A waterhole sits within sight of the suites at Campi ya Kanzi, drawing elephants, giraffes, zebras and eland through the long hours of the day. After dark the drama sharpens, and lions and leopards pass along its edges. The camp lies on Maasai community land in the Chyulu Hills of southern Kenya, on the wildlife corridor that links Amboseli and Tsavo West, with Kilimanjaro filling the southern horizon on clear mornings.
A waterhole sits within sight of the suites at Campi ya Kanzi
Game drives run in solar-charged electric vehicles, so the loudest sound on a drive is often grass under the tyres and birdsong. Because the camp sits on a private Maasai reserve rather than inside a national park, walking safaris with Maasai trackers, night drives and off-road driving are all part of the daily rhythm, the very things lodges within Amboseli or Tsavo West cannot offer their guests.
Luca Belpietro and Antonella Bonomi, an Italian-Kenyan couple, settled on the Kuku Group Ranch in 1995 and began building the camp with the local Maasai the following year, opening it in 1998. They later gave it to the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, and ownership now rests with the Maasai community through the Trust. Belpietro and Bonomi remain on site, hosting and guiding, their lives still bound up in the place they built.
Meals arrive at a communal table in the main house, out on the veranda
The cooking carries Antonella’s Italian upbringing. Pasta, bread and gelato are made fresh each day, the vegetables and herbs come from the camp garden, and the wine is poured from her family’s vineyards in Franciacorta. Meals arrive at a communal table in the main house, out on the veranda, or by candlelight deep inside a volcanic lava tube.
The savannah plains around the camp sit at roughly 920 metres, while the volcanic Chyulu Hills rise to some 2,100 metres into a misty montane cloud forest, the green hills Hemingway once wrote about. That gradient gathers acacia woodland, lava flows, river woodland and forest into a single day’s range, so a morning tracking on the plains can end with a hike into cool, dripping forest where giant forest hogs move through the trees and rare orchids grow in the damp.
Beyond the waterhole’s regulars, the reserve holds cheetahs, spotted hyenas, servals, caracals and lesser kudu. Predator-protection work close to home has allowed lion and leopard numbers to recover steadily over the past two decades, a quiet reversal in a corner of Kenya where those cats might easily have been lost for good.
Evenings gather around a stone fire pit lit by candles and paraffin lamps
Tembo House, the open-sided main lodge, is built of dark volcanic lava rock under a thatched roof, shaped to draw the cool breeze off the hills. The guest tents stand on wooden platforms with hardwood floors, hand-carved beds and canvas roofs, dressed with fine linens, brass lamps and Maasai beadwork. Evenings gather around a stone fire pit lit by candles and paraffin lamps, beneath a sky undimmed by any other light.
Horseback safaris cross the plains alongside giraffes and zebras, while scenic flights lift over the Chyulu Hills and Kilimanjaro in the camp’s Cessna. The lava tubes can be explored by day or laid for dinner by night. Visits to Maasai homesteads, beadwork sessions and the Trust’s field projects run alongside the guiding, and full-day excursions into Amboseli and Tsavo West are there for guests who want to see the great parks themselves.
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accommodation
Sixteen guests are spread across eight tented rooms: six cottages, four twin and two king, and two larger suites, the Hemingway and the Simba, with dressing rooms and direct waterhole views. All stand on wooden platforms under thatch, with hardwood floors and en-suite bathrooms. Kanzi House, a private villa for up to ten, has its own pool and staff.
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activities
On private Maasai land, walking safaris with Maasai trackers, night drives and off-road driving run without park restrictions. Game drives use solar-electric vehicles. Also on offer: cloud-forest hikes, horseback safaris, lava-tube exploration, scenic flights over Kilimanjaro, birding and stargazing. Amboseli and Tsavo West day trips are possible.
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conservation
Proceeds fund the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, founded by Belpietro and Bonomi in 2000. Its Wildlife Pays scheme compensates herders for livestock lost to predators in return for a no-retaliation pact. Maasai rangers patrol the land, and the Trust funds schools, teachers, and community health clinics.
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
You fly, almost without exception. Light aircraft leave Nairobi's Wilson airport for the camp's own airstrip on the Kuku land, about an hour in the air with a short drive up to camp at the other end, and the camp keeps its own plane for the run. We can also arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, for larger parties, and we time every flight around your international arrival.
Soft bags of around fifteen kilograms per person, hand luggage included, are the rule in the air. Driving is possible, turning off the Nairobi to Mombasa highway at Mtito Andei, though nearly everyone chooses the flight.
Yes, plan for it. The land climbs from the plains at around 900 metres to over 2,000 metres in the hills, and all of it lies below the 2,500-metre level at which the CDC and the UK's official travel health advice regard malaria risk as falling away, so tablets are usually recommended. The cooler nights up in the Chyulus thin the mosquitoes without removing the risk.
Confirm the current advice with a travel clinic or your doctor before you travel, and be careful about bites once the evening comes.
Expect two climates in one stay. The plains below run warm and dry, while the hills pull in cloud, mist and genuinely cool air, so a morning on the grassland and an afternoon in the forest can feel like different countries. The rains come around November and from March to May.
Pack layers above all, walking boots with grip for the cloud-forest trails, sun protection for the open country, and something warm for the evenings around the fire. Neutral colours serve everything else.
The dry seasons, June to October and January to February, bring the clearest Kilimanjaro mornings, the firmest ground for walking and the most reliable wildlife at the waterhole. They are the safest choice for a first visit.
The green months that follow the rains turn the Chyulus a deep, improbable green, with strong birding and hardly another visitor, and the hills make their own weather in any season, so pack for both whichever you choose.
Yes. A daily conservation fee is charged for each guest alongside the accommodation, and it goes to the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, which uses it to compensate herders for livestock lost to predators, pay teachers across the Kuku land and run health clinics in the remoter corners of the ranch. It is conservation funded directly by the people who stay.
We include the fee in your quote from the start, so the full cost of the trip is clear before you book and nothing arrives as a surprise later.
There is no minimum age, and families are genuinely welcome. The cottages are arranged so that a twin and a double sit close together for parents and children, and children can join most of the walks and drives, with beadwork alongside the Maasai women and fire-making with the trackers to fill the gaps between.
The longer forest hikes suit older children best, so tell us the ages when we plan and we will shape the days, and the right rooms, around them.
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.
