Mara Bushtops Luxury Camp — Hotel in Siana ward

Jambo! Motinda, Javam, Sam, Fredrick, Laban and David,||Asante sana, kwa ukarimu wako mzuri na ukaaji mzuri sana.||Why Mara Bushtops:|We came on honeymoon to Mara Bushtops in 2008 and came back with our children, now 15 and 16 for a family holiday of a lifetime. ||Travelling:|This was relatively easy - Heathrow to Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International. Overnight at Ole Serena in Nairobi and a transfer from Nairobi Wilson airport to Keekarok Airstrip the following morning, the game drive starts as soon as you leave the bush airstrip. Mara Bushtops has it's own airstrip in the conservancy - Mara Siana which we used for departure and which includes a seating area and bathroom.||10 Star tents:|First things first. Thank you Fredrick for looking after our family with such care and attention for our entire stay. |We travelled as a family of four, for four nights and five days. The family tent was not available the first night and we stayed in Fox and Elephant tents, which were the same style tent we had on honeymoon and were as amazing as we had remembered.|The family tent. Wow - just wow. It is completely next level. We stayed in Rhino tent which is next to the Armani Spa. We had our own campfire in front of the tent, seating area and hot tub along the enormous veranda of the tent. Two beautiful bedrooms, with ensuite bathrooms with double vanities, a superbly appointed living area, dining on the veranda. The tents are furnished to the highest quality and the epitome of understated elegance and luxury. Great care and attention to detail has been given to making sure that you have everything you could possibly need, Fredrick looked after us beautifully, including bed turn down service with a hot water bottle for when you return from dinner.||Spa and pool:|We used the pool everyday and how special to be dipping in the pool and sunbathing as a dazzle of zebra's strolls by to the salt lick. We didn't get a chance to use the spa - when doing a couple of game drives a day and lunch the days are busy, but the facilities were excellent and the spa area looked superb. We would only be at the pool for a minute before someone appeared with towels asking if we would like drinks or refreshments.||Game Drive:|I am sure that everyone feels the same but we did have the best driver / guide and spotter. Enormous thanks to Javam and Sam. Such lovely guys and great company for the four days of game drives, they immediately felt part of the family and we thoroughly enjoyed our days together in the Maasai Mara. An especially huge thanks because this is the tricky part, they were so good at spotting that we managed to see the BIG FIVE during our stay. There must be an awful lot of pressure on the guides and spotters that their guests have a good visit, the animals that live in the Maasai Mara are wild and spotting them is not always possible, especially rhino and leopards. There is a huge element of luck, but it helps when you have guides with great talent. How Javam spotted a lioness lying on a termite mound from up to a mile away is still a source of amazement to us, as well as the leopardess in the tree and Sam spotting the rhinos walking along a hedge line on the hill in the distance. ||Dining:|Absolute excellence. We thoroughly loved every meal at Mara Bushtops and the dining experience at the salt lick is another great part of the experience with zebra's, giraffes, topi and eland regularly visiting. |Each evening Chef David would come to the table to share with us the specials - which one of us had every night and were delicious. The rest of the family worked our way through the menu and we were spoilt for choice, our 16 yr old son loved trying the local Swahili options and the food was all fantastic - we cannot recommend highly enough. Thank you also to Laban who waited on us. We are sorry that we did not get a chance to say good bye to Laban and David who made our dining so special.||Conservancy:|Mara Bushtops is integrated into the conservancy and works very closely with the community to preserve and protect the nature and wildlife and support the local villages. We didn't this time but it is possible to visit the villages and schools as part of the experience and to support the local community.||Weather:|We travelled early as we'd just finished exams. Our last stay was at new year and we remember the temperatures being very hot. June, July and August are winter in the Maasai Mara. Temperatures still climbed in the day to mid twenties and it was perfect weather for sun bathing. Clouds dotted the sky keeping the temperatures a nice balmy warm and on two or three evenings we had dramatic bursts of rain clouds and an hour or so of warm tropical rain - there is nothing quite like smelling the rain coming in the Maasai Mara, you can literally tell it before it rains. It's magical. Large umbrellas were immediately on hand as were raincoats when we were in the jeep so again you are never less than perfectly comfortable. |Early mornings and evenings are chilly. We set off at 5.45am for the game drive and when driving along you feel a wind chill. Mara Bushtops put comfort at the forefront with hot water bottles wrapped in blankets in the jeeps, however do take a fleece, or light weight coat - or both for the mornings. By mid morning when the sun comes out you'll be peeling off the layers but you will need something warm to start.||Asante sana Motinda and all of the team at Mara Bushtops. Tunatumai kukuona tena...

