Reviews of Olakira
(96%) From 60 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Olakira Mara - Ndutu Camp review
The staff were extremely friendly and made me feel comfortable and welcome as a single traveller. The food was very good and because it was Valentine's day while I was there we were given champagne. We all ate together under canvas at one long table which is especially good if you are travelling alone.
My tent was comfortable and very clean and spacious. It was a lovely surprise to find a hot bottle in my bed after dinner. I had not brought any warm clothes with me and so it was a nice touch that the camp supplied blankets in the jeeps to keep warm. It was chilly in the mornings and evenings.
The camp tried very hard to meet the needs of each individual traveller, not always easy when people have different interests and levels of stamina.
Such a memorable stay at Olakira Mara
Olakira was a personal favourite!
The staff here are wonderful, the food is great and the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed. The tented camps are extremely authentic and a hot water bottle in the bed is a lovely touch!
Plus a fantastic view of the sunrise. We had a brilliant time.
Great staff and animals at Olakira.
Simple vibrant camp with super welcoming and friendly staff. Wonderful animal sightings including 3 crossings, female leopard with week old cubs, cheetah and lion cubs. Nathan was very informative about animal behaviour and excellent at finding animals.
For a temporary camp it had everything you could expect from a permanent camp. The food was very good although as a temporary camp lighting in the tent was not very good. Hot water for wahing could have been provided in thermos flasks as we had at Rekaro camp, another Asilea camp but in Kenya.
We have never had hot water bottles in bed before when on safari!
Enjoyable stay at Olakira Mara-Ndutu
A camp with a superb location overlooking the Mara river. Again the service was excellent, the food extremely good and again they tried to feed me too much. The staff were excellent and tried to ensure we enjoyed our stay.
Olee the guide was particularly good and also had a wide knowledge of the game. I was sorry to leave the place. My only adverse comment is that the tent lighting was a bit inadequate compared with the other camps.
A lovely tented camp in the right place
We only stayed one night but thoroughly enjoyed our short stay
Read more about the whole safariAuthentic safari experience
We loved our stay at Olakira.
The tent was spacious and hot bucket showers were never an issue because the entire staff was top notch. Delicious food, and drinks were spent with the other guests which made socializing about the days adventures a blast.
Guides were wonderful and extremely educated. Keep in mind that a safari jeep is normally shared with other travelers so cross your fingers your mesh well, if not, open a beer and enjoy the drive.
Fascinating migration at Olakira, S Serengeti
Friendly and attentive Asilia staff with good food. Tent was not as clean as with the two Lemala camps we had been to previously and the lack of wooden flooring made this more noticeable. Some bathroom glitches were quickly sorted out by the staff. Nevertheless, taken as a whole, we had a great experience in the heart of the bush here. We enjoyed our community dining in the evening and banter with other guests.
The main reason to come at this time of year is for the migration which was fascinating, although most of the wildebeest were males and birthing was taking place elsewhere in the Serengeti which we did not witness, which was a shame. Plenty of predators in evidence - 42 lion, 13 cheetah and an unusual sighting of 7 African wild dog. We were amazed at the variation of habitats in this area of the Southern Serengeti which made for a great safari.
Ayoub, our superb guide for the previous 4 nights as well, continued to work hard at making sure we saw everything we could have wished for and enhanced the whole experience. We were so sorry to waive him goodbye at the airstrip for our onward travel - he had become a friend over the course of the week.
Lovely situation, but tents tired and old.
On arrival we were made very welcome by the staff. Our tent was spacious and had all the basic requirements.
Unfortunately the bucket shower did not work properly and the water barely dribbled out of the shower head. The staff tried to fix it and said to try the shower again. Sadly on trying to turn on the water the whole shower head and pipes fell down just missing my head. It took 48 hours for the staff to get the shower fixed and then was only sorted because my husband told them what was wrong! The staff then managed to replace the hose and shower head and finally we could shower on our 3rd day.
On our second night it poured with rain and the next morning everything was very damp, including our clothes and bedding. Fortunately the sun shone and things dried out.
Over all we feel, that although it was a mobile camp, the tents need replacing, and showers improved and in general an upgrade to all facilities.
The food was good and drinks plentiful.
Our game drives were excellent and we enjoyed a couple of bush breakfasts and our guide, Ebenezer, was knowledgeable and found the thousands of wildebeests that we had wanted to see. We also saw lots of hyenas, vultures, plains animal and lions. I was going to mark Ndutu Camp as poor, however the food was good, and the service at breakfast and dinner was great.
Olakira Mara - Ndutu Camp review
We compared with Dunia and noticed not quite so well run. Food was good and staff were friendly.
Guide here was provided by the camp and was a bit disappointing. He could have been a lot more communicative and paid a bit more attention to our interests.
Why did we always share truck with 3 others? (No problems with them personally). Others seemed to have truck/guide to themselves. We did however see 3 river crossings - 2 in front of the camp (see below).
