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Bookara safari vehicles at a lion sighting in the Maasai Mara

About Bookara

A small, licensed safari company in Nairobi, run by its two founders.

Our story

Why we started Bookara

Friends and family visiting Kenya kept asking us the same thing: how do we do a safari without overpaying, or booking something that isn't what it looked like online? We ended up planning a lot of those trips for people we knew.

In 2026 we turned that into a company. Bookara is licensed by Kenya's Tourism Regulatory Authority, registered in Kenya, and runs from an office on Moi Avenue in Nairobi. This is our first year of public departures, so we're small, and every trip gets our personal attention.

We sell safaris and beach holidays across Kenya, from two-day trips to the Maasai Mara to week-long routes that finish on the coast, and we'll build a custom route if none of ours fits.

Founded
2026, Nairobi
Licence
TRA TRA1/47/C01/92463
Company no.
PVT-KW192OWZ
Office
Tumaini House, Room 304, Moi Avenue, Nairobi, Kenya
Contact
WhatsApp · hello@bookaratours.com
Meet the team

The people you'll be dealing with

Henry Kay

Co-founder · Operations

Henry runs operations — every lodge contract, every Land Cruiser, every driver-guide rotation goes through him. Eight years in East African travel ops, born and raised in Nairobi.

Mercy Mbinya

Co-founder · Guest experience

Mercy plans every itinerary that goes out the door — she writes it, prices it and stays on it until you're home. If you book Bookara, you'll likely be chatting with her on WhatsApp.

On every trip you'll also have a professional driver-guide, who we brief personally before you arrive.

Why travel with us

What booking with us looks like

  • We run the trip ourselves

    We plan it, book the lodges, brief your driver-guide and stay on WhatsApp with you from the airport to your flight home.

  • You talk to the founders

    There's no call centre. Messages go to Henry or Mercy, usually answered within a couple of hours during Kenyan daytime.

  • The price you see is the price

    Taxes, park fees, your guide and lodges are in the price on every trip page. Nothing new appears at checkout.

  • Lodges we contract directly

    We hold our own rates with the lodges we use, including the Sopa lodges and properties on the coast.

  • Set trips or your own

    Book one of our packages online, or tell us what you have in mind and we'll build and price a route for you.

  • Based in Nairobi

    We're on the ground in Kenya, so when something needs sorting on your trip, we can sort it ourselves.

Your money

How payment and refunds work

The same rules apply to every booking, and they're written into our booking terms.

  1. 30% deposit to book. Paid by card or Apple Pay through Paystack. Your card details never reach us.
  2. Balance 45 days before you travel. We send reminders. Booking closer to departure than that? You pay in full, with a small discount.
  3. Refunds. Cancel 90 or more days before departure for a full refund, or 60–89 days before for 50% back.
  4. Receipts for everything. Every payment is confirmed by email with your booking reference.
How to check us

We're new, so you don't have reviews to go on yet

That's a fair reason to be careful. Here's how you can check us out before you pay anything.

  • Ask for our TRA licence. Licence TRA1/47/C01/92463. We'll send you a photo of the certificate, which carries a QR code you can verify.
  • Look up the company. Bookara Tours & Safaris is registered in Kenya as PVT-KW192OWZ.
  • Visit or call. Our office is at Tumaini House, Room 304, Moi Avenue, Nairobi, Kenya. Open in Google Maps. Happy to do a video call too.
  • Pay only through the site. Online payments go through Paystack to Bookara's account, never to a personal number.

Karibu. Let's plan your trip.

Tell us your dates and what you'd like to see, and we'll come back with a route and a price.

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