Fig Tree Camp - Maasai Mara

I organised my bespoke Kenyan safari through Julius was recommended to me by a friend and I would recommend them to any of my family, friends and colleagues who are thinking of booking a safari to Kenya. Julius organised and booked the 2 nights accommodation, transfers from Nairobi, hot air balloon flight and various game drives with George, my expert driver and guide, after I detailed how much time I had and what I wanted to do. I chose to stay at fig tree camp which is in the Maasai Mara. There are either chalets or river facing tent type lodges. I stayed in a chalet which is simple but lovely with all the essentials you need. Also at the camp is a restaurant, a bar and a swimming pool. They will organise breakfast / lunch boxes should you be out and about from the camp. Everyone was welcoming and friendly. If I could pass on any tips / advice … bring a battery power pack and get an eSIM! The camp is powered by generator and is only on at certain times. Likewise with the hot water. There is no air con but the chalets are in tree cover so lovely and cool. Also no safe so kept all my valuables on me at all gives just in case. WiFi is only available in the main camp area so having an eSIM means you can still access everything you need without paying for huge data roaming costs. I paid £15 for 5GB of data and in my 8 nights away only used half the data. Would have cost a fortune in roaming charges! Don’t forget your visa too! At refreshment / comfort breaks outside the park and at the park entrances, you will encounter Kenyans and Maasai women trying to see their trinkets and souvenirs. They are quite pushy and need telling ‘no’ a good few times before they leave you alone. I got ****** in once to buying some bits and it was quite expensive! They prefer to accept Kenyan shillings but US dollars are widely accepted along with card in most places. Also, to note that it is approx a 5-6 hr drive from Nairobi to the Maasai Mara so take this in to account and be prepared for some long journeys on some poor Kenyan roads … and we think we’ve got a problem with potholes! Overall, a fantastic memorable trip that will stay with me a life time. Oh, and you can use UK plugs!

We booked for our family and then floods happened in Kenya. This property was badly affected (google for videos). Unlike other properties, they are dragging their feet in refunding our deposit. Other properties refunded voluntarily no questions asked. I would recommend everyone to highly avoid this property. Having travelled around the world and stayed in various properties, this is the worst experience we have had. The property has even stopped responding to our agent’s messages and requests.

Barely a 3 star hotel. We do not recommend and will present our reasons why. Do not go until they complete repairs. We were very unhappy with our stay. And we are very low key travels with reasonable expectations. I will start with the positives. This place was VERY CLEAN! Everything was spotless. The outdoors dining was awesome. Vegitarian friendly. There is 24/7 coffee and tea which is very nice. The staff was friendly. Close to the gates to the game reserve. Keeping in mind it suffered major damage in the flooding last month. Our travel agent, from natural world sarfari, advised we had a tent. It’s was a main requirement for us. We check in and they give us a hut (Chalet). When I asked about it, they said it was unavailable. I was not happy, but assumed they were all damaged. We reached out to our travel agent, who was ineffective at correcting this issue. Turns out, there were at least 8 - 10 tents in working order. The room and bathroom were very clean!! BUT far from comfortable. The chalet is bare. We had a small hutch, closet, a single straight back dining chair, luggage rack and a bed. We had to take turns sitting down in the chair. We kept the mosquito net down. We did not have chairs outside our chalet so we could not sit and enjoy nature. We did not complain or ask about more furniture bc we thought all chalets were like this, turns out that is not true. The chalet is far from lodge. We don’t mind the walk, but you need to be escorted back after dinner. (Which we felt obligated to tip). The tents ALL have a river view with chairs. We paid for the tent, the views etc. We walked around and felt cheated. There were numerous tents functioning. And they were fantastic! Viewing chairs for the river. We peaked in and were very jealous. “Comparison is the thief of joy” but we saw it as this: You go to a restaurant and everyone pays the same set price. One table gets seated next to the window and gets filet mignon and fancy wine. Meanwhile, I get seated at a small table next to the bathroom with a hamburger and cup of water. It was not an enjoyable feeling. It really left a negative mark on our once in a life time trip! Overall the food was good. The “packed lunches” were very suspect as they were sitting out for hours so out of caution we only ate the packaged items. Another issue. We love being outside. There was NOWHERE to sit outside and enjoy the river unless you had a tent. There is a pool (it seemed clean) but there are no views at the pool. The only place we could sit was the intent cafe/bar area. It was covered. The seating is not 100% comfortable. Their intermittent power situation and low water pressure/ limited time for hot water was not an issue at all. We expected it. FIG Tree before the flood must have been amazing. Currently it’s a huge disappointment.

We love this resort. The rooms are comfortable and clean. The staff is very friendly. There is a wide variety of food to choose from each meal. There are so many animals to see on your excursions. I’m going back this June. I really enjoyed hearing the hippos bellowing at night.

Beautifully situated on the banks of the Talek River, within the Masai Mara park, this was a fantastic experience from start to finish. Friendly and efficient staff, accommodating management, excellent food and comfortable luxury tents contributed to the magic of the masai animals.