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Hemingways Ol Seki Mara
Hemingways Ol Seki Mara
Hemingways Ol Seki Mara
Hemingways Ol Seki Mara
Hemingways Ol Seki Mara
Hemingways Ol Seki Mara
Hemingways Ol Seki Mara
Hemingways Ol Seki Mara
Hemingways Ol Seki Mara
Hemingways Ol Seki Mara
Hemingways Ol Seki Mara
Hemingways Ol Seki Mara

Hemingways Ol Seki Mara


1°24’5.9"S 35°23’30.8"E

Reviews of Hemingways Ol Seki

Wildlife sightings and reviews

8 independent comments and wildlife information from our travellers who have visited Hemingways Ol Seki and kindly agreed to share their thoughts. They do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa

Wildlife sightings by our travellers
Starting in Nov-2018, 6 of our travellers have recorded their wildlife sightings at Hemingways Ol Seki .
Lion

100% success

Leopard

83% success

Cheetah

100% success

Wild dog

0% success

Buffalo

100% success

Eland

100% success

Elephant

100% success

Giraffe

100% success

Hippo

100% success

Spotted Hyena

100% success

Wildebeest

100% success

Zebra

100% success

Striped Hyena

50% success

Aardvark

25% success

Black Rhino

0% success

Pangolin

0% success

Showing 1-8 of 8
Duration
Arrival date
Mr & Mrs B.
Lomita

"Hemingways Ol Seki Mara review"

3 nights Arrived 1 Mar 2024
"Lovely stay. Great location. Great service. Would highly recommend" See all these reviews: 7n in Kenya
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Sightings Report

Buffalo

3 sightings

Cheetah

1 sighting

Eland

10 sightings

Elephant

1 sighting

Giraffe

7 sightings

Hippo

7 sightings

Leopard

2 sightings

Lion

7 sightings

Spotted Hyena

4 sightings

Wildebeest

10 sightings

Zebra

10 sightings

Ms P.
Cambs

"Hemingways Ol Seki Mara review"

3 nights Arrived 21 Oct 2022
"We absolutely loved Hemingways Ol Seki Mara.

We were in Nina 8, and the tent was beautiful and had a stunning 270º view, perfect for sunrises. The space was light filled and tastefully decorated. The outdoor shower was a wonderful experience and we enjoyed the afternoons spent sitting in the outdoor patio.
The room had all the amenities we needed apart from a kettle, which would have been useful.

Food was exceptional. We loved the breakfasts, especially the banana pancakes; they were delicious. The bush breakfast was an unexpected and exciting surprise.

The lounge area was beautiful, again with great views, and was a very nice place to spend time when the day got hotter.

The staff were all very friendly and welcoming. The best part of the trip were our masai guides, Isaac and Benjamin, who made our game drives extraordinary - they were both knowledgable and warm.

A big thanks to Debbie, who took personal care in ensuring that this 25th anniversary trip was special. She arranged a a surprise bush dinner, complete with a bonfire and personalised service, as well as organising a trip to another camp where we wanted to meet friends without charging us anything extra." See all these reviews: 9n in Kenya
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Sightings Report

Buffalo

2 sightings

Cheetah

2 sightings

Eland

4 sightings

Elephant

5 sightings

Giraffe

7 sightings

Hippo

6 sightings

Lion

5 sightings

Spotted Hyena

3 sightings

Wildebeest

10 sightings

Zebra

10 sightings

Mr & Mrs R
Charlotte

"cannot express how much we were impressed"

4 nights Arrived 15 Aug 2022
"We have been on 3 previous safaris and cannot express how much we were impressed with Hemingways Ol Seki Mara. Rooms were clean and spacious. The new lodge was impressive. And the service was fantastic.

We especially liked the fact that we ate at individual tables and were served the food instead of a buffet. We were still in close enough proximity to other guests that we were able to speak to others during our meals. Also, the staff was not stingy with serving wine and drinks at any time before or after the meals. That allowed us to relax and not feel rushed.

We have to especially note the organization and attention to detail that was provided by Debbie, the camp director. She was fantastic and did anything within reason to make our time there better.

