Kicheche Laikipia

Fly. AirKenya's scheduled service leaves Nairobi's Wilson airport at 9.45 each morning for Kamok, the airstrip inside Ol Pejeta itself, and the camp includes the transfer from Kamok in its rate. Safarilink flies twice a day to Nanyuki airstrip instead, around an hour in the air and a little longer when the aircraft calls at another strip first, and from Nanyuki it is thirty to forty-five minutes by road to the camp, a leg we arrange and price for you. We can also put you on a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, straight into Kamok at a time of your choosing, which frees you from the timetable and lets you fly in from the Mara or Samburu without going back through Nairobi.

The scheduled aircraft take fifteen kilograms a person, hand luggage and camera bags included, in soft bags only, so a long lens needs planning and a duffel travels better than a hard case. By road from Nairobi it is about 210 kilometres and three to four hours, and we can set that up as a private transfer if you would rather see the farmland give way to the foothills of Mount Kenya on the way.

Treat it as a malaria area, not a malaria-free one. The camp stands at around 1,800 metres, and both TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, and the CDC put the height at which the risk falls away at 2,500 metres. TravelHealthPro classes Kenya as high risk apart from Nairobi and the highlands above that line, and lists antimalarial tablets among its recommendations for the rest; the CDC names every part of the country below 2,500 metres, game parks included, as somewhere it recommends preventive medicine, and Ol Pejeta sits well inside that.

We are travel planners rather than medical people, so the decision belongs with you and your doctor or a travel clinic, and the guidance is reviewed often enough to be worth checking close to departure. The cold highland nights hold mosquito numbers down and the tents keep insect spray on hand, but the ordinary care still applies once the light goes: long sleeves by the fire, repellent on any skin left showing, and a layer more than you think on a night drive.

Yes, at any age. Two of Kicheche's Mara camps start children at seven, but Laikipia has no minimum: it prices three to eleven year olds at half the adult rate, treats twelve to seventeen year olds as young adults, and puts families in the two-bedroom suite, which sleeps five and comes with a private vehicle and guide guaranteed at no extra charge, so the days run at your children's pace rather than another party's. Supper can be served early in the tent, and the camp will post a night guard outside for children who go to bed before the adults.

Ol Pejeta's own activities carry age rules of their own: the anti-poaching dog demonstration is for twelve and over, the rhino monitoring patrols do not take children at all, and lion tracking takes them at a child price. Tell us their ages when you enquire and we will build the days around what they can actually do. Between drives the camp's guides run short camp walks, soft archery, tracking animal footprints and making bows and arrows, which tend to be the bits the younger ones talk about afterwards.

Two climates in one day. The camp sits high on the Equator, so afternoons reach the low to mid twenties under a hard sun while dawn can be close to twelve degrees, and a morning drive starts in a fleece and a hat and ends in shirtsleeves. The rains come twice, roughly March to May with April the wettest month, and again in October and November; the camp closes for the long rains, from 10 April to 23 May in 2026, and the dates move a little each year. June to September is the driest stretch, December to February is dry again, and a shower is possible in any month at this height.

Pack in layers: a warm fleece or down jacket and a woollen hat for the dawn starts, the evenings by the fire and above all the night drives, which are colder than people expect; light neutral clothing and a wide-brimmed hat for the middle of the day; high-factor sun cream, because the altitude sharpens the sun; closed shoes with grip for the walks; and binoculars for the dam, which does a lot of the work from your veranda. The tents keep rubber boots, umbrellas and bathrobes for the wet and the cold, so those can stay at home, and everything goes in soft bags for the light aircraft.

The rate is full board with drinks, house wines, beers and spirits included, and it covers the shared game drives by day and by night, the guided walks with an armed ranger, mountain biking, sundowners, laundry, a contribution to the Kicheche Community Trust and the transfer to and from Kamok airstrip. Wifi reaches every tent, and the tents run on 24-hour solar power with universal sockets and USB points, so camera batteries are not a worry.

Ol Pejeta's conservancy fee sits on top, and we put it in the quote from the start. The conservancy charges a daily entry fee per adult, half that for a child of three to eleven, with under-threes free, and because the camp is in the quieter wilderness zone a bed-night levy is added, so the camp bills the two together per person per night. The northern white rhino visit, the dog-unit demonstration and a private vehicle are extras, and leaving after midday on the last day carries a supplement, so we time the flight out to avoid it. Stays of six nights or more earn ten percent off, and pairing the camp with one of Kicheche's Mara camps makes six nights cost five, with the free night at Laikipia.

Yes. The visit is run by Ol Pejeta rather than the camp, so it sits outside the rate, charged per person for a slot of about an hour inside the enclosure, at 8.30, 11.00, 3.00 or 4.30, and it has to be booked ahead. We book it before you travel and fit it round the drives rather than leaving it to chance on the day.

The same rangers run other things worth a morning. Lion tracking with a telemetry receiver goes out at 6.30 and 3.30 in a shared six-seat vehicle, needs four people to run and is charged per person, children at half; the dog-unit demonstration runs once a day at 8.30 and is charged separately too; and the Sweetwaters chimpanzee sanctuary is covered by the conservancy fee, with a behind-the-scenes feeding visit at midday, charged separately, in groups of no more than six. We plan three nights at the camp at the least, because each of these takes a slot alongside the walk and the night drive, and a fourth if you want the fly-camp night.