Hemingways Hotel

Kenya

On arrival, a private hotel driver will meet you at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the transfer to the hotel will take about 30 minutes (traffic willing).

The hotel’s expansive terrace looks out to the Ngong Hills and overlooks manicured gardens. There is a heated swimming pool adjacent to the spa and gym.

There are 45 suites, including the Hemingways Suite, Blixen Suite, 19 Executive Suites, and 24 Deluxe Suites.

The Hemingways Nairobi Brasserie serves good food.

About this area

Kenya's capital, Nairobi, is an unavoidable stopover as most international flights arrive at night. Most people are keen to head out on safari as soon as possible and tend not to spend much time in the city. But for those who choose to spend an extra night or two to adjust to time changes, there are some great hotels and restaurants, and the shopping opportunities—in small shops, malls or outdoor curio markets —can be very good. The Sheldrick Trust needs to be booked well in advance, especially if you want a private experience.

Lowis & Leakey Mobile Camp, Mara Triangle

Kenya

Lara’s and Ninian’s families have used mobile camps to access the wilderness in comfort for many decades. We have custom-designed the tents to ensure they are spacious and comfortable. As this camp is truly mobile, the tents strike a delicate balance between luxury and practicality. The result is an unpretentious, stylish, and comfortable nomadic home.

Our guest tents have ensuite bathrooms with traditional camp showers, a flushing loo, comfortable bedding, and solar-powered lights.

You will be the only guests in camp, allowing you to dictate the pace of each day. Game drives and other activities are not pre-planned but based on daily discussions with your guides. Lara plans the menus and is happy to cater to any preferences, and the team takes pride in fabulously fresh food and homestyle cooking.

It can be fun to stay in the mobile camp in different areas of Kenya. You move to a lodge for a few nights while our team moves the camp.

About this area

The Masai Mara Game Reserve is world-famous and offers some of Africa's most beautiful landscapes. Its rolling grasslands seem to go on forever, bisected by numerous watercourses, some of the bigger ones lined with riverine forests. It potentially offers the best game viewing in Africa.

The Mara Serengeti ecosystem straddles the border of Kenya and Tanzania. The Mara Reserve sits within that ecosystem; it is about 1,500 square kilometres, which is vast compared to many of the surrounding conservancies. But even more extraordinary is that it is part of an enormous contiguous wilderness of over 30,000 square kilometres, including the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and Maswa. That's about the size of Belgium. Wildebeest, zebra, elephants, eland, leopards, and cheetah traverse hundreds of kilometres over this land.

Choosing the right location within the ecosystem, the right guide and the right season are of utmost importance, possibly more important than any other factors when planning your trip. We feel that the Mara Reserve still holds some of the finest safari experiences anywhere in Africa; the wildlife is phenomenal year-round, with an incredible variety of different animals and good numbers of predators. However, it is essential to avoid some parts of the Mara Reserve during the few months of the peak tourist season as they can suffer terribly from overcrowding, which can detract from your experience

Enasoit Camp

Kenya

Camp life revolves around the spacious mess tent, which overlooks a busy water hole and salt lick. There is a wooden deck for game viewing and drinks and a cosy dining and sitting area with a fireplace for cooler evenings. About 20 minutes away from the main camp, there is a pretty pool set in lush gardens where you can cool off in the heat of the day.

The 7 cottages are cleverly constructed from canvas, thatch and permanent local materials. Each bedroom has a fireplace, a private veranda and a comfortable seating area with sheepskin sofas for morning tea and game viewing. Bathrooms are en-suite with flush toilets and hot-pressure showers.

Because you have the camp to yourselves, the days are flexible. You can go on game drives (night and day ), walk with a guide, explore the neighbouring Loldaiga Conservancy, simply relax (there is an in-house Massuese), and enjoy the ample game in front of the camp.

This is one of our favourite camps.

About this area

The Laikipia plateau is a large area of land that sits to the northwest of Mount Kenya. It comprises a varied tapestry of conservation areas and tribal rangelands, making up one of Kenya's largest and most important wildlife areas. A staggering one million acres of Laikipia are part of a conservation landscape. The land tenure, governance, and management of the different conservation areas are very diverse, but all are aligned by a collaborative vision to use conservation as a tool to enhance local livelihoods and keep wildlife populations as healthy as possible.

The rangelands of Laikipia are becoming well-recognised as one of the best places to go on safari. Typically, there are fewer crowds here, and there is the chance to do more hiking, exploring on foot, horse riding, bike riding, or night drives. Great strides have been made to keep the landscape connected, and wildlife can now roam freely between different conservancies, enabling them to migrate across huge ranges.