Kilaguni Serena Safari Lodge — Hotel in Taita–Taveta

This was the most memorable stay on our trip to Kenya. And it wasn't only because of the high quality accommodation, comfortable beds and plenty of amenities. The lodge is located inside the Tsavo National Park. It was due to the staff efforts to make our stay as worry-free as it could be. Special thanks goes to Dorkas - the lady at the reception, who managed to get us into the Tsavo West national park at the midnight while the park was closed at 6 p.m. She contacted the rangers, made sure that at least one of them was available to open the gate when we arrived. We were on the congested road from Diani Beach near Mombasa to Tsavo for over 9 hours and our progress was monitored by Dorkas through the Google application. The entire experience was the excellent example of the customer service where the customer was in trouble and the service provider did everything possible to help the lodge guests to remember only the very best experience in Kenya. Dorkas even arranged for us to have full dinner for three of us at 1 a.m.!|The next day we went for the whole day game drive with William - the most knowledgeable guide I have ever come across We saw many more animals with William as I could imagine. Not only we took wonderful pictures, but we were explained the original of each animal, their specific place in safari and why they appear in this type of environment. Very interesting and educational. We had out 11-years old son hanging on each word coming of William's mouth. He became an expert on safari by the end of the drive. In addition to being a knowledgeable guide, he helped us to arrange for fuel supply before we left the lodge. We arrived late,ran out of gas and were afraid to stop on the road out safety concerns. William found someone who drove 30 km to the service station to get the fuel for us. We said good bye to Serena lodge with a feeling that Kenya gives travellers not only salaries and blue water beaches, but the care we enjoy and need when not everything...

Stopped here for one night as part of a week long safari. The standard rooms are in a long row, all with a view of the waterhole. We had an upstairs room (25) so we had a balcony.||The rooms are a good size, are nicely decorated and very clean. The bed was comfortable. There is no safe in this room. The Wi-Fi was a little patchy but we managed to do what we needed to before moving on.||There is a pool on site but as we had very little time here, we didn't visit it.||When you leave your room and walk towards the dining area, the walls seem like they move. There are a large number of different sized and coloured lizards which scarper when they hear noise or movement. It's an experience to watch. The agama lizards will stay quite still for a short while whilst you take a photo.||There didn't appear to be many guests at the time we were there. We were seated with those from our safari jeep.||For dinner, the dining room is only lit by candles. There are no windows so the area is open to insects etc hence the low light. It also allows you to watch the waterhole for animals as the area is lit up.||We had a staff member ask if we wanted a night call for a specific animal. We politely declined; not because we didn't want to but because the safari is an adventure on its own and we had daily early alarms (6am ish every day).||Food was buffet style and was good quality. There was something for everyone. For breakfast, toast, tea and coffee were brought to the table. For dinner, soup and bread was brought to the table.||Staff were attentive without being overwhelming. A...

My wife and I loved this lodge but I had to rate it so poorly for a few things. The main one being the beds in the room are so terribly stiff it feels like I was sleeping on a park bench. The bed is so hard and unforgiving as a brick wall. It is 1 am and I can not sleep because this mattress is so hard. We called to the front desk to see if they had a topper to cushion the stiffness they did not. My arms arm constantly going numb because my weight is not being distributed sufficiently. |The second issue is the food just horrible. Flavorless bad cuts of meat more fat than meat. Salad bar had the edges of the iceberg lettuce no green leaves and , no arugula or kale , romaine or butter lettuce. Water temperature was really low and I had big hopes after using the restroom in the reception/bar area. It was so hot. |Third things was Gary the gecko didn’t want stay outside because of large space under door he crawled on in. When I try to persuade him out he ran and couldn’t find him. While I was looking for him I found mice droppings behind the desk. Didn’t see any mice but where there is droppings there is mice. So I’m thankful Mickey didn’t make an appearance. |The good things in the lodge was the view in the dinning room just breathe taking , the style of the rooms and the caring and attentive spirit of all the workers on the grounds. I am sure if they let the workers themselves come up with an immediate fix for how stiff mattress they would have figured out an affordable solution to...