Manzili Mara

By air from Nairobi's Wilson airport. The scheduled light aircraft to the Mara leave twice a day and take about an hour, sometimes a little more because they call at other strips on the way, and the house's preferred landing is Kichwa Tembo airstrip, from which it is a twenty minute game drive up onto the escarpment. We can also arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, timed to your international arrival, and a helicopter straight to the house if you would rather skip the strip.

The scheduled flights take soft bags only, around fifteen kilograms a person including hand luggage. Driving from Nairobi is possible at roughly five hours, and we would only suggest it if the road itself is part of the plan.

Officially, yes. The house's own fact sheet describes the escarpment as a very low-risk area because of its height, but TravelHealthPro, which carries the UK's official travel health advice, and the CDC both put the altitude above which Kenyan malaria risk falls away at 2,500 metres, class everywhere below that line as a risk area, game reserves included, and recommend antimalarial tablets for it. The Siria Escarpment sits well below that line, so we treat it as a risk area rather than a malaria-free one.

We are travel planners rather than medical professionals, so the decision sits with you and your doctor or a travel clinic, and the guidance is reviewed, so check it is current close to departure. The cool nights up on the escarpment keep mosquito numbers down, which changes nothing in the official advice: long sleeves and repellent once the light goes.

Escarpment weather: warm, dry days of around 25°C and cool nights that drop to 10 to 12°C, with low humidity and the house tucked into the forest where the cliff shelters it from the wind. The long rains fall from March to May, with April the wettest month, and the short rains come in November and December, so June to October and January to March are the dry months.

Pack proper warm layers for early starts and the evenings by the fire, neutral colours, a hat and strong sun protection for the middle of the day, and closed shoes with grip for the escarpment and rhino walks. Sockets are the UK three-pin type on 24-hour solar power, so bring an adaptor if you need one, and a CPAP machine can be run overnight. Soft bags for the flight.

July to September is the migration window in this corner of the Mara, when the herds come north out of the Serengeti and the Mara Triangle below the house fills with wildebeest and the cats that follow them, and the river crossings run at their height in August. The dry months on either side, June to October and again January to March, give firm tracks, clear air and long views from the decks, and the house is open the year round.

The green months after the rains are quieter, with fewer vehicles in the Triangle, newborn animals on the plains and the escarpment at its greenest. Resident lion, leopard, cheetah and elephant are there in every month, so the migration is the headline rather than the whole story.

Not inside the reserve. The Mara Triangle is national reserve land run by the Mara Conservancy, and a day ticket covers six in the morning to six in the evening, so the vehicles are back out by dusk and there are no night drives or spotlighting in the Triangle. Sightings are managed too: when more than five vehicles are waiting on an animal, viewing is limited to ten minutes and the queue holds off at a hundred metres, which is a large part of why the Triangle feels calmer than the eastern side of the reserve.

The escarpment and the Partakilat conservancy next door sit outside the reserve, which is where the evenings and the time on foot happen. Reserve fees are charged per person per day, with a lower rate for older children and no charge for the youngest, the gates take cards and mobile money only, and we build the fees into your quote so nothing is settled at the gate.

Three at the least, and four if the Mara is the heart of the trip. The morning flights put you at the house in time for lunch and the afternoon flights get you back to Nairobi for an evening connection, so three nights gives two full days, one in the Mara Triangle and one for the rhino walk in Partakilat and the escarpment, with the third morning for a bush breakfast on the plains before the flight. Because the whole house is yours, adding a night costs nothing in logistics and buys a day with no plan at all.

If you are arriving from overseas we would put a night in Nairobi first rather than chase the morning flight off a red-eye, and the sister house in the city is the obvious place to spend it, so we book the two together.