Handpicked safari lodges & camps across Africa

Nairobi

Nairobi Serena Hotel stands on Kenyatta Avenue beside Central Park, about five minutes from the city's business district. It has 196 remodelled rooms and suites, with interiors that draw on Ethiopian, North African, West African and East African design. Restaurants include Mandhari for fine dining, Herbs & Spices for South-East Asian food and Cafe Maghreb for all-day buffets, with the Aksum Bar alongside. The Maisha Spa & Health Club has a gym, sauna, steam room and heated pool, and resident guests are offered free cultural heritage tours.

Modern rooms with air conditioning and Wi-Fi

Nairobi

Hemingways Nairobi is an all-suite boutique hotel in Karen, the leafy suburb between Nairobi National Park and the Ngong Hills. Opened in 2013, it has 45 suites, each with a terrace or balcony facing the Ngong Hills, and offers butler service, a brasserie, a bar and a spa. It stands in about ten acres of gardens, roughly 30 minutes from Wilson Airport and 40 minutes from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The Karen Blixen Museum, the Giraffe Centre and Nairobi National Park are all close by, so it works well as a quiet first or last night on a safari.

Modern rooms with air conditioning and Wi-Fi

Masai Mara National Reserve

Mara Serena Safari Lodge sits on a hilltop in the Mara Triangle, the western sector of the Masai Mara National Reserve, above a broad bend of the Mara River. Its 74 rooms, including one suite, are compact en-suite units with small balconies, and the design draws on the circular layout of a Maasai manyatta. Facilities include a heated swimming pool, the Maisha Spa and gym, a restaurant with views over the plains and a conference room. The lodge has run on solar power since 2019, and the Serena airstrip is a few minutes away.

Spacious rooms with en-suite bathrooms and private veranda

Masai Mara National Reserve

Angama Mara sits on the rim of the Oloololo (Siria) Escarpment, looking down over the Mara Triangle in the west of Kenya's Masai Mara. The name is Swahili for 'suspended in mid-air'. It has 30 tented suites split between two separate camps of 15, each camp with its own lounge, dining area and pool. Every suite has a floor-to-ceiling glass front facing the plains, and four interconnecting suites suit families. The lodge also runs a photographic studio with resident photographers, a gym, a curio and Maasai beadwork shop and a kitchen garden.

Spacious rooms with en-suite bathrooms and private veranda

Masai Mara National Reserve

Keekorok Lodge is a premier safari lodge in the heart of Africa's most spectacular wildlife regions. A safari lodge offering comfortable rooms with en-suite facilities, restaurant, and lounge areas. Located in prime wildlife viewing areas with easy access to game drives and guided excursions.

Spacious rooms with en-suite bathrooms and private veranda

Lake Nakuru National Park

Lake Nakuru Guest House is a premier safari lodge in the heart of Africa's most spectacular wildlife regions. A safari lodge offering comfortable rooms with en-suite facilities, restaurant, and lounge areas. Located in prime wildlife viewing areas with easy access to game drives and guided excursions.

Spacious rooms with en-suite bathrooms and private veranda

Masai Mara National Reserve

&Beyond Bateleur Camp lies on a private concession at the base of the Oloololo Escarpment, on the western boundary of the Masai Mara National Reserve, just below the spot where the final scene of Out of Africa was filmed. It has 18 tents in two separate camps of nine, each tent with a private deck facing the plains and butler service. Interiors use antiques and old safari pieces in the style of 1920s explorers. There are two swimming pools, a gym and a massage sala, and activities include day and night game drives, walks and balloon safaris.

Authentic canvas tents with comfortable beds and en-suite facilities

Nairobi

Giraffe Manor is a small hotel in a 1932 manor house in Nairobi's Lang'ata suburb, built in the style of a Scottish hunting lodge. Jock and Betty Leslie-Melville bought it in 1974 and began breeding the endangered Rothschild's giraffe here, founding the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife. The resident herd roams the grounds and is famous for reaching through the windows at breakfast and afternoon tea. Rooms are split between the original manor and a separate garden manor. The Safari Collection has owned it since 2009, and it closes each year from mid-April to mid-May.

Spacious rooms with en-suite bathrooms and private veranda

Lake Naivasha

Chui Lodge is a small lodge in the private Oserengoni Wildlife Sanctuary on the shores of Lake Naivasha, about two hours by road from Nairobi. Its individually designed cottages, set in indigenous forest, have four-poster beds, log fires and verandas, and much of the furniture is made in the lodge's own workshop. There is a heated pool overlooking a waterhole, a spa tent and a dining room with hand-carved artwork. Day and night game drives in the sanctuary, boat trips on the lake and bush breakfasts are included in the activities.