We’ve dreamed of going to Kenya for a safari for quite some time. When my fiancé (now husband) and I chose our honeymoon location there was no need for a big discussion as I knew of a safari spot that I’d been following online that seemed magical. ||When we arrived at Bushtops we were blown away by its wonderful location - nestled in a conservancy right by a salt lick and surrounded by wildlife (giraffes, elephants and more). The staff were very welcoming and our tent was amazing and cosy.||One thing that we did come across was that we didn’t get to enjoy the accommodation as much as we wanted or the amazing food on offer at the restaurant. We knew safaris meant early starts and were prepared for this - but five mornings in a row of 5:00am wake up calls was incredibly grueling and meant we never got to have a restaurant breakfast in our tent or by the salt lick. We would have liked a slow start at least one of the days - so we could wake up at our leisure and have more time to enjoy the amenities and get ready in less of a rush. Early starts every day meant we’d be in bed right after dinner each day we stayed at Bushtops. ||Aside from having to be up before sunrise every day of our honeymoon and the game drive breakfasts which we found a bit underwhelming we had an amazing and memorable honeymoon.||All the staff at Bushtops are incredible and really went above and beyond to make us feel welcome. The restaurant food was great and they had a large menu for both my husband and myself (a vegetarian), the cocktails and house wines were always delicious and our butler Silah was truly fabulous. Silah’s special touches when it came to in-tent dining and at turn down were much appreciated. My husband and I were served by Fabian quite a few times in the restaurant and it was always a pleasure conversing with him at meal times. We were very happy to see Fabian at our private bush breakfast. Jacob and Jeremey (our guide and spotter) took us all over the Masai Mara and we managed to see so many animals and really got to see them up close. We had amazing private viewings of lions and leopards before other safari goers got there.||We would recommend Bushtops to anyone wishing to go on a safari and wanting an adventure of a lifetime. Though we would say it would have been nice to be able to spend a bit more time in the accommodation itself as it was...

Where to even begin with Mara Bushtops? What a truly special place. From the second my wife and I stepped foot on the property, we were warmly greeted and treated like family for the duration of our stay. The property and views are beautiful, and each "room" is amazing. Think the most luxurious tent you've ever stayed in in your life (it's really a room given the tent is nailed down onto the platform) with a comfy bed, pillows, wonderful shower (and outdoor shower!), and then a deck overlooking animals everywhere with chairs, a table, and a hot tub. When we'd come back from our days out on safari, they'd prepare our hot tub with us with bubbles and rose petals and cocktails waiting. Talk about dreamy.||Now onto the actual safari. Joseph was the best guide we had on our entire trip to Kenya and Tanzania. He was friendly, so knowledgable, easy to talk to, etc. The exact same can be said about our tracker Sam, who was similarly such a joy to spend our time with each day. He is a local to the area, and his insight into so many things was fascinating. They were both experts at finding the exact animals we told them we'd love to see. We saw two different leopards up close, we saw a cheetah and her four cubs hunting gazelle, we saw tons of lions, and every other animal you can imagine. We saw the Big 5 and then some. What's extra special is Mara Bushtops is the ONLY camp in the conservancy it's located in, meaning when you drive around that area or go on a night game drive there, there is literally no one else around.||Back to the camp itself, the restaurant was another highlight. Every single meal was exquisite, and the wait staff of Steven, Laban, and Edward were all lovely to chat with each day and the restaurant looks out over a salt lick so there are animals at all times.||Each room has its own butler and ours was Mercy, who was the MVP of our stay. She thought of everything to make our stay as memorable as possible, and we can't thank her enough. Matinda is the hotel manager and he made sure to check in on us every day while we were there. Again, the staff is just fantastic. There's a spa onsite and we both got massages and used the sauna/cold plunge there. Just top tier all around. If you're overwhelmed by the amount of places you can stay in the Maasai Mara, look no further: Mara Bushtops is where you...