Travel reviews by Mrs L. from London

"Basic rooms but convenient place to stop"

"Absolutely incredible place - beautiful scenery and a stunning lodge. The outside bedroom was a highlight.

All the staff were professional and the guides were knowledgable."

"Rooms were basic but the views were incredible"

"Beautiful scenery and staff very professional.

Would highly recommend a visit to the San living museum next door"

"The waterhole here is incredible - even saw an African rock python next to me in a tree!

Check in is chaotic and rooms are basic, but can’t beat the location"

"The guides here were incredible and we learnt a lot.

It was amazing to get so close to lions, a leopard and cheetahs. Very interesting learning about Africat.

The lodge is very nice and food is excellent. Staff were very friendly."

"Fine for our short overnight stay.

Also gave us a packed breakfast to take away, due to our early start."

"As we were the only 2 guests for the first few nights, we were thoroughly spoilt!

Malcolm was very accommodating and welcoming, but also incredibly knowledgable about all aspects of African life and his passion for carbon neutrality was infectious!"

"Comfortable accommodation and pretty good food.

We were joined by a large party of Russians at very short notice, who clearly loved karaoke, but only caused a bit of a disturbance on one night!

Would recommend Spanish Dancer Diving School for snorkelling and diving trips, very good."

"A very conveniently located hotel (within the security cordon).

The rooms were modern and clean. The perfect place to spend a night before safari."

"Saruni Samburu is situated on the top of a rocky ridge, with the most breathtaking views over the Kalama conservancy. You can enjoy the views from everywhere - one of the infinity pools, the lodge, your bedroom, living room or bathroom! The outdoor showers with a view are simply amazing.

Zoe and Johan are the managers, and do a fantastic job. As soon as you mention their names they appear, and are clearly on top of everything that happens in the lodge to ensure a great experience. All the staff are professional and friendly, special mention must be made of Kennedy in the restaurant who took excellent care of us. Don't miss a scorpion night safari with Johan and his ultra-violet light - it'll encourage you to stop wearing flip flops at night!

I think our stay coincided with a period of drought, so the wildlife in the Kalama reserve itself was fairly sparse - on an evening drive we only saw dik diks and guinea fowl. In the Samburu national park there is much more to see, but that is a fairly bumpy 45 minute drive away. We were only there for a couple of nights, and so there wasn't time to go to the reserve on the last morning, so I would encourage guests who want to see a lot of wildlife to take every opportunity to go to the reserve itself, as the wildlife in the conservancy is much less visible.

Also highly recommended is a visit to the local village (which can be combined with a drive). It was fascinating to learn about the Samburu way of life, see inside a home, and meet some of the villagers."

"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."