Since the camp is located within the Maasai Mara National Reserve, there was never a large number of vehicles and sometimes we would go for hours without seeing anyone else. Made us feel like we were truly on safari by ourselves. I should also note that we were able to see more types and numbers of animals than we had seen on our other safaris.

We will definitely advise anyone that would listen to consider the Hemingways Ol Seki Mara." See all these reviews: 7n in Kenya
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Sightings Report

Aardvark

1 sighting

Buffalo

10 sightings

Cheetah

4 sightings

Eland

10 sightings

Elephant

10 sightings

Giraffe

10 sightings

Hippo

10 sightings

Leopard

4 sightings

Lion

10 sightings

Spotted Hyena

3 sightings

Striped Hyena

3 sightings

Wildebeest

10 sightings

Zebra

10 sightings

Mr I.
York

"Hemingways Ol Seki Mara review"

4 nights Arrived 1 Aug 2022
"This was outstanding.

The staff and accommodation were just superb" See all these reviews: 9n in Kenya
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Sightings Report

Buffalo

2 sightings

Cheetah

1 sighting

Eland

1 sighting

Elephant

2 sightings

Giraffe

5 sightings

Hippo

10 sightings

Leopard

1 sighting

Lion

5 sightings

Spotted Hyena

3 sightings

Striped Hyena

1 sighting

Wildebeest

1 sighting

Zebra

10 sightings

Lazza
Richmond

"It's all about the wildlife"

4 nights Arrived 6 Mar 2021
"This is a very comfortable safari lodge within the Naboisho conservancy which borders the Masai Mara. There is an abundance of game here - a man on a motorbike is employed to keep wildebeest and zebra off the airstrip! The lodge comprises single and family tented accommodation and each large tent has a large shower, bathroom area and balcony overlooking the reserve . Furnishings are fairly basic, there are no tea or coffee making facilities or hairdryers although one is available to borrow. Laundry is free (except for ladies’ underwear which the Masai won’t wash!) I wouldn’t class this as a luxury lodge, despite the Hemingways name, it feels more like a 3*. There is a small lounge with leather chesterfields overlooking the reserve and another tented dining room but no bar or social area.

The food was OK but there is no choice, although i understand you can pre-order vegetarian or pescatarian options.The lunches were the best meal, tending towards lighter salads. Dinner was a four-course affair with starter, soup, main course (mostly consisting of some sort of meat in gravy with potatoes and veg) plus pudding. It felt like nothing had changed in fifty years from a culinary point of view! The closest comparison i can imagine is a skiing chalet holiday. There was no choice of alcohol and no ability to pay extra to upgrade so it was basic white or red wine or beer.

Service was pleasant and fairly friendly and David, the manager, was very visible and helpful.

The game drives were very good, the jeeps are quite new and comfortable and Patrick, our guide, was excellent. There is so much game here. We had numerous close sightings of lions, cheetahs, leopards, herds of elephants, giraffes, hyenas, jackals, warthogs etc.

What I felt was missing were the little extras which we have usually enjoyed on safari although, to be fair, this might be down to COVID as there were only 4 or 5 of us in camp so they must be struggling financially. Bush breakfasts and dinners cost extra, as did the bush walk we enjoyed and there was no tea and coffee on the morning game drives and in the evening drive there was little choice and only crisps and Bombay mix on offer. However, this was also our first Kenyan safari so maybe things are different here.

Bottom line, a safari is all about the animals and Ol Seki delivers this in spades." See all these reviews: 4n in Kenya
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Good
Activities:
Good
Rooms:
Good
Food:
Average
Facilities:
Average
Sightings Report

Buffalo

3 sightings

Cheetah

2 sightings

Eland

10 sightings

Elephant

6 sightings

Giraffe

8 sightings

Hippo

8 sightings

Leopard

2 sightings

Lion

5 sightings

Spotted Hyena

3 sightings

Wildebeest

10 sightings

Zebra

10 sightings

Mrs L.
London

"Amazing wildlife sightings"

3 nights Arrived 16 Nov 2018
"The wildlife in the vicinity of this camp was amazing. I think we were lucky, but we saw cheetahs, lions (including two sets of cubs and three of the four male lions in the conservancy), a leopard kill, lots of hippos, plenty of giraffes (including lots of babies), and too many other things to mention. Our guide Mike was brilliant, he always seemed to know where to position our jeep in order to get the best sighting. On several occasions he parked in a different place to another jeep, and I thought to myself why is he parking so far away, only for the leopard/ cheetah/ lion to end up walking within touching distance.

