Eco Farmhouse: Ostrich House Review
Today, I decided to post the last part of my review of Eco Farmhouse: Ostrich House Kenya. As I mentioned in the first one, we were there for two nights and this was our last day/night there since we left a little early the next morning.
For the full video experience of day 2, check out my YouTube video yesterday:
Exploring
We started by exploring some more. One thing we all love is being out in nature so we were just outside for most of the morning taking pictures.
Before we left, we had some tea which was complementary but I didn’t have any because they didn’t offer any vegan/plant based milk options. I took pictures for the blog though, lolz.
Fruit Picking and Ostrich Feeding
In the afternoon, we wanted to feed the ostriches again and do a bit of fruit picking which was a blast. We were able to pick so many fruits including dragonfruit, raw mangoes and raw papayas and more. I absolutely love raw mangoes and papayas and is the only way I eat them. I really dislike ripe papayas and not a fan of ripe mangoes either. The workers were super helpful and helped us pick the fruits since some were too high up for us to reach. And for some there were no path for us to walk through to get to the fruits.
We did get to some gooseberries (aka amla), something I talked to my blogging buddy Devang about and he even wrote a post about it:
Other fruits we came back with:
Once we got back to the house, we were able to feed the ostriches again which was such a blast and also less scary this time!
Until, I tried my stand up comedy routine once more and instantly regretted it…
Final Thoughts
After all this, we decided to play some cards before dinner.
Once we were done, we heated up some dinner, finished eating and headed to bed since we were planning on leaving early the next day.
The Good
Since this was the last post about Eco Farmhouse: Ostrich House, it thought I would share the good and the bad since this is technically a review. I’ll start with the good:
- The owner let us check in a little early which was really nice of her.
- They let us pick huge amounts of fruits which was so generous. Stuff like dragonfruit is actually pretty expensive and it was so nice of them to let us pick so many. Some people have a limit but they didn’t and were very generous.
- The staff was so friendly and helpful.
- We woke up to squirrels running around on the roof and birds chirping which made me feel like I was in a fairytale.
What Could Be Improved
I’m not mentioning this as “the bad” because I think it wasn’t “the bad.” Just more like things I feel the owner could improve to help people feel more comfortable at the farm. I’ms haring this just so people who may plan to go there someday get the full picture of what they should expect.
- The farm and the farmhouse itself was crawling in bugs and lizards. There were SO many insects we were kind of taken aback. I’m not stupid, I know there are bound to be bugs and other things at farmhouses. I’ve been to multiple farms both in Kenya and in other countries. However, the sheer quantity of bugs and lizards was insane. There were so many spiders in my sisters room and two actually fell on her. There were also tiny spider in her bed behind her pillows. And a cricket jumped on her while she tried to close the window. There were also a lot of ants in her room. These were probably harmless but still, ew. There were wasps and bees too which was kind of scary because I almost got stung by the wasp multiple times. And mosquitos which I sort of have PTSD with because of the time I got malaria. These insects then attracted lizards which were EVERYWHERE including walking around on the floor and literally pooping on us from the ceiling. The place seriously needed to be fumigated or better maintained. All they did was put bug spray in our room before we slept which didn’t really help at all to be honest. And if you pointed out any of the insects to them they would hit them to death with a broom which I found barbaric. As a vegan, I just couldn’t see that so I kept quiet. I was literally scared to sleep and slept with the lights on because there were so many weird bugs and lizards in my bedroom.
- It was quite dirty. Not messy, dirty. There was dirt/dust on the utensils as well as bugs on many of them. We had to rewash stuff before using it. The bedsheets literally had dead insects on them.
- It was quite mismanaged. They didn’t replace our hand towels when they came to clean our rooms. Which was odd because mine was pretty dirty. I also ran out of bathing towels the first night and they didn’t replace those either when they cleaned the next day. They just took the ones I had used to wash. That was odd to me since every hotel, AirBnB, motel, inn etc I have ever been to has at least replaced towels without having to ask. I don’t blame the workers for this though. I think the owner needs to tell them to always replace things. Especially when you’re charging quite a lot for two nights. I feel like that’s the least you can do.
- The weeds hadn’t been removed so there were no paths to the fruits for fruit picking. I feel like if you’re offering fruit picking as one of your activities at least have paths to the fruit? Getting to the fruit through a bunch of overgrown weeds and grass was hard. And it meant there were lots of insects in the grass, some of which do bite/sting. I’ve been to other farms and there have always been paths which we can use to get to the fruits. Again, this wouldn’t generally be such a big deal for me but it was because of the price. It’s pretty expensive (for Kenya) and if you’re advertising it as this beautiful, well maintained, luxurious place you should be ready to deliver that experience.
- This was sort of the dealbreaker from me and guaranteed I won’t be going back there. It had to do with the bathrooms. For some unknown reason, there were huge windows next to the toilet and shower in the bathroom. These windows were located in such a way that you could see what was happening inside the bathroom from the middle area with the couches. I went to use the bathroom in the evening and my sister ran in to tell me she can see what I’m doing from outside. I was mortified. The only thing covering the windows were shutters. So we called one of the staff members to help close the shutters as mine was broken. He closed them and I asked if they were fully closed and he told me they were. I thanked him and he left. My sister suggested we make sure nothing could be seen now so I went outside and my sister stayed in the bathroom and unfortunately I could still see inside. I couldn’t see one hundred percent but I could definitely see enough. It didn’t help that the bathroom light was so bright and the shutters were so old and bent in certain parts. This made me so uncomfortable so I covered the window with a towel so at least no one could see me use the bathroom. When I mentioned this to the owner (very politely after assuring her everything else was great) she got weirdly defensive and spammed me with pictures for days trying to prove me wrong. But I know what I saw and you can’t always see stuff in pictures that you can in real life. If you do decide to go here, please be aware of this because I found the window placement and the fact that she used these old shutters instead of proper curtains so odd.
Final Verdict:
Overall, we had a good time at Eco Farmhouse: Ostrich House. But for the price, it was really lacking. I could have gone to a better place for cheaper. Why didn’t I? I fell for the false advertising online. It was shown to be this luxurious, well kept place. Which it just wasn’t.
As for my final verdict on Eco Farmhouse: Ostrich House? I wouldn’t recommend it simply because the price is too high for the experience you’re getting. For that price you could go to a much better and actually luxurious place in Kenya.
Hope you enjoyed my Eco Farmhouse: Ostrich House review! Let me know your thoughts about it in the comments below!
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