Mara Siana Camp

By light aircraft from Nairobi's Wilson airport to the eastern side of the Mara, then by road. Two airstrips serve the camp: Siana Springs, the closer of the two, and Keekorok, which every Mara airline calls at. The drive from Siana Springs is well under an hour and from Keekorok an hour or more; the times quoted differ enough between sources that we confirm the strip and the pick-up with the camp for your dates rather than promise a number. The flight itself is about 45 minutes direct, nearer an hour when the aircraft stops at other strips first, and the aircraft take soft bags only, fifteen kilograms a person including hand luggage.

We can also put in a private charter, a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, which fixes the timings and lets the camp follow Laikipia or the coast without a change at Wilson, landing at whichever of the two strips suits the day.

Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates Kenya as high risk for malaria and recommends antimalarial tablets for it, and the only places where it rates the risk as very low are the city of Nairobi and the highlands above 2,500 metres. The American CDC draws the same line and says in terms that it includes the game parks. The camp sits at roughly 1,700 metres, under that line by a wide margin, and neither source makes a seasonal distinction: the advice is the same in the dry months as in the rains.

We are travel planners, not medical professionals, and we do not make recommendations about tablets. The choice, and whether it suits everyone in the party, belongs in a conversation with your own doctor or a travel clinic, ideally with your dates to hand. What we can say is practical: the tents look over a waterhole, so cover arms and legs from late afternoon and keep the repellent where you will use it.

Yes, from about five: the camp's guidance is that it is not recommended for under-fives, and above that age it is unusually well set up for them. The two family tents each have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and the camp runs a children's programme of its own rather than leaving them to sit through adult drives: spear throwing and archery with the Maasai guides, tracking, family game drives and short walks, a visit to the local school, herding with Maasai children, counting wildlife, and baking with the chef.

It helps that the ground is conservancy land, where a child can get out of the vehicle on a walk with a ranger, which the reserve does not allow. Tell us the ages and we will say how the days should run.

Yes to both. There is satellite wifi in the main area, the camp runs on solar power around the clock, with charging points in the tents as well as the mess, and the water is solar-heated too. Phone signal is the weak point: the camp describes it as intermittent, so a call home is better made over the wifi than the network. Anyone who needs to be reachable for work should tell us before the trip, so we can say honestly what will and will not work from the camp.

Any month, honestly, because the conservancy holds its game all year and the camp stays open through the rains. July to October is the migration window, when the herds are usually in the Mara and the reserve is at its busiest; the conservancy is at its most valuable then, because its own ground is not shared with the crowds. The long rains fall from about March to May, heaviest in April, the short rains in mid November and December, and the months between are the quiet ones, green and empty.

Days run in the mid to high twenties, but at about 1,700 metres the mornings fall to twelve or so and the first drive is cold. Bring layers, a warm jacket for dawn and dusk, a hat, something for rain in the wet months, and neutral colours for the walks. All of it in a soft bag under fifteen kilograms.