Avoid city crime in Kenya: Go on safari

A group of American travel agents recently returned from a safari in Kenya, indignant about the State Department’s warning that travelers should avoid going there due to terrorism and the high crime rate. One was quoted in the travel-trade press as saying that Los Angeles is “more dangerous than Africa.”

My sympathies are with those travel agents, although I acknowledge the dangers of walking about in the urban areas of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. As in poor regions elsewhere, including the United States, one does not wander alone at night. But the average safari participant doesn’t need to go to such areas. Generally, they are met at the airport and escorted to a resort hotel for a night before leaving the next morning for the game parks, which are safe and offer one of the greatest concentrations of wildlife of any African nation.

Because most people are aware of how to safely visit Kenya, this site of the world’s best safaris is booming with visitors; American travel to Kenya in 2004 was up by 44% from 2003.

Tour operators have responded with more-attractive programs. Lion World Tours of Toronto, (800) 387-2706, www.lionworldtravel.com, is offering a package that includes round-trip flights on British Airways from LAX to Kenya for one night in Nairobi and five nights on safari. The price, good through May 28, is $2,099.

Or you can book a slightly longer stay by flying South African Airways from Atlanta or New York, spending two nights in Cape Town and then six nights on safari in Kenya for $2,109. Prices are good from April through June 30, and the package can be booked by calling Karell’s African Dream Vacations, (800) 327-0373, www.karell.com.

Another possibility is a package that eliminates the stay-over in Nairobi and takes you immediately to the game parks for five nights, immersing you in nature and wildlife. Such a package is offered from now until May 31 for $2,245 per person by 2Afrika, at (866) 462-2374 or www.2afrika.com.

The agency, which is more than 20 years old, is operated by South African Kenneth Hieber. The package includes round-trip airfare from Los Angeles or San Francisco on Virgin Atlantic Airways and Kenya Airways, one night at the Serena Mountain Lodge on the slopes of Mt. Kenya, a night at the Lake Nakuru Lodge in Lake Nakuru National Park and, finally, three nights at the Siana Springs Intrepids tented safari camp in the Masai Mara National Park, including afternoon game-viewing drives and three meals a day.

The safari aspects of a Kenya trip are unforgettable. You see thousands of animals on each game-viewing drive -- wildebeest and giraffes, elephants and cheetahs, monkeys and rhinoceroses.

You witness the world as it was before human beings lived in it. You see it in parks with no roads or power lines, in which you traverse in open-air vans driven by a guide. It is a mystical experience that all human beings should enjoy.