I would highly recommend the day trip to the Masai Mara, Richard recommended this and included it in our trip, and it was phenomenal. Yes it does mean quite a lot of driving, but what a shame to miss out on lunch by the river, close to hippos, crocodiles, elephants and buffalo for the sake of a couple more hours in the car. We saw the five cheetah brothers hunting warthog babies (a bit sad as the babies were so cute!), as well as a prolonged leopard sighting. The sheer scale of the reserve is amazing, at one point we drove for two hours without seeing anyone else. Having said that, at the leopard sighting, we were soon joined by about 30 other jeeps, which made us appreciate our stay in the conservancy even more.

Ol Seki offers night drives for free, and we did two. Don't miss these, we saw nocturnal species, and a leopard on a hunt.

The tents are comfortable and large, and there is a view of the watering hole from the deck. the camp is not the most luxurious, but the staff are very friendly and the sightings were amazing.

Would also recommend the trip to the village, our guide took us to his village, so we got to meet his beautiful wife and daughters (who we had heard lots about already). It was really interested to learn about the Masai culture and compare it to the village we visited in Samburu. Take money for local crafts, they were very reasonably priced." See all these reviews: 6n in Kenya
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Good
Food:
Good
Sightings Report

Buffalo

5 sightings

Cheetah

3 sightings

Elephant

8 sightings

Giraffe

10 sightings

Hippo

6 sightings

Leopard

3 sightings

Lion

10 sightings

Spotted Hyena

7 sightings

Wildebeest

10 sightings

Zebra

10 sightings

Mr I
Reading

"Fantastic safari at Hemingway Ol Seki"

4 nights Arrived 3 Mar 2018
"We have not been on safari before so had nothing to gauge our experience on .
What we did experience was simply fantastic in every respect .
We arrived on a small plane from Wilson which gave us the first views of the country and animals below . As we landed there were giraffes at the end of the runway, a really special start for the next four days that just got better.
Out tent was as spacious and well positioned looking out over the plain that we could have hoped for .The room was well equipped and comfortable . The shower was fine and toilet facilities as good as home .
We were made very welcome by Debbie and her staff on arrival and the standard of service, attention for our comfort and experience was paramount at all times .
Debbie explained how she is introducing further changes to customer care , and whilst we were more than satisfied , this will only make the whole experience better .
The atmosphere around the camp was relaxed and we enjoyed the small groups and meeting other people .
Our safari guides Raffi and Issac were exceptional in their knowledge of the country ,animals , local ways etc .They were very patient in tracking the animals and obviously knew the best time of day to seek out the best sightings.
What surprised us was the large number of animals on the plains and shrub areas , so every trip out we were delighted by new animals , chases,kills .we were lucky to see leopards in the conversancy and in the national park .
We had some heavy rain at night which caused some of the river crossings to be partially washed away ,as what was a quiet small river/ stream one day was a torrent the next .
Meal times were a great time for us all to catch up what we had seen that morning or evening .One of the staff would welcome us and would announce the menu .The food was very good , varied ,with sensible portions .In the evenings we would be escorted by one of the warriors to and frm the dining tent .The sundowners out on safari then pre dinner drinks was always a pleasure as a large gin and tonic was certainly that !" See all these reviews: 10n in Kenya
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr S
Chicago

"Hemingways is luxury in the Mara"

3 nights Arrived 5 Jan 2018
"Excellent in every respect and a superb view and a great location. Ol Seki Mara conservancy is such a beautiful place to be. It's like a condensed version of the main Mara National Park - and only an hour or so away from there.

The guide was superb, Rafi Rotokin, so knowledgable and so thoughtful as well as an exceptional spotter.

The food and atmosphere at the camp was outstanding. The shared dinning and lounge area made for great connections and great stories.

This really is the place to stay - look no further." See all these reviews: 11n in Kenya
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Showing 1-8 of 8
95%
8 reviews of Hemingways Ol Seki by travellers since August 2007
Overall rating by our travellers
6
2
0
0
0
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