Four villas stand on the far northern escarpment of the Laikipia Plateau, on land the Kijabe Maasai own outright. The community holds the buildings and the ground, while a small operating company runs the lodge and shares revenue back to them. Each villa comes with its own guide, vehicle, chef and house team, so the pace of the day belongs entirely to its guests.
The community holds the buildings and the ground.
What this arrangement produces is unusually direct. Cultural time here is not staged around a schedule but woven into ordinary life on community land. You might sit for chai in a household, walk through a livestock market, receive a blessing, or stand at the singing wells where warriors call their cattle to water in the dry riverbeds. The lodge crowns one of the highest points in Laikipia, with views south to Mount Kenya.
This is high, semi-arid country: grassy hills, dry sand riverbeds the Maasai call laghas, acacia and wild fig, and long horizons reaching to Ololokwe, the Matthews Range and the Karisia Hills. Elephants gather at the waterholes through the day, in full view of the infinity pool, the lounge pods and the private decks of the villas.
This is not the dense predator theatre of the Mara
Wildlife has returned steadily through years of community rangeland management. The conservancy forms part of a migratory corridor linking Mount Kenya through Laikipia to Samburu, and holds elephant, leopard, greater kudu, gerenuk, reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s and Burchell’s zebra, and packs of African wild dog that den here. This is not the dense predator theatre of the Mara. The draw is space, and having it to yourself.
John and Gill Elias built Ol Lentille from an idea, a Kenyan company designed to fund conservation and tourism through the community rather than around it. They partnered with the Kijabe Group Ranch and the African Wildlife Foundation, and signed a management agreement. On completion they donated the lodge buildings outright to the Kijabe Maasai. The community owned the asset and the ancestral land beneath it, and the founders held only the lease to run it.
Andre Cohen and Laura Yung first came as guests in 2019. In June 2022 they took over the tourism operation and lease when the Eliases retired, and renovated the villas that year, renaming each for a local plant. Carissa is a circular one-bedroom suite on a rocky promontory, with an open-air bath set into the stone. Aloe and Acacia are two-bedroom houses, and Aloe has a private plunge pool, and Boscia is a three-bedroom villa with its own campfire.
They are taken in a villa, in the vaulted central gallery on a cold highland night
Because this is private conservancy land, the day is unregimented and the range of activity wide. Maasai and Samburu warriors lead guided walks, and there are day and night drives, camel treks along the riverbeds, quad biking, horse safaris by prior arrangement, and hikes up the ridge for the panorama. Meals follow mood rather than a clock. They are taken in a villa, in the vaulted central gallery on a cold highland night, or set up as a bush breakfast or a sundowner on an outcrop.
The design leans on the geology rather than fighting it. The villas are permanent structures of hand-cut local stone, plaster and timber, some built around existing granite boulders, with floor-to-ceiling glass pulling the landscape indoors. The 2022 interiors are contemporary and understated, in neutral palettes with local textiles. A library, a spa using Kenyan and Somali essential oils, and lounge pods on the ridge edge complete a lodge that welcomes children of all ages and suits families and private groups.
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accommodation
Four architect-designed private villas sleeping 16 in total. Carissa is a one-bedroom circular suite on a promontory with an open-air stone bath. Aloe and Acacia are two-bedroom houses, and Aloe has a private plunge pool. Boscia, the largest, holds three bedrooms with its own campfire. Each villa has dedicated staff, a guide and a vehicle.
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activities
On private conservancy land, guests walk, drive by day and night, and eat in the bush without park restrictions. Guided walks are led by Maasai and Samburu warriors; other options include camel treks along the laghas, quad biking, horse safaris by arrangement, ridge hikes, the singing wells, community visits, and spa treatments.
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conservation
The Ol Lentille Trust, run on the ground by Maasai elder Timothy Ole Mosiany, has directed over five million dollars to local projects since 2007: secondary school scholarships, daily meals across eight schools, water access, clinics, and a community ranger team securing the wildlife corridor. Guest conservation fees flow to the four partner communities.
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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Most guests fly. Scheduled flights leave Nairobi's Wilson airport for Nanyuki, about forty-five minutes in the air and then a two hour drive north, or for Loisaba airstrip, which is closer, with a road transfer of around an hour and a half. We can also arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, straight to the lodge's own airstrip, and from there it is a fifteen minute drive to the villas, a transfer the lodge includes in the stay.
The scheduled light aircraft take soft bags only, fifteen kilograms per person including hand luggage, so pack a duffel rather than a hard case. Driving up from Nairobi takes five to six hours if you would rather watch the country change on the way, and we can also arrange a helicopter.
Treat it as a lower-risk malaria area, not a malaria-free one. The lodge stands high on the Laikipia escarpment at around 1,800 metres, and the cold nights hold mosquito numbers down, but the CDC and the UK's official travel health advice both place the altitude at which risk falls away at 2,500 metres, so antimalarial tablets are usually recommended.
Guidance is reviewed regularly, so confirm the current position with a travel clinic or your doctor before you travel, and take the usual care against bites once the light goes.
High and semi-arid, so warm, dry days meet genuinely cold mornings and nights the whole year, with fires lit against the evening chill. The long rains fall from around March to May and the short rains in November, greening the hills and softening the tracks, while the months between stay clear and dusty.
Pack warm layers for early starts and the evenings, neutral colours and strong sun protection for the day, and closed shoes with grip for the ridge walks and quad biking. Swimwear is worth having for the pool, and binoculars for the waterholes below the lodge.
The lodge is open the year round, and the dry months, from late June to October and again from December to February, are the pick, with clear skies, firm ground for walking and wildlife drawn to the waterholes. The dry weeks are also when the singing wells come into their own, because that is when the herders dig into the sand rivers for water and sing their cattle down to drink.
The green seasons after the rains are quieter, with the birding at its best and fresh grass pulling the plains game through. The cultural side of a stay, from the weekly livestock markets to time in the villages, runs in every season.
The rates are all-inclusive within your own villa. They cover all meals, house wines, beers, spirits and cocktails, private game drives by day and night, guided walks, mountain and quad biking, cultural visits and sundowners, plus the transfer between the lodge's airstrip and the villas. Wifi is free throughout the lodge.
A conservation fee is charged separately for each person per night, and we build it into your quote from the start so nothing arrives as a surprise. Spa treatments, camel and horse safaris and helicopter excursions also sit outside the rate, so tell us what appeals and we will price the whole trip before you commit.
Deliberately so. The lodge runs a young warriors' programme that teaches children bushcraft alongside Maasai warriors, with beadwork, visits to local schools and film nights under the stars, and while parents take on the harder hikes or the quad bikes, the house team will look after younger children.
Tell us the ages when we plan and we will match the villa and the activities to them. Some of the wilder outings suit older children best, so we will be straight with you about what fits now and what is worth saving for a return trip.
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.
