Mara West Camp

We had the most wonderful time at Mara West. We are a family of 3, split between a chalet and a tent. The chalet is quite luxurious with a gorgeous view over the savannah below but even the tent is quite nice and cozy. The food is absolutely fabulous. The chef really knows how to cook and he makes sure there’s something different every day. You’d think you’re dining in a nice London restaurant. We did 4.5 days of game drive over our stay. The location of the lodge is super prime. We were seeing zebras, giraffes, elephants from the moment we stepped off the plane from Nairobi. If you’re choosing between the national park vs. the Mara triangle, definitely go for the Mara Triangle around September. The concentration of animal here is simply astounding. Our driver Lizzy is an expert at finding the animals. She brought us to see the famed wildebeests crossing, lions, rhinos, cheetahs enjoying a meal, and many other animals. The crossing in particular takes a lot of experience on the part of the driver to time it right. Overall, an unforgettable trip. We will be back

I went for a mission trip. It was an amazing experience. I thought it was going to be a once in a lifetime experience, but I’m 90% sure I’ll be doing this again next year. The staff was amazing and food was amazing. It was great to be able to volunteer and help the locals. And I got to see so many animals!!!!

LOVED the staff there. I went with my school for a mission trip in Kenya and best believe I had an AMAZING time. The food was great and the bathrooms had hot water and I love to hang out at the pool while sipping a nice coca-cola. 20/10 would go again !

An amazing place to stay with wonderful staff and amazing food. I could not have asked for a better place to experience the beautiful land of Kenya. A wonderful time was had by all and the accomodations are amazing as well and the views could not have been better.

I spent three nights here with three travel companions. The staff was amazing..Abel was our dedicated waiter and sort of concierge…he was friendly, welcoming and truly a joy to be around. The rooms are nice, clean and spacious. The view from our room was beautiful looking down over the Masai Mara. Be aware though…the rooms do not have phones or wifi ( there is wifi in the main lobby) and hot water is made with a wood burning stove and is only available from 4-9 AM and 4-9 PM…I thought this would be an issue but it really wasn’t, since we were mostly on game drives from 8-4ish PM. Laundry service is available and it is super cheap, 1-2$ for most items. About 25¢ for socks. Zebra will most likely join you for breakfast.

The only positive factor about this place is the view - and there are far better camps/lodges in the Maasai Mara with the same view. First, the service is terrible. The Maasai warrior who escorted guests back to their tents after dinner was clearly intoxicated one night. He couldn't walk a straight line and kept asking us the same question repeatedly (what time we wanted to be woken up the next morning). Needless to say, we were not woken up the next morning. "Housekeeping" never cleaned up the dead insects in our tent and the toilet bowl was dirty on our arrival. We had no shampoo in our bathroom (both the "shampoo" and "conditioner" bottles contained conditioner and were so crusted, we had to dig the stuff out with a pencil) and when we asked for shampoo, the woman at the front desk argued with us. They finally did send shampoo to our room the next day. Second, the property is in disrepair. The raised wooden walkway to our tent had loose boards, was falling apart, and dangerous. One of the two large window flaps on our tent was ripped and could not be rolled up, so despite the place having a great view, we couldn't see it from half of our tent. The water supply was questionable: it was always brown, smelled bad, was only sometimes hot, and shut off unexpectedly in the middle of showers. The bed sheets were stained, our sink faucet was broken, and the furnishings in our tent (and the property in general) were extremely dated. Finally, there is no way to communicate with hotel staff once you are in your tent at night and no electricity after 10:30pm. Other properties we stayed at in Kenya and Tanzania provided walkie-talkies or had wifi in the tents/cabins. And although the staff tell you that "1-2 lights in the tent will work between 10:30pm and 5:30am," this is not true.