East Africa, properly known.
Duma has been arranging safaris out of Nairobi since 2013. Direct contracts across four countries, a guiding team who grew up in the places they work, and a standard we hold whether you are travelling alone or booking out a camp.
Where we started
Duma began in 2013 with one vehicle and a conviction: that a safari should be arranged by someone who had actually slept in the camps they were selling, and who would say so plainly when a camp had slipped.
That conviction turned into a company. Today we hold direct contracts across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, run our own vehicles and guides rather than subcontracting them, and have put several thousand guests into the field. Our consultants have personally stayed in the great majority of the properties we sell. Where we have not, we tell you — which is rarer in this industry than it should be.
What that buys you
Allocation at camps that are otherwise full in August. Rates held directly rather than marked up through a third party. A team on the ground in Nairobi who can move a flight, change a camp or find a doctor on a Sunday. And one consultant who owns your trip end to end, rather than a ticket passed between departments.
What duma means
It is Swahili for cheetah. Fast when it needs to be, and otherwise perfectly content to sit under a tree doing nothing at all — which, if we are honest, is most of what a good safari consists of.
Most of our guiding team grew up within an hour of where they work.
Four conversations, usually.
You tell us roughly
Dates, who is coming, what you want out of it, and what you would rather avoid. Three minutes is enough.
We send a route
A day-by-day itinerary with real camps and a real price. Not a brochure — something you can react to.
You change it
Most trips take a few passes. That is normal, and it is where the trip actually gets designed.
We hold it
A deposit secures the camps. From there we handle the flights, the transfers and the paperwork.
What we will not do
We will not put you somewhere we have not been. We will not sell you a peak-season week in the reserve if a conservancy the same week would be better and cheaper. And we will not quietly downgrade a camp because availability changed — if something moves, you hear it from us first.
Licensing
Duma Tours & Travels is licensed by the Tourism Regulatory Authority of Kenya and is a member of the Kenya Association of Tour Operators. Our vehicles carry passenger service insurance and are inspected annually.
We asked for the Mara in August. They talked us into Laikipia in March, and they were completely right.