Spacious rooms with en-suite bathrooms and private veranda

Nairobi

Villa Rosa Kempinski is a large hotel on Chiromo Road in Nairobi's Westlands area, with 200 rooms and suites over ten floors and a presidential suite at the top. Places to eat and drink include Lucca, Tambourin, the Balcony Bar, K Lounge and Cafe Villa Rosa. Kempinski The Spa and fitness centre, an outdoor pool, a grand ballroom and private meeting rooms complete the facilities. It is a full-service city base for travellers combining business in Nairobi with a safari.

Modern rooms with air conditioning and Wi-Fi

Amboseli National Park

Kibo Villa is a three-bedroom private house inside Amboseli National Park, set in about five acres of gardens and acacia tortilis woodland facing Kilimanjaro. It is run by Manrik Hotels, the operator of the nearby Ol Tukai Lodge, and is booked for exclusive use. The house has a lounge, a full kitchen, a barbecue area, a veranda for dining and a top-floor master suite with a terrace looking at the mountain. Stays are all-inclusive with a chef, butler, private pool and a dedicated Land Cruiser for game drives, which suits families or small groups.

Private living spaces with personal chef and butler

Masai Mara National Reserve

&Beyond Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp lies on a private concession on the western edge of the Masai Mara, where the forest of the Oloololo Escarpment meets the open plains, along the Saparingo River. It has 40 tents: 12 classic tents in the forest, 20 superior tents among the trees and eight superior view tents facing the plains, including family suites. Tents are raised with screened decks. The camp has a rim-flow pool, an open-air restaurant, a spa tent, the Tusker Bar and a kitchen garden, and game drives cover a concession that sits on the migration route.

Spacious rooms with en-suite bathrooms and private veranda

Nairobi

The Norfolk Hotel, now Fairmont The Norfolk, opened in 1904 on what is now Harry Thuku Road in central Nairobi, built by Major C.G.R. Ringer and R. Aylmer Winearls. It began with 40 rooms, a billiard room and a French chef, and grew over the following decades. Today its rooms and suites look onto tropical courtyard gardens. Facilities include a heated outdoor pool with a poolside restaurant, a health club and spa, the Tatu restaurant, the Cin Cin wine bar and the Lord Delamere Terrace.

Modern rooms with air conditioning and Wi-Fi

Diani

Alfajiri Villas is a group of three private villas, the Cliff, Garden and Beach Villas, on Diani Beach on Kenya's south coast. Each is let for exclusive use and sits above a low coral cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean, with makuti roofs, Lamu doors and tropical gardens. The villas have their own pools, including an infinity pool set into the coral at the Cliff Villa, and stays come with a butler and chef. The property is owned by Fabrizio and Marika Molinaro, who have lived on the Kenya coast for most of their lives.

Private living spaces with personal chef and butler

Diani

Hemingways Watamu is a beach hotel on Turtle Bay at Watamu, on Kenya's north coast about 2.5 hours from Mombasa. All rooms and apartments face the Indian Ocean and have private balconies. The hotel has two large pools, a children's pool and an adults-only pool, a spa and gym, and a main restaurant plus a beach bar. It is best known as a game-fishing centre with its own boats, targeting sailfish and marlin, and also offers snorkelling, diving, dhow cruises and seasonal whale watching. Many guests use it to unwind after a safari.

Modern rooms with air conditioning and Wi-Fi

Mount Kenya

Elsa's Kopje is a lodge built into the rocks of Mughwango Hill in Meru National Park, Kenya, above the site of George Adamson's camp where he raised and released Elsa, the lioness of Born Free. Opened in 1999 and now run by Elewana, it has nine open-fronted thatched cottages with verandas looking over the plains, plus a private house with its own small pool. Bathrooms are shaped around the natural rock. The lodge has a swimming pool, and its visitor income is credited with helping to keep Meru protected.

Spacious rooms with en-suite bathrooms and private veranda

Great Rift Valley

The Great Rift Valley Lodge & Golf Resort sits at about 7,000 feet on the slopes of Mount Eburru above Lake Naivasha, roughly 90 minutes by road from Nairobi. The lodge has 30 rooms with balconies over the Rift Valley, and the estate also has private houses and chalets beside the golf course. Its golf course is laid out on volcanic slopes, and zebra and gazelle graze in the grounds. Horse riding, birdwatching and trips to Hell's Gate National Park and Crater Lake are offered, with views across to Mount Longonot.

Spacious rooms with en-suite bathrooms and private veranda

Aberdare

Treetops is a stilted lodge in Kenya's Aberdare National Park, first built in 1932 among the trees beside a waterhole and salt lick. Princess Elizabeth was staying here in February 1952 when her father died and she became Queen. The present 36-room lodge faces the waterhole, which is floodlit after dark so guests can watch elephant and buffalo from the decks. It closed in 2021 and reopened under new management in 2024, offering standard rooms, suites and Queen Elizabeth rooms, plus guided walks and game drives.

Elevated accommodation among the treetops