Royal Mara Safari Lodge

Our stay at the Royal Mara exceeded all our expectations. From start to finish they thought of everything. The staff was engaging and made my daughter’s day by making her a special smoothy. Staying by the river with the hippos and crocodiles made us feel like we were always on safari. Our safety was their number one priority and there was always staff to watch out for us, even when we left at 5:00 am or finished dinner after 9:00 pm. The beds are comfortable, the showers are hot, and the food amazing. We stayed in the family lodge and would recommend it to anyone traveling in a group or family. We cannot wait to come back!

We returned to Royal Mara after 11 years. But the climate and people are still amazing and wonderful. Our guide and driver was James. We stayed 4 days. We saw Big 4, last time we saw also rhino but not this time. The lodge does not have fence. Hippos are roaring just below your tent, elephants walking in the lodge, a lot of giraffes and lions. James was wanderful guide showing us a lot of animals. The food was very good. The villas are one of the best in Masai Mara. We highly recommend Royal Mara Safari Lodge. And the best People of Royal Mara they make difference. Thank you for making our stay so wonderful

Royal Mara Resort is an incredibly good value for money resort in Mara North, on the bank of the Mara River. Lovely place with helpful staff (some of them from the Maasai Tribe) and tasty food! You live and sleep with resident animals here: hippos, various kind of monkeys and much more. The hippo choir at nights is an unforgettable experience. The lesser crowded Mara North Conservancy provides excellent wildlife spotting possibilities. Impressive sightings of lions, buffalos, elephants and giraffes are practically guaranteed, while You have to be lucky to spot cheetah and leopard and extremely lucky for a rhino sighting.

Visited Royal Mara Feb 18-20, 2024. James (a very knowledgeable guide-cum-driver) picked us (a group of 6) from Mara North (Air *****) and gave us the first glimpse of the wildlife which included giraffes, monkeys, and different antelopes' family. Manager Tony was waiting for us at the front office, including other front office staff Milli, Simon our protector from Masai tribe, who gave us a warm welcome. The rooms were wonderful, next to the Mara River where hippos sang and swam! Afternoon and next day safaris were wonderful: Tigers, elephants, zebras, wilder beast, Tawny eagles, buffalos, hyenas, mangos and many more. We were treated very well by the staff; they even had a space cutout in the wilderness where one day they had a wonderful spread of breakfast for us other day an evening bon-fire and snacks. Calvin, the chef and Nelson with others gave us a unique fishing experience one afternoon. We were treated as royalty!! Thank you all, even though I could not mention all of the 20+ staff who waited on us. The experience including the air ride to Mara north is a little expensive but worth all the time, money, and efforts. If you are planning to go do try the Royal Mara Safari Lodge - which would be closed for renovation (March - June/July 2024). I would definitely love to go and visit the renovated new experience.

Relaxed atmoshpere in the camp with very friendly personnel, very unique design and furniture, well equipped and very comfortable beds. Food was good, including a breakfast during the safari. Geoffrey as a ranger and driver did a great job and had an excellent knowledge about the animals. Saw a broad variety of animals, including Elephants, Giraffes, Buffalos, Zebras, Lions, Hyenas, Jackal, many different birds, Hippos, Wildbeasts, Wild Boar, many types of antilopes, etc. It is a highly recommendable camp.

Our first time at Royal Mara in Mara North after having it recommended by our awesome guide, William Twala. It will not be the last as it is a gem hidden away in the trees right by the Mara River. The staff are, as always in Kenya, wonderful but for us the best part was finding out that people we knew from many years ago in other camps now managed and worked there – this added to how much we loved it. Food was plentiful and delicious thanks to Eric the chef. The tent was clean and had so many amenities you did not have time to enjoy them all as the view of the river and wildlife took your time and helped you to relax. Game drives in Mara North are blissful with few jeeps and off road allowed. Asante Sana Ashe oleng We shall return in Feb 2025 – if not sooner.

Stayed over for 4 nights. Wonderful camp with extremely flexible and accommodating team on ground. Great meals, ambience, evening camp fires … solar power all through 24 hrs… with solar power hot water .. steaming! AND very ‘ photographer ‘ friendly!

As Tony the manager said when we arrived.. “Welcome Home”. We recently stayed here and felt so welcome by all the staff who did an incredible job. We would stay again here with no hesitation. The staff are a small but highly effective team that make everyday as comfortable and special as the last. In response to the weird negative review recently. Your room comes with a large safe that you are introduced to on arrival, they should have used it. It fit all my belongings including a laptop. However, one day we left it open all day whilst on safari with cash totally visible and nothing was taken. I find it so so hard to believe that this wonderful small team would take anything and to give this wonderful place 1 star whilst they are still clearly trying to rectify the situation with you is such poor behaviour. My hunch is you lost the cash and blamed everyone else. Anyway rant over. Wonderful place, wonderful people. Don’t hesitate to book.

We stayed at the Royal Mara for 4 nights from 4th July. Our stay was perfect and we would not hesitate to recommend here to anyone including our family and friends. The grounds and lodge were beautiful and well looked after. Our neighbours the hippos and monkeys were great to watch from our room and at meal times. However without doubt the best part of the Royal Mara is their staff. Everyone we met was very friendly, seemed to genuinely care about us and how our day had been and we felt very safe and welcomed. We can not thank them enough and will miss them. Thank you to the team for a wonderful stay, the packed lunches were much appreciated :) Hayley