Kilima Camp Masai Mara — Hotel in Narok

Our journey started at the Nairobi Wilson airport and took us 35 minutes with a domestic flight to Kichwa Tempo, which is the local airport. The view from the plane was already wonderful, endless landscapes and you could spot already animals. We landed in the middle of the Masai Mara and got a warm welcome from the manager. It was just a 20 minutes drive from the landing area to the Camp. Kilima is the only Eco-Camp in the mara, which has been honored by the Eco-Gold which was the main reason for our stay. The camp manager taught us everything of how they make their own power by wind turbines, having their own garden with a bunch of different fruits, vegetables and herbes. Hand-picked by the chef every day. They have also their own cows. From cheese to meat - the whole food is local, we just loved that fact. In the morning, before you head out for safari, you can have breakfast from a buffet with a great variety of fruits. For lunch, there is a buffet, too. And for dinner we had a four-course menu everyday. Starting from small salad, followed by a hot soup and the main dish. You can always choose between a vegetarian dish and a dish with meat. The highlight was a very nice dessert. The food was excellent, everything was super fresh and extremely rich in flavor. The Camp is super save, they have rangers and their own security, never felt unprotected or unsafe. The tents are very comfortable in every way. In the evening, they always serve a hot-water bottle under your blanket to make the bed warm and cosy for the night. Everyday in the morning we watched the breathtaking sunrise with hot balloons at the sky. In the evening, they arrange a campfire, which is such a nice place to chill out and have some good conversations. During our stay, we did two half-day game drives. We started our first tour in the afternoon until 6:30pm and started the day after by sunrise until midday. The highlight was having lunch under a tree in middle of the Mara land. We never expected to see so many animals. In our eyes, the Masai Mara is one of the untouched natures we ever seen. We also booked a horse hiding, which the camp offers to see giraffes and zebras much closer than by the game drive. The Kilima Camp has seven beautiful horses - all are very kind and well trained. Even if you aren’t a good horse rider you can make the tour. 10 minutes away from the camp is the real Masai village, which we visited. It was very interesting to see how everything works and to learn more about the culture. The women and the kids danced and sung in front of us, an amazing experience. All in all, we very much enjoyed our stay at Kilima Camp and can recommend everyone who loves to seek a real experience in the Masai Mara area. It’s lovely for couples on holidays and also very family friendly. The staff is awesome and the self-grown food...

We had several reasons for choosing Kilima over other camps, all of which proved to be more than justified:

The view We loved that Kilima is up on the hill, overlooking the Mara river and Mara triangle. Also, due to this there were basically no mosquitoes.

The bush walks Due to Kilima camp not being situated within the park itself, they can offer bush walks. We took a 3 hour walk (which was free) with Birika, a Maasai elder, who showed us medicinal plants, and "micro" animal life such as beetles, termites, and so on. Getting close to the zebras and giraffes on foot was also quite a bit more impressive than while inside the safari car.

The horses Kilima is the only camp in this area that has horses. The horseback safari was an awesome experience! We got very close to giraffes, zebras and other grazers. Galopping amongst a herd of zebras was such a thrill. The horses at Kilima at incredibly docile - good for beginners - but as most of them are former race horses, if you are an experienced rider they'll make sure to leave you breathless once you give them the reins. Simon, who runs the stables, is such a nice guy and takes his time to adjust to any level rider.

The ecological aspect Kilima is an eco camp, they try to be as self-sustainable as possible with regards to energy and food. The manager Mohamed will happily explain everything about how they do that. Be sure to ask for a garden tour to see for yourself where the veg and fruit comes from. The garden salads were the best we've had!

If you are put off by the fact that Kilima camp is outside park confines, don't be. All the above mentioned points would not be possible otherwise. Also, the daily drive down to the park gate only takes an additional 20 minutes, and you'll see plenty of animals on the way already. The animals do not care about park boundaries, you'll see plenty of them around the camp - one day we had giraffes grazing right in front of our tent at sunrise.

Other great things about Kilima include: The food (top notch, and you'll never have to go hungry), the attentive and friendly service (we loved finding a hot water bottle in our bed at night), the constructive collaboration they have with the Maasai village, the beautifully furnished tents and dining area, really great cars and drivers for the game drives who will make sure to introduce you to all the animals in the Mara, outdoor showers in the tents, and well I'll stop here cause otherwise I'll just go on and on :)

I recommend staying for at least 3 nights so you'll have time to do plenty of game drives and also horse rides and bush walks. We stayed for 4 nights and were very sad when it was time to leave.

Thank you,...

Our experience at Kilima was seriously lacking, but I’ll start with the pros before the cons.||Pros: the view is sensational and the tents are very nice. And Carin is the absolute best! She is so sweet!||Cons: we paid extra for the horseback ride and our guide never spoke one word to us. He didn’t go over any safety and my sister had never been in an English saddle before. ||We filled out the client survey about our food allergies and they still tried feeding us the food we are allergic to. There wasn’t much variety in food either. Same meal every morning and pasta at every meal. ||We also paid extra for a night game drive which was not cheap. It immediately started to downpour and immediately asked if we could try tomorrow night instead. Unfortunately our guides were very pushy and insisted we keep going. They then needed to put down the flaps because the rain was coming down so hard. The guides said we’d go back and try again tomorrow but at the last minute decided that we’d stay out in the weather. We spent the entire game drive either stuck in the mud or dealing with putting down or up the flaps to deal with the torrential rain. Yes we understand that you can’t control the weather but it was a very uncomfortable situation and we had asked to go back several times. On top of that we were told the game drive would be 3-4 hours and it was 1 hour and 40 mins. Not worth the money we spent at all. Then they sent us to our tent without so much as offering us a drinks.||We also paid extra for the bubble bath which was not on the spa menu listed as a charge and we were under the impression it was complimentary. It was not and it was not communicated to us until checking out. ||Hospitality in general was lacking here and we couldn’t wait to leave. As someone who travels often and to Africa I’ve never experienced any of...