Sarova Mara Game Camp - Safari Lodge in Kenya — Hotel in Siana ward

Our theme for family Holidays was to spend New Year's eve in Masaai Mara.

Our family of 4 spent 3 nights at this property from December 29th, 2024 through January 1st, 2025. We booked one Club Tent and one Deluxe tent on a Full Board basis i.e Breakfast, lunch and dinner included.

Property is nice and well kept. We did come across several issues during our stay and we highlight them so that management can act and improve upon them to give the future guests a better experience.

For Example: Bare minimum coffee pouches in the room and one has to call the front desk 2-3 times before some one will drag themselves over after 40-45 minutes with extra coffee or creamer.

Laundry was included in our Club Tent rate but we had to call the front desk three times for some one to come over and get the laundry. We lost 30 minutes of our safari time as we waited almost an hour for laundry to be picked up.

New Year's Eve celebration: Sarova Mara Resort knew or had reason to know from Kenya's weather during this time of the year that it was going to rain that night. Sarova made arrangements for two small tents for the live band and dancers. No arrangements were made for the property guests.

There were upto 100+ people in the dining hall and the bar next to the pool with no room for guests to do anything. They could have put some tents along the perimeter of the pool or the grounds adjacent to the pool so that guests could spread out and have a decent time. It would have cost them maybe few hundred USD, if that, to have extra tents for ALL the guests. When you are charging such exorbitant holiday rates, you owe a duty to provide the guests with an experience that they will value and remember for the rest of their lives. Coupled with rain and nowhere to sit, stand or dance and a so so band, we decided to sleep the New Year's eve out. So much so for our New Year Eve's family Celebration.

Now let's get to the MAJOR issue with this property. Their food SUCKS. At $1650/day family boarding cost, we were served one of the worst foods that we have encountered in our global travel. Even Antarctic Circle expeditions that don't see shore for months at a time have better food. And the surprising thing is that their sister property, Lion Hills Lodge at Lake Nakurru, where we stayed for one night prior to arrival at Sarova Mara has excellent food. Please note that otherwise Lion Hills Lodge is an older and a basic property that has been in needs of renovation for maybe 20 or so years.

If the college dorms served the kind of food that Sarova Mara serves in their main dining hall, the college kids would literally go beserk. Stale and bland food, empty food, salad and/or dressing containers that are not timely refilled, tandoori goat that should be appropriately labelled as Tandoori rubber and so on. The issues were brought to the attention of restaurant service manager after our first lunch meal. The food for the first two days continued to be horrible. Then we met again with restaurant service manager and property manager and voiced our concerns. Food quality did improve on day 3 for lunch at Club lounge and for dinner at the main dining hall.

So overall we did not derive any value from staying at Sarova Mara Game Camp and were underwhelmed with the experience.

There is NO reason for Sarova to not deliver a consistent and great culinary experience at all or any of their properties, provide excellent service, and do what needs to be done to give the guests who place their trust in Sarova and travel thousands of miles to spend special momemts of their lives at Sarova properties.

Extremely...

!!!!Don’t come if you’re a female!!!!!

We are this hotel for our family trip, 12 people. And I stay in room 65 with my siblings all female.

Tonight around 8 PM, while I was taking a shower in my private hotel room alone, a male staff member suddenly and without warning burst into the bathroom. As a female guest, I was left completely exposed and vulnerable. The experience was deeply shocking, terrifying, and infuriating. This was a blatant violation of my privacy and personal safety, and it has left me feeling unsafe, disrespected, and emotionally shaken.

What made the situation even worse was that the staff member attempted to leave quietly, and then he came back and knocked the door hard and yelled ‘jumbo’ I don't understand why he didn't do it before. I tried to ask him what happened and his name. He keeps saying sorry and does not answer my question. It was only after I immediately called the hotel front desk to report the intrusion that he tried to communicate with someone and they’re still not respecting me. When I asked for his name, he refused to give it. His behavior was not only suspicious but also incredibly disrespectful.

To my dismay, no responsible manager came to handle the situation for almost two hours. I kept asking for someone in charge, but I was repeatedly told that “the manager is not available.” Eventually, someone claiming to be in charge arrived, but they did not provide any real solution, explanation, or accountability. I received only a casual apology along the lines of “Sorry, it won’t happen again.” For an incident of this magnitude, that response is completely unacceptable.

Throughout the entire process, the hotel’s response was marked by a lack of urgency, empathy, and professionalism. The so-called manager’s attitude was dismissive and insincere, making me feel even more helpless. Even more upsetting was the fact that the staff member who invaded my room was never removed or disciplined in front of me. He was seen smiling and laughing later, as if the whole incident were a joke. His behavior was not only unapologetic but felt mocking and degrading. Until we call the police, they try to solve this problem and have a meeting the day after.

This experience has completely ruined our travel mood and left me feeling anxious, disrespected, and unsafe in a place that was supposed to offer comfort and security. I never expected such a shocking violation to occur in a professional hotel setting — and certainly not to go completely unaddressed by management. As a woman, this incident has caused me significant emotional distress, and I am still struggling to process what happened.

This was not just a breach of hotel protocol — it was a violation of my basic rights and dignity. I hope this message makes it clear how serious this situation is. I strongly urge the hotel to take full accountability, issue a proper explanation and apology, and implement immediate policies to ensure such unacceptable behavior never happens to any guest — especially a female...

I really loved everything about this Safari camp! All of the employees were very friendly, particularly the manager, Jayne Kiragu. She was so helpful and kind, remembered our names, asked how she could improve our stay (I had no suggestions).

The kids program is amazing! They have bounce houses and catch and release, fishing, kayaking, basketball, ping-pong, movie nights, and kids dinner so the adults can do their own thing. The counselors at the kids program were fun and very competent. They gave the kids a lot of attention. We were able to play some nice card games as adults because they were watching our kids at the bounce houses and painting their faces and doing fun little yard games with them like archery and such.

Our tours we went on were really great, especially the one where we found the lion and lioness right outside our camp. We also did a full day safari where we drove over to the Mara river and saw crocodiles and hippos. That was exciting as well! Beautiful country!

We did a balloon safari the last morning we were there. I highly recommended if you haven’t done it. It’s expensive but for once in a lifetime thing I would say it’s worth it! We took my 80 year old mother and my 17 year old son on it and it was really cool.

The rooms were very nice and our housekeeper did an amazing job, keeping us happy, leaving us notes, and an occasional chocolate. He also noticed my son’s super dirty tennis shoes, and took them away and cleaned them as a nice surprise for us! My five year old was thrilled to have clean shoes!

The food was good and there was plenty of variety! My family especially loved the breakfasts and the cooking featured meat stations every night for dinner.

Right before dinner each night they had the Masai Mara people come and do a program, they danced and jumped and that was fun. We did not go to a Masai camp and I didn’t feel like I missed out because I felt like they brought the experience to us. This was really a blessing because we felt like we were a little short on time there. They also bring trinkets and souvenirs you can buy or you could shop in the gift shop. Thank you!

I think that the location of the Safari camp was really good. I was grateful that we stayed inside at the park, even though it cost so much more money since they charge so much for the park entrance fees. But I still think that was worth doing because we utilized the park every day. I remember debating if I should stay inside or outside of the park, and I am glad that we stayed inside. Much more convenient!

My only complaint is we left a day too early. I was so grateful that we stayed one day longer than we had originally planned, but I could’ve stayed one extra day. Totally loved our experience here! I would love...