Angama Amboseli sits inside the community-owned Kimana Sanctuary, a wildlife corridor linking Amboseli National Park with the Chyulu Hills in southern Kenya. Its ten suites face Mount Kilimanjaro across a forest of fever trees. Through that forest move the elephants of the greater Amboseli ecosystem, among them Super Tuskers whose ivory drags along the ground as they walk.
Kimana grants exclusive traversing rights over its private sanctuary
The pool carries a drinking trough set into its outer edge, so elephants water metres from the deck while guests watch at eye level. Kimana grants exclusive traversing rights over its private sanctuary. That keeps the game drives uncrowded, and puts the lodge among far fewer vehicles than the national park ever allows.
Every suite is oriented so Kilimanjaro fills the view from the bed, the shower and the vanity mirror. The morning game drives leave early, before thermal cloud builds over the peak, to catch it clear against the plains. Beyond the elephants, the sanctuary holds lions and cheetahs, leopards, giraffes, zebras and elands, all of them ranging across its open grassland.
Every suite is oriented so Kilimanjaro fills the view from the bed
Nicky and the late Steve Fitzgerald founded Angama after careers with the &Beyond group, together with co-founder Steve Mitchell. Angama Amboseli opened in November 2023 as sister lodge to Angama Mara. Jan Allan designed it as a modern take on Maasai homestead forms, with interiors by Annemarie Meintjes and Alison Mitchell. Its sculptural rounded walls are plastered with a mix of concrete and local elephant dung, set against calm, quiet rooms.
The suites carry earthy neutral tones lifted by ochre reds and forest greens, with woven rattan, stone and solid concrete throughout. Each has a super-king bed, a dressing area, a double indoor shower and a private outdoor shower, opening through floor-to-ceiling screened doors onto a wooden deck. Fermob rocking chairs sit out there for coffee at first light, when giraffes drift through the fever trees and the mountain shows itself before the cloud arrives. Two sets of interconnecting family suites make the whole lodge workable for children.
Private-sanctuary rules open up what the national park cannot. Game drives run early, late and after dark inside Kimana, walking safaris go out with Maasai guides and rangers, and there are no return curfews. Day trips reach Amboseli National Park, roughly 45 minutes away, for its swamps and hippos and great elephant herds, with picnics laid out on the plains. Guests can also join Big Life Foundation rangers on foot patrols, learning tracking and camera-trap monitoring alongside the people who protect the land.
distant lions call as Maasai guards walk guests back to their suites by torchlight
The Studios gathers the lodge’s indoor life under one roof. There is a photographic studio for tuition and camera hire, an art gallery, a weaving studio where Maasai women work traditional crafts, a safari shop and a games room. The dining draws on Kenyan produce, grass-fed beef, avocados and tea, all of it lifted with Swahili Coast spices such as cardamom and clove, and roughly a third of the menu is vegetarian. Meals move around too, from the open-air restaurant to private decks, to bush picnics on river sandbanks and forest feasts laid out among the fever trees.
Evenings settle around the baraza fire pit for storytelling under skies with little light pollution. At night the low rumble of drinking elephants carries to the main deck, and distant lions call as Maasai guards walk guests back to their suites by torchlight. The sanctuary land belongs to 844 Maasai families, who lease it in partnership with the Big Life Foundation. Angama Amboseli was named to TIME’s World’s Greatest Places in 2024, the year after it opened.
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accommodation
Ten suites, sleeping up to twenty guests. Six stand-alone suites in canvas, concrete and stone, plus four interconnecting units forming two family suites. Each has a super-king bed, dressing area, double vanity, double indoor shower and private outdoor shower, opening to a wooden deck with rocking chairs and Kilimanjaro views.
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activities
Inside Kimana Sanctuary: day and night game drives, walking safaris with Maasai guides, and foot patrols with Big Life Foundation rangers, none of which the national park permits. Day trips run to Amboseli National Park for game drives and picnics. Cultural visits to local manyattas, plus photographic tuition at The Studios.
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conservation
Kimana Sanctuary is owned by 844 Maasai families, with ecological protection managed by the Big Life Foundation. A nightly Angama Foundation contribution funds community education, healthcare and conservation, supporting Big Life Foundation's work in the ecosystem, including the electric crop-protection fences and predator-compensation payments it runs to reduce retaliatory lion killings.
Get in touch and let’s start the conversation. An initial consultation helps us understand what you’re looking for, whether that’s specific experiences, luxury touches, or marking a special occasion, and from there we’ll guide you through what’s possible so you can decide if we’re the right fit.
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Amboseli and Chyulu Hills
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Amboseli and Chyulu Hills
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Amboseli and Chyulu Hills
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Amboseli and Chyulu Hills
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Amboseli and Chyulu Hills
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Amboseli and Chyulu Hills
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Amboseli and Chyulu Hills
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Amboseli and Chyulu Hills
Scheduled flights leave Nairobi's Wilson airport and land on the Kimana airfield inside the sanctuary itself, a flight of about fifty minutes, with the short transfer from the strip included in the stay. Flights also serve the Amboseli airstrip, about an hour's drive away, and we can arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12.
The light aircraft take soft bags of around fifteen kilograms per person including hand luggage. Unusually for a safari lodge, the drive from Nairobi is also civilised, about three and a half hours on tarmac the whole way.
Yes. Kimana lies on the low plains beneath Kilimanjaro, well below the 2,500-metre altitude the CDC and the UK's official travel health advice use as the level at which malaria risk falls away in Kenya, so antimalarial tablets are normally advised, with transmission present the whole year.
As guidance shifts from season to season, ask a travel clinic or your doctor for the current position before you fly, and keep covered against bites in the evenings.
Warm days, cool mornings and dust between the rains, which fall around November and from March to May and turn the fever tree forest its brightest green. Kilimanjaro is a morning mountain, gathering cloud as the day warms.
Pack neutral colours, a warm layer for dawn game drives, a hat and strong sun protection, and closed shoes if you plan to walk with the rangers. Binoculars earn their place among the fever trees.
For dry ground and the clearest mountain, June to October and January to February are the pick, and those months bring the biggest concentrations to Amboseli's swamps for the day trips into the park. The green seasons are lusher and quieter, with calves on the ground and the birding at its best.
Wildlife uses the Kimana corridor in every month, so the timing question is mostly about the mountain and the mud.
The rate is fully inclusive: all meals, drinks short of French champagne and reserve wines, laundry, wifi, the shared game drives in both the sanctuary and Amboseli National Park, guided walks, evening childminding and the transfer from the Kimana airfield, along with emergency medical evacuation cover.
Park fees, the sanctuary's conservation levy and a nightly contribution to the lodge's charitable foundation are charged separately per person. We fold all three into your quote from the outset, so the number you approve is the number you pay.
Children of every age are welcome the whole year, and this is one of the easiest lodges in the Amboseli ecosystem to do as a family. Children of twelve and under share a suite with parents or siblings rather than taking their own, childminding runs from six until ten each evening so parents can linger over dinner, and bush walks and bushcraft sessions are run with children in mind.
Park and conservation fees are reduced for children, and we will plan the suite arrangement around your ages when we book.
rated five stars by our clients
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our approach
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
