter Park Express in Colorado which takes skiers from Denver to Winter Park Resort. The state lowered prices and increased frequency and ridership more than doubled.
I’d be curious if the trend observed by The Independent—visits to cultural attractions across the UK are still down from their pre-COVID numbers—is a phenomenon happening across the globe. If so, what is it being replaced by? Or is it another victim of the brain rot of people sitting alone in their rooms doom scrolling?
I would watch a TV show based on the story this week about a group of refugees floating in the Gulf of Mexico that were picked up and rescued by a gay cruise.
Is anybody else tired of Italian $1 home stories?
Capitalism is working, I suppose, in the airline industry as Frontier Airlines sees an opening with disgruntled Southwest travelers by offering free checked bags and other perks for a limited time to get them to make the switch. As somebody who has made very clear how loathsome and ill-advised I found Southwest’s abrupt switch, I think Frontier’s pitch is limited in its appeal because it’s still often a pain in the ass to fly Frontier.
TRAVEL INDUSTRY NEWS
A village outside Madrid has become a gay wedding destination
Support is growing for a tourist tax in London
Thailand to cut visa-free stays to 30 days to reduce crime
Mexico City is banning bullfighting that involves violence
Drones are being used to lighten burden of carrying supplies up Mount Everest
Midges have overwhelmed a Tuscan beach town
Delta plane that flipped had an alert go off because of its high rate of descent
Peru declares a state of emergency in the capital city of Lima due to crime
An FAA staffing shortage led to a ground stop at Austin airport
Hikers of Mount Fuji will have to pay an entry fee this summer
Disney’s CEO unbothered by its own research showing high prices is turning away visitors