Roca River Camp

By scheduled light aircraft from Nairobi's Wilson airport to Musiara airstrip, in the north of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. AirKenya Express and Safarilink both fly there every day, and because the Mara flights often call at more than one strip, the time you land can move a little on the day.

The camp's team meets the aircraft, and the drive to camp takes twenty to thirty minutes with game to watch on the way; that transfer is part of the stay. The aircraft take soft bags only, fifteen kilograms a person with hand luggage included.

If you would rather set your own timings, or come straight on from another camp or from Laikipia without going back through Nairobi, we can arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, into Musiara at the hour that suits you. The road from Nairobi takes the best part of a day, and with the flight so short it is not a journey we would suggest.

Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates Kenya as high risk for malaria and recommends antimalarial tablets, setting apart only the city of Nairobi and the highlands above 2,500 metres, where it rates the risk as very low.

The American CDC draws the same line, naming every part of Kenya below 2,500 metres, game parks included. The Maasai Mara lies between about 1,500 and 2,200 metres, well under that line, and neither source changes its advice with the seasons.

We are travel planners, not medical professionals, so we do not make recommendations about antimalarials. Whether to use them, which suit you and what is right for a child are questions for your own doctor or a travel clinic, best asked with your travel dates to hand.

The practical side we can speak to: the camp sits in forest beside the river, so cover arms and legs from dusk and use repellent on bare skin; the tents have netted windows and doors, and the staff close them up against mosquitoes at turndown each evening.

Yes, at any age, and it is set up for them. Three of the nine tents are family tents: a double room and a twin room, each with its own bathroom, joined by a shared sitting area and sleeping up to five, so a family stays under one roof without sharing a bathroom.

The other tents can be made up as doubles, twins or triples. Every booking has its own vehicle, guide and spotter, so the drives run at your children's pace and come home when they have had enough.

In camp there is a programme for younger guests, with archery, traditional Maasai fire lighting and a trunk of games, and the local beading women can come in and teach their craft to the whole family. A nanny can be arranged if you would like an evening to yourselves.

The camp is unfenced, with wildlife moving through, so children stay with an adult at all times and everyone is walked to and from the tents after dark by a watchman. Tell us their ages when you enquire and we will plan the days around them.

Two nights is the minimum, and we would plan three or four, which leaves room for a full day in the Mara Triangle and unhurried days nearer camp.

The standard stay covers all meals, soft drinks, house wine and spirits and local beer; game drives in a vehicle kept for your party alone, with a guide and a spotter; bush breakfasts, picnics and sundowners; one guided walk per group with rangers on the edge of the reserve, as walking is not allowed inside it; laundry; wifi in the tents; and the transfers to and from Musiara airstrip.

Night drives are not permitted in the national reserve, so evenings are spent around the fire in camp. On top of the rate go hot-air balloon flights, a guided visit to a Maasai village, time with the conservation projects the camp supports, champagne and premium wines, and tips.

The reserve's daily entry fee and a nightly bed-night levy are also charged separately, and we put both on the quote from the start so nothing arrives later as a surprise.

Yes, and it is part of the stay: the included game drives go into both the main reserve and the Mara Triangle.

The Triangle is the western third of the Maasai Mara National Reserve, bounded by the Mara River, the Oloololo escarpment and the Tanzanian border, and since the early 2000s it has been managed separately, by the not-for-profit Mara Conservancy on behalf of the county. It sees fewer visitors than the eastern side of the reserve and holds good game all year.

We would give it a full day with a picnic lunch rather than fit it into a morning, so the guide can work the river and the plains below the escarpment without watching the clock, and keep the ground nearer camp for the days either side. With a vehicle to yourselves, the day runs at your pace rather than anyone else's.

The game is good whenever the camp is open, because the lion, leopard, cheetah and elephant of the northern reserve are there all year and the birdlife around the camp is outstanding. January to March is the warmest stretch.

June to September is cooler, and from about July to October the wildebeest migration is in the Mara, which brings the most vehicles as well as the herds. The camp itself closes for part of the long rains, around May.

The rains fall mainly from mid-April to mid-May and again in November, and November into early December is the quiet time, with green grass and far fewer vehicles on the plains.

Mornings and evenings are cold at this height, June to September especially, so bring warm layers for the dawn drives and dinner by the fire; the camp puts a hot water bottle in each bed at night.

For the day, light cotton in muted colours, a sun hat, sunglasses and strong sun cream, comfortable walking shoes and a waterproof. A good torch, binoculars and insect repellent are worth the space, and all of it goes in a soft bag of no more than fifteen kilograms for the light aircraft.