Masai Mara luxury ecolodge
| country: | Kenya |
| location: | Masai Mara |
| departures: | This trip can be tailor made throughout the year except April, May & November |
| price: | From £810 - £1928 (3 - 7 days) excluding flights |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
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the amazing things you'll be doing
An exciting new community-owned ecolodge in the wilds of the northern Masai Mara. The Koiyaki wilderness camp offers safari guests a superb wilderness experience with beautiful accommodation, skilled local Masai guides. Perched high on an escarpment, the Koiyaki Wilderness Camp offers spectacular views over the greater Masai Mara ecosystem, a vital corridor for wildlife.
Guests enjoy a range of safari activities including wildlife drives, walking safaris, and bush picnics, all accompanied by skilled local Masai guides who have been trained at the nearby Koiyaki Guiding School (recently featured on the BBC’s Big Cat Live series in the UK). At any time of year, you will see large herds of wildebeest, gazelles, elephant and if you are fortunate, rhino. Between approximately July and October, your visit will coincide with the annual great migration, when the herds swell and literally 1000s of wildebeest and zebra arrive from the south and create one of the earth’s great wildlife spectacles.
As the Masai Mara's first community-owned ecolodge, the Koiyaki wilderness camp is pioneering in many senses and offers a refreshing blend of fabulous views, comfort and understated luxury. Meals are prepared by skilled local chefs and served in the dining area overlooking the valley below. The individual guest cottages of the ecolodge offer spacious accommodation and en-suite bathroom facilities on a par with Kenya's highest quality safari camps. Fresh water from a bore hole deep in the ground is filtered for guests.
Our safaris include return air travel from Nairobi (45 minute flight), airport transfers in the Masai Mara to/from camp, all meals, a range of drinks (including alcohol) and Park / conservancy fees.
Highlights include:
We offer many itineraries featuring Koiyaki Wilderness Camp and below is a sample 3 night / 4 day itinerary which may be extended as your safari schedule allows.
Guests enjoy a range of safari activities including wildlife drives, walking safaris, and bush picnics, all accompanied by skilled local Masai guides who have been trained at the nearby Koiyaki Guiding School (recently featured on the BBC’s Big Cat Live series in the UK). At any time of year, you will see large herds of wildebeest, gazelles, elephant and if you are fortunate, rhino. Between approximately July and October, your visit will coincide with the annual great migration, when the herds swell and literally 1000s of wildebeest and zebra arrive from the south and create one of the earth’s great wildlife spectacles.
As the Masai Mara's first community-owned ecolodge, the Koiyaki wilderness camp is pioneering in many senses and offers a refreshing blend of fabulous views, comfort and understated luxury. Meals are prepared by skilled local chefs and served in the dining area overlooking the valley below. The individual guest cottages of the ecolodge offer spacious accommodation and en-suite bathroom facilities on a par with Kenya's highest quality safari camps. Fresh water from a bore hole deep in the ground is filtered for guests.
Our safaris include return air travel from Nairobi (45 minute flight), airport transfers in the Masai Mara to/from camp, all meals, a range of drinks (including alcohol) and Park / conservancy fees.
Highlights include:
- Wildlife safaris
- Walking safaris
- Bush picnics
- Masai culture
We offer many itineraries featuring Koiyaki Wilderness Camp and below is a sample 3 night / 4 day itinerary which may be extended as your safari schedule allows.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | To the Masai Mara. Depart Nairobi and fly directly to the Masai Mara. On arrival, your local Masai hosts and guides will meet and transfer you to camp. Settle in and enjoy an afternoon wildlife drive to the northern reaches of the conservancy. Enjoy sundowner drinks and your first evening in the Masai Mara. |
| Day 2-3: | Explore the Masai Mara. The Masai Mara ecosystem is huge and diverse and several days are required to really get to know it. During your stay, enjoy a series of thrilling game drives and bush walks with highly experienced professionally trained Masai guides. For first time visitors to Kenya, there will be the opportunity to see all of the Big Five on a series of morning and afternoon wildlife drives. The Masai Mara is justifiably famous for its large concentration of predators and the Koiyaki conservancy lies within the northern end of the incredible Serengeti-Mara wildlife corridor. |
| Day 4: | Depart Masai Mara. After breakfast you will return to the airstrip and fly to Nairobi, arriving just before lunchtime in time to connect with onward safari arrangements or international travel. |
travellers' tales
The most fantastic holiday I have ever been on. The Lodge was truly fantastic. It was truly in the wilderness as it had no fences you just felt you were at one with nature.
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tailor made holiday
This trip can be tailormade to create a unique holiday for your individual requirements by travel experts with intimate knowledge of the destination. It is a more luxurious trip that will suit those who enjoy immersing themselves in new cultures and environments before relaxing in comfort in some of the best and most characterful local accommodation! Quality and value are the hallmark of these trips.highly commended
This tourism business was Highly Commended in our 2009 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards - organised by responsibletravel.com in association with The Daily Telegraph, World Travel Market and Geographical Magazine, of the Royal Geographical Society. Since 2004, the Awards has recognised individuals, companies and organisations in travel making a big commitment to the culture and economies of local communities and helping to conserve biodiversity.
how this holiday makes a difference
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The camp represents an intriguing new development in conservation tourism in Kenya and is the first community-owned ecolodge in the Masai Mara. To date, only 20 percent of guides in the Masai Mara are local Masai and if this incredible wildlife reserve is to survive the pressures of a growing human population and the corresponding desire for more agricultural and grazing land, it is essential that the local community benefit from ecotourism and see wildlife as a valuable resource which must be protected.
The Koiyaki Wilderness Camp was set up especially to provide a sustainable source of revenue for the nearby Koiyaki Guiding School, which was established in 2005 in order to train local Masai men and women to become ecotourism guides and to thereby become involved in and to benefit from ecotourism in the region. As the first of its kind in Kenya, and it is hoped, the model of a high quality tourism camp staffed and managed by local hosts / guides providing revenue for a guide training facility, it will provide a blueprint for community-based conservation and ecotourism in other regions of Africa. In addition to funding the Koiyaki Guiding School, a significant proportion of the safari price goes towards supporting community-based conservation in the wider 20,000 hectare Koiyaki conservancy which is an integral part of the Masai Mara. In travelling to the Masai Mara with us, you are helping to support one of the earth's great wildlife and wilderness areas which relies upon responsible ecotourism for its continued survival. |
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