Spirit of the Maasai Mara

Spirit of the Maasai Mara’s 10 suites uniquely blend together the contemporary and the traditional. Each suite is comprised of a spacious bedroom with either a king-size double or twin singles, a wardrobe and dressing table; a separate lounge area with a fully stocked mini bar; an en suite toilet; a separate bathroom with a large bath and a walk-in shower; and a private terrace set up with a table and chairs. Other room amenities include air conditioning and a fan, free WIFI, tea and coffee facilities, towels and complimentary toiletries, a hairdryer, a desk and a safe.

Spirit of the Maasai Mara provides all meals and drinks and takes its guests on a culinary safari, where they can enjoy a rare blend of Kenyan and Continental cuisine. There are plenty of dining options so guests can pick whatever suits them best, whether it’s dining in the al fresco restaurant, sundowners with a favourite cocktail and canapés, or a freshly prepared al fresco bush breakfast.

Enjoy the fresh morning breeze and the wilderness coming to life in the early hours of the day. Guests can choose to return to the camp for breakfast or to continue traversing the Maasai Mara National Reserve and the Siana Conservancy with a bush breakfast or picnic lunch. For that full circle experience, Spirit of the Maasai Mara also offers night-time game drives, where guests get to see nocturnal Big Cat hunts and rare nocturnal animals such as aardvarks, honey badgers and genets.

This is the chance to get up close and appreciate the intricacies of the Mara ecosystem and to see the smaller creatures of the Maasai Mara, such as beetles, chameleons and small gazelles. The camp’s specially trained guides will explain the traditional medicinal uses of different shrubs and trees as well as the tracks of the animals in the Conservancy.

Relish the crisp morning air of the Mara plains as you glide through the sunrise and gaze down at the wilderness below. For a perfect finish, a champagne bush breakfast will be waiting upon landing. Now that’s luxury at its finest!

Spirit of the Maasai Mara offers tours to the nearby Maasai village for a first-hand experience of the local culture and lifestyle. You might get the chance to learn how to make fire and how to wield a spear and bow as the Maasai people do. If you’re really lucky, you might even get to see ceremonial rituals marking rites of passage.

Spirit of the Maasai Mara is devoted to sustainable tourism and channelling that towards the local community so that they can benefit from the presence of tourism. They have formed strong connections with the local community and support it through a number of initiatives including employing local Maasai people, making use of goods and supplies provided by the village, donating income to the Siana Conservancy, providing funding for the local school and children, and investing in infrastructure such as roads to make the area more accessible.

Spirit of the Maasai Mara invites you to help them in their conservation efforts. It may not seem like you can help at first but there are lots of little things you can do to contribute to the conservation of the Maasai Mara. Ways that you can help are:

• Minimising your impact on the environment – dispose of all litter safely and do your best to reduce your use of plastics in favour of reusable alternatives
• Being respectful of wildlife – remember you’re visiting the animals in their natural habitats and every creature is deserving of respect. Getting too close on game drives can agitate and upset them so it’s best to always be mindful of distance. The camp also requests that you don’t feed any of the animals or take things such as bones, feathers, horns etc. as they all have their place in the ecosystem
• Paying your entry fees for parks and conservancies and other viewing fees – this directly supports the conservation system
• Take your time and enjoy! – the Maasai Mara has so much to offer and there’s no need to feel rushed

Spirit of the Maasai Mara is committed to a system of eco-management that will benefit all parties involved in the area – the local Maasai community, the wildlife in the Siana Conservancy and the Maasai Mara National Reserve, and local tourism partners.

The camp uses a water purification system for water waste in order to reduce their environmental impact. They are one of only 2 lodges in the Maasai Mara area to use this system. Artificially created wetlands provide up to 90% treatment of water waste through mimicking the processes that happen in natural wetlands and once this has been done the water can be reused for things such as irrigation or supplying a watering hole for animals.

Spirit of the Maasai Mara also goes to great lengths to reduce material waste. Plastics are given to the local women of the Maasai village so they can turn them into beads for jewellery. Organic waste is composted and used to fertilise the camp’s own garden. Any waste that can’t be reused in some way at the camp is taken to be recycled in Nairobi.