The Best Luxury Tented
Safaris in Kenya

You could spend a lifetime just soaking in the feeling of enormous splendour from this location. The camp perches on the edge of a cliff overlooking a plain of staggering scale, and the aerial view of the waterhole is unbeatable. If you ask the staff to leave your tent open at night, you’ll wake up to an elemental scene of sunrise over the undulating scenery of Laikipia.

Spend a night with nothing but a mosquito net between you and the immensity of the starlit African sky on a Loisaba Star Bed. Each of these handcrafted four-posters sits on a wooden platform, giving a sweeping view of the sunrise over the plains and waterhole. With an early morning cuppa brought by a Samburu host and a sitting area and bathroom incorporated into the ruggedly rocky location, this experience is way more than just a bed on a ledge.

Loisaba is a place where you can spend a day with an anti-poaching canine unit. These helpful hounds, together with their expert local handlers, are playing a vital role in protecting the wildlife, including the growing rhino population in the conservancy. You’ll have a chance to see if you yourself can outwit Warrior and Machine, the resident sniffer dogs. Prepare to realise the superiority of their senses.

The nearby community-owned Reteti Elephant Sanctuary is a place to commune with orphaned and abandoned elephants where they are lovingly nurtured before release back into the wild. Many of the rescued calves have been found after falling down wells and need help to recover from the trauma of abandonment. Guests can see feeding and playtime and learn from expert pachyderm therapists and carers, many of whom are women from the local area.

The rounded granite kopjes are a fascinating maze of beautiful rock formations and tremendous views. To trek among these hills is a very different experience from a safari in the lowlands, and we recommend carrying binoculars not just for the rock-dwelling birds and animals but also to spy on the herds of grazers on the plains below. The ultimate hike from here is the ascent of the sacred mountain of Ololokwe.

For tremendous photographs from a unique point of view, the camp has a hide with a difference: an adapted shipping container sunk into the ground. Safe even from trampling elephants, the hide faces a waterhole that attracts a continuous parade not just of elephants but also ostriches, zebra, giraffes and oryx. It’s a place to grab images that may rival those of National Geographic photographer Sergio Pitamitz, the inventor of the hide.

Saruni Wild is one of the more exclusively petite camps in the Masai Mara region. Indeed, it is small enough for some groups or families to rent the whole thing to have the place to themselves. More importantly, however, it sits lightly in the landscape and is not only incidental and barely visible to the herds of animals, but its environmental impact is minimal.

The enormous plains that Saruni Wild overlook are part of the theatre of the immense annual spectacle of the Great Migration. Between July and October each year, more than a million wildebeest and zebras flood the area in search of greener pastures. This part of Kenya lives up to the iconic image of African grandeur – enjoy a private view of dramatic river crossings, peaceful drives among the countless grazing herds, and wrap up your adventures with a sundown dinner in the bush.

To stand within a few feet of the great bulk of a white rhino is an unforgettable experience, and this is exactly what you can do at Ol Chorro. Locally run and staffed by experts from the community, the rhino sanctuary is a haven for rhinos, safe from poachers, as they are nurtured before their eventual release. While most are kept distant from visitors, a couple are happy to be approached while they graze.

There’s no sense of being churned through by a money-making scheme when you stay at Cottar’s, for this place is run by a family with deep African roots. Visiting East Africa in the first decade of the 20th century to make films for the American audience, Chas Cottar moved permanently with his family to this part of the world in 1912. Descendants have been part of the historical fabric of this region ever since.

The Masai Mara has a well-justified reputation for great safaris, but this comes with the downside of visitor numbers. Cottar’s, however, is tucked into the southeastern border of the Mara, close to the border with the Serengeti; an area with very few camps. Safaris from here are blissfully free from the sight of other vehicles, and you’ll genuinely feel as if you are exploring an undiscovered land as you have uninterrupted repeated encounters with magnificent wildlife.

The Cottar family has spent more than a century forging links with conservationists and the local community (who are increasingly the same people, thankfully). Guests are thoroughly encouraged to experience the multi-vector involvement of the camp beyond itself. You can learn about upcycling and recycling, visit the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust, the Mara Meru Cheetah Project, learn from the wisdom of a Maasai grandmother, and see the many facets of the Cottar’s Wildlife Conservation Trust.

We tend to use the ‘L word’ quite a lot, but there are different levels of luxury, and Angama Amboseli hits the highest notes. It would be hard to find any way to make the suites more perfect. From their looks to their size, to bathrooms, décor, facilities and setting, they tick a few boxes you didn’t even know existed. What’s more, the camp’s other facilities, including the stunning swimming pool, are the stuff of dreams.

No one wants to come home from a safari with photos of distant specks as evidence of their patience. Fear not, for Angama Amboseli has a state-of-the-art photographic centre, with computers, ultra-modern printers, cameras and lenses to rent, and resident experts to give lessons and constant help. You can even use the services of one of the camp’s photographers so that you can concentrate on the wildlife and even appear in a few photos yourself.

One of the most exciting days of your life will begin with your butler delivering breakfast to your suite well before dawn. Before you know it, you’ll be having a pre-flight briefing before rising through the morning mists in a hot air balloon. You may not reach the altitude of the summit of Kilimanjaro itself, but you’ll have awesome views of it and the enormous plains that encircle this icon of Africa.