Encounter Mara Camp | Asilia Africa — Hotel in Siana ward

I don’t even know where to start in describing this place - it’s absolutely incredible. The people, the location, the animals! 10 out of 10, no notes! We went in early March and it was perfect timing. Not as many people but the animals were out in force! ||||I’ll start with the camp - amazing. Beautiful, secluded but safe. The tents did not feel like tents at all. Comfortable beds, fantastic shower and bathrooms, and they put warm water bottles in the beds each night. You oversee the safari during lunch and the lodge tent is very comfortable. The food is seriously the best I’ve had. And they take such care of you - Wilfred, Mercy were wonderful and very accommodating. Elias (so sweet!) Jackson and all the others were so kind and helpful and funny!! So many jokes! And did I mention the food - sooo good. I was having my 50th bday celebration and they did a special Masai dance, complete with singing happy birthday in the middle. Beautiful and incredible. ||||Ok- on to the drives. Wow. Just wow. They promised big cats, and boy did they deliver. We saw soooo many lions - cubs playing , parents mating, all eating a wildebeests head and neck (vertebra- Ich!!!). Talk about nature in action! We saw not one but two cheetahs! A boy and a girl- separate times and both were just lying about. We hoped for a kill (really wanted to see them run) but alas they were lazy cheetahs. But soooo incredibly beautiful. Cannot begin to describe. And their population is declining so I hope they find each other! We saw two leopards - a mama dragging her kill up the tree and her 1yo cub on another tree. Incredible and even more rare than the cheetah. Loved them sooo much. And there were zebras and giraffes and elephants and hippos and baboons and buffalo and warthogs (Pumba!! My favorite) and hyenas ( the absolute worst) and so many gazelles and impalas and birds. More animals than you can imagine. ||||Our guide - Precious- was the best part of the trip. So positive and funny and was able to help us see so many animals (“let’s see what nature brings us today”). She shared her incredible life story with us. I truly believe she is the strongest, most intelligent woman I have ever met. She started the trip as our guide and when we left she was part of our family. ||||Encounter Mara is a special incredible place and I...

We came to Encounter Mara from Asilia's Ol Pejeta Bush Camp and were quite sure that the experience will be similar if not better... We were up for a beautiful surprise!

The camp is so beautifully stitched within nature, that even while driving in, one cannot guess that we are entering a property with multiple tents! The property is spread out in a large area. The walk down from where the car drops you to the reception is long, calming and green. The food is excellent and everything is very well taken care of.

The staff here deserves a special mention. Everyone we spoke to were from the Masai community and the warmth that they carried through every interaction just added to the beauty of this experience. Special mention for Robert who waited on us every day for all of our meals. The ability he had to draw a line balance between being a host who wanted to know about us and share about himself and to decide when to leave us alone was remarkable. We really hope to see him as a Manager if and when we have the good fortune to visit the Mara again.

Our Guide Emmanual Lerionka was a young Masai man who took his time to understand my husband and my expectations from the safari and did all he could to keep our experience both informative and comfortable.

P.S. We learned a of a new animal here, Dikdik. It was the most magical creature that I had ever seen! There is a couple inside the campus that visited us almost every day, but ran away everytime we brought out...

This camp has been an absolute dream. As our first trip to Africa, my husband and I weren’t sure what to expect. Encounter Mara was so amazing and blew us away with the luxury and attention to detail it provided. The “tent” was more of a high end hotel room. Everything was clean and extremely comfortable. The entire staff was attentive and always looking to make sure we had everything we needed. The managers, Eddie and Mercy, were so nice and always around to mingle with the guests and make sure we were being well cared for. |The game drives were out of this world. Our guide, Edwin, was so knowledgeable and fun. He taught us so much about the wildlife and the land. The training process Asilia has for their guides is extensive, and it really showed. |Another shoutout is needed for Elias, one of many staff members that cared for us during our stay. He was so kind and attentive and someone we will always look back on and remember. |The last thing I was blown away by was the food. I’m a fairly picky eater and had almost no expectations for the food in Africa, but wow.. the meals here have been some of my favorite I’ve ever had. They rivaled the meals we’ve had in Spain, Italy, etc. Know that coming here means you will be well fed and well caffeinated (the coffee is better than any I’ve had around the world). |If you’re a first time Africa traveler don’t hesitate to book a stay here. You...