Authentic Adventures started in Nairobi in 2015 with one laptop, a WhatsApp status and a founder who had just been fired by text message. Eleven years later the company runs safaris across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, with its own vehicles, a team of fifteen and an office at Pili Trade Centre on Mombasa Road, opposite Hilton Garden Inn. This is the story, told mostly in Taii Odero’s own words from two television interviews.
NTV, The Money, 2023Fired by text, hired by passion
Taii trained as a medic. He also loved working out and he loved the road. For a while he ran fitness sessions for a gym on the side, until one morning a text message told him not to report again. He asked himself a simple question. If I already enjoy doing this, why not do it for myself?
He registered Authentic Fitness. Then his brother pointed out that plenty of people are scared of the word fitness. Add adventure, he said, so people can come for the trip and get the workout as a bonus. The name changed to Authentic Fitness and Adventure and the phone started ringing. Taii resigned from his job and never went back.
A medic who fell for the road
Taii studied medicine before he ever sold a safari. The training stuck. He still plans a trip the way a clinician plans a shift: think ahead about what could go wrong, keep calm when something does and look after the person in front of you first.
Fitness was the bridge. Group workouts became group hikes, hikes became weekend trips and weekend trips became safaris. The word fitness is still in the company name because that is where the energy came from: people moving, outdoors, together.
Three days a week on the road, looking for new places
From the start the company did something most operators do not. Three days a week the team fills a vehicle and goes to find new destinations, talks to the management, agrees rates and only then sells the trip. Taii’s rule to anyone starting out is blunt: never advertise a place you have not stood in yourself. Know where lunch happens, know the corners, know the people.
That habit is why the price on every page of this website is real. It was negotiated by someone who has slept in the camp.
Not too big for a small group, not too small for a big one
Taii prices trips so that everybody can travel. A day trip for a few thousand shillings sits next to a ten day safari for a family of six. His line on television was simple: I believe there is a person who can find 1,500 to travel with us and a person who can find 100,000. We make sure every month has something for both.
That is still the company’s shape today. Kenyan residents get weekend trips and festive deals in shillings. Visitors from abroad get full safaris with every park fee shown.
The year the roads closed
In 2020 tourism stopped. Taii’s drivers removed the seats from the vehicles and carried fruit from the farms to the city so there was something to earn. The company filmed home workouts with its instructors and sold them from the website. Nobody was laid off and the company did not close. When the parks reopened, the team was still there.
A team of fifteen, no bosses
Today the team is fifteen people, including the drivers and two guides. Taii introduces every one of them as a colleague. Anyone in the office can guide, drive, build a package or sell one and on a busy week most of the team is in the field with clients, not behind a desk. There is an accountant and an internal auditor so the books stay clean.
From Buruburu to Mombasa Road
The first two years the company ran online. Then it moved into town, which was a mistake. Clients would calculate the traffic from their estate to the city and give up. So for a while the office moved to Buruburu on the east side of Nairobi, where there was parking and an easy drive in from Jogoo Road or Outer Ring Road. Today you find the team at Pili Trade Centre on Mombasa Road, opposite Hilton Garden Inn.
Giving back
Every quarter the company organises a charity event. Neighbours in the business complex get discounted rates to travel. Taii also helped start County Discoveries, a group of operators who visit a county, meet its leadership and open it up as a destination for other tour companies.
Watch the Y254 interview
In January 2021 Y254 Channel’s Entrepreneurship Tuesday spent a morning with Taii. Part one is a short introduction. Part two is the full conversation on pricing, hunting for destinations and what goes wrong when a competitor copies your poster.
Y254, part one
Y254, part twoWhat we do today
- Private and group joining safaris in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda
- Nairobi and Mombasa day trips, hikes and team building
- Beach holidays in Diani, Watamu and Zanzibar
- Hotel booking, airport transfers and car hire with a driver
- Corporate team building, including a session for the National Assembly
Want to travel with people who answer their own phone? Send your dates and we reply with a real price.
Chat on WhatsAppVisit us
Pili Trade Centre, 2nd floor, room 121, Mombasa Road, Nairobi. Next to Argyle Grand Hotel and opposite Hilton Garden Inn. P.O. Box 17456, 00100 Nairobi. Phone and WhatsApp +254 720 731957. Email info@authenticadventures.co.ke. Rated 5.0 on Google from 46 reviews.
