Loisaba Starbeds has four thatched rooms and, most nights, no ceiling. The camp is built into a rocky kopje in one of the eastern valleys of Loisaba Conservancy, looking down on Kiboko Dam and its resident hippo family. At dusk, staff roll heavy timber four-posters out on their wheels onto raised wooden platforms. Anyone who would rather keep a roof simply leaves the bed under thatch.
Just off the equator, the sky is crowded with stars.
Each frame is made up with blankets and pillows, and the mosquito net drawn over the top and sides does little to dim the view. Just off the equator, the sky is crowded with stars. Through the dark comes the sound of the hippos in the dam below, and by morning the valley is busy with game coming down to drink.
Samburu and Laikipiak Maasai warriors host and guide here, at a camp that was once Kiboko Starbeds, one of the oldest star-bed sites in Kenya. Drinks and dinner are shared round the log fire, and breakfast can be laid out in the bush.
By day, giraffes and plains game cross the valley below.
The central area is stone under thatch, its sitting room and dining room opening onto a wooden deck for breakfast in the sun. By day, giraffes and plains game cross the valley below. Even the bathrooms are open to the view, with solar showers and flush loos. Loisaba’s airstrip, an hour’s flight from Nairobi, is a short drive away, and the camp closes each April and May for the long rains.
The Ancilotto family bought this land in the early 1970s and ran it as a low-impact cattle ranch that also took in visitors. By 1997 Tom Silvester was its livestock manager, and that year he and his brother Peter built the Loisaba name with their friend Giles Davis. In 2014 The Nature Conservancy helped move it from private hands into the Loisaba Community Trust, which holds it for conservation in perpetuity. Silvester runs it today as chief executive, and tourism helps pay for its conservation work.
For about 50 years there were no black rhinos on Loisaba. The first of 21 arrived in January 2024, eastern black rhinos from Ol Pejeta, Lewa, Borana and Nairobi National Park. Their sanctuary is run with the Kenya Wildlife Service, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and The Nature Conservancy, and by February 2025 two calves had been born there. On the plains they join elephants and lions, leopards and wild dogs, Grevy’s zebras and reticulated giraffes, though no sighting can be promised from the Starbeds themselves.
An afternoon with the anti-poaching unit shows its sniffer dogs at work.
Loisaba is private conservancy land, so guests can walk with a guide or, on the game package, go out on night drives, neither of which most national parks allow. Horse riding is permitted too, the horses heading out among the zebras, and Samburu handlers lead the camel safaris. An afternoon with the anti-poaching unit shows its sniffer dogs at work, with the handlers explaining their training and running a tracking demonstration.
Families are welcome. The family room splits its two double beds across separate platforms, so parents and children each get their own patch of sky. Evenings are simple, centred on the fire. Come morning, daylight shows what the night only suggested: the broad valley spreading out below the kopje.
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accommodation
The four thatched rooms are three doubles and a family room with two double beds on separate platforms. Each is built into the rocks of the kopje, with a sitting area and an open deck, and the wheeled four-posters come with mosquito nets. Bathrooms have solar showers.
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activities
On the game package, shared game drives run twice daily, and because Loisaba is private conservancy land, guided walks and night drives are included too. Guests can ride among zebras or join Samburu handlers on camel safaris. There is also mountain biking, seasonal fishing at the dams, visits to Samburu villages and time with the anti-poaching unit's sniffer dogs.
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conservation
The rhino sanctuary is run with the Kenya Wildlife Service, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and The Nature Conservancy, and guarded by a K9 unit, surveillance aircraft and drones. Through the Loisaba Community Trust, tourism helps fund school meals for local children, along with scholarships, health outreach and the Chui Mamas Centre.
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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By scheduled light aircraft from Nairobi's Wilson airport to the Loisaba airstrip, about an hour in the air, with a daily service on both AirKenya and Safarilink. From the strip it is a short drive east across the conservancy to the star beds, half an hour at most, and on the game-package rate that transfer is included. Scheduled aircraft carry soft bags only, fifteen kilograms a person including hand luggage.
For your own timings, or to fly in straight from another camp in the north or from the Mara, we can arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, landing on the same Loisaba airstrip. Coming by road from Nanyuki or another northern camp works too, as a private transfer in a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Each of the four rooms is a thatched shelter built into the rocks of a kopje, with a sitting area and an en-suite bathroom open to the view, where the showers run hot on solar power and the loo flushes. The bed is a handcrafted four-poster on wheels. At night it is rolled out onto a raised wooden platform under a mosquito net, so you fall asleep under the open sky above the Kiboko waterhole and wake to the valley in the first light.
Evenings are shared: drinks round a log fire, then dinner with the other guests, hosted by a team of Samburu and Laikipiak Maasai warriors. There are three double rooms and one family room, whose two double beds roll out onto separate platforms, so a family sleeps side by side under the same sky.
Almost everything you would want to do. The game-package rate covers twice-daily shared game drives, night drives, guided walks of two to four hours, a horse or camel safari, mountain bikes and e-bikes, a visit to the conservancy's anti-poaching tracker dogs, all meals with the house drinks, laundry, and the transfers to and from the Loisaba airstrip. You never walk alone: every walk goes out with a guide. A full-board rate covers the room, meals, house drinks and laundry, without the activities.
Premium drinks and the conservancy fee sit outside both rates. We include medical evacuation cover as standard. Fishing in the rivers and dams depends on the season, and a visit to a Samburu village can be arranged as well, so tell us what matters most and we book it before you travel.
The dry months, January and February and then July to September, when the skies are at their clearest for a night in the open and the game gathers at the rivers and dams. March, June, October and December sit in between. Loisaba Star Beds closes every year from the start of April to the end of May, the long rains, so a sleep-out here is not possible in those two months.
November brings the short rains, and the star beds stay open through them: the plateau turns green, the birding is at its best and the conservancy is quieter still. The days are warm and the nights cool at this height, colder again lying out under the sky, so pack a warm layer for the evenings and the early drives, a hat and strong sun cream for the day, and closed shoes for the walks.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates Kenya below 2,500 metres as high risk for malaria and recommends antimalarial tablets there, setting apart only Nairobi and the higher highlands. The American CDC draws the same line. Loisaba lies at about 1,400 to 2,000 metres, below it, so the guidance applies in every month.
We are travel planners, not doctors, and we do not make recommendations about tablets. Which suit you, and what is right for a child, is for your own doctor or a travel clinic to advise, with your travel dates to hand. Sleeping out, the mosquito net over the bed is the thing that matters, with long sleeves and repellent in the evening.
The kopje looks down on the Kiboko waterhole, a permanent dam with resident hippo, and animals come in to drink by day and after dark, which is much of the reason for sleeping out above it. Nothing is promised on any one night, but the sounds carry a long way once the fire is out.
Beyond the waterhole, Loisaba Conservancy holds elephant, reticulated giraffe, Grevy's zebra, lion, leopard, cheetah and wild dog. Since January 2024 it has also been a black rhino sanctuary again, after twenty-one eastern black rhino were brought in, and calves have been born since; southern white rhino live on the conservancy too. The day's drives and walks cover the wider conservancy, and the anti-poaching dog team is part of that story.
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.
