The tents have hardwood floors, stone bath areas, hot water and electricity 24 hours a day. There is lots of visual privacy but not audio privacy Coffee is delivered to your tent at 5:30 AM before leaving on a 6:00AM safari ride in an open Land Rover with stadium seating. Monkeys and Wart Hog families roam the grounds. A pool overlooks the Masia Mara plains and often the hot air baloon available for early morning rides ($450 for the ride and champagne breakfast in the bush). The guides are excellent, especially Sophya-a rare female guide. There is a bar and large dining area. Most meals are served as buffets and of good quality except for beef dishes which I found to be tough. Wines are reasonably priced. Ask for a tent near the dining area unless you like to walk a great distance and down hill to the farthest tents. The one thing I found lacking was a fan for hot afternoons. However, the cool evenings of October were ok with the hot water bottles provided at bed turndown time.

We returned to Masai Mara after four years and asked Julius (JT Safaris) our tour operator in Mombassa again to stay at Kichwa Tembo Camp, and it was again perfect. Excellent place to stay and we managed to see the Big Five this time. Even saw the Rinos two time thanks to our driver Jackson. Amazing how he managed to catch them. Complements also to the Kitchen and Staff of the camp. Excellent food and service. Don't be afraid af the Lions you here at night!! Great noise.
We had a vey nice time, also thanks to our company from Brittain (Mary+Francis), who we met at the airstrip in Ukunda. they also booked with Julius, so we shared the same Jeep for the game drives. They even went for a Balloon flight they booked also at Julius, and said that it was worth every penny, so that is already planned for the future.

Roland+Jacqueline from Holland

If you are researching this site in preparation of your FIRST safari you have found the key to making this long trip worth every minute of your travel time!!! When it comes down to the reason for your safari it is to see all the animals and experience the life of the animals as well. &Beyond has the OPEN jeep!! I would have never realized how important this is before booking our safari. Most of the closed vans or jeeps you have to stand up and peer out. Do you really want to do this for hours a day?? The open jeep creates an atmosphere of really being there next to the animals. I believe &Beyond is about the only open jeep safari company in the reserve area.

So after experiencing the adventure of a safari it is not a bad thing to be revived and relaxed in a luxury tented camp. Honestly, I would never choose a room over a luxury tent. To me it would have changed the dynamics of our safari vacation.

Just choose between the two sister camps that are located very close to each other. My husband and I would have chosen Bateleur but they were completely booked. So we stayed at Kitchwa Tembo. The Bateleur is more elegant and therefore more expensive. But Ktchwa Tembo met our every expectation and beyond (haha). The service, food, bedding, security is TOP notch!! Our guide was so experienced and knowledgeable. His name was Akatch Samwel. I really hoped to see cheetahs and of course they are hard to find and there are few of them. Akatch was determined and he succeeded so we saw two cheetah brothers relaxing together under a tree. There was not another human in sight. Such a memorable moment in my life.
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I was concerned initially about traveling to a continent I had never visited before so I knew that we would be more comfortable with having an agent book all our arrangements for us. We had read in Conde Nast of an agency in Philadelphia that specializes in safari's so we ended up using Bob from Premier Tours. Bob arranged all our transportation. We always had someone with us to make our transfers. I believe this is very important because you are using a lot of different airlines and sometimes are using three in one day. I couldn't speak more highly of the agency Bob used in Kenya to help us with our tickets and transfers…..Liberty Africa Safaris LTD.

My husband and I also decided to break our trip up on our way to Kenya so we would not be exhausted when we arrived. We stayed 2 nights in Amsterdam which was great in itself but we were able to fly to Nairobi and spend 1 night there as well, which allowed us to experience Nairobi and then travel the next day to arrive at Kitchwa in time to be settled and go on a late afternoon safari. And then to also wake up the next morning for a 6:00 am safari and not be exhausted. The early morning safari is an absolute because this is when the animals hunt and feed.

We stayed 3 nights at the camp and then traveled to a beach resort on the coast of the Indian Ocean for three nights. This was enough time for us. We travelled directly to our home in Knoxville after our beach time. This is the one thing I may have changed. I would have broke the trip up on the way back…It was 34 hours of constant travel for us. It is an 8 hour trip from Nairobi to Amsterdam FYI.

We just spent four days at Kichwa Tembo....three would have been plenty. We arrived at close to. 7pm after traveling for about ten hours and we had to wait 15 minutes before anyone greeted us. Not good. Then we found that our luxury tent was not available and we were relegated to a standard tent. Bad! They said it was the fault of our safari operator- Kensington- but highly unlikely.

The problem appeared to be that Kichwa was hosting a 30+ group of General Electiric people and they had sucked up all the luxury tents at least for the next two nights. The large group also overwhelmed the resort such as when they went into the bar everyone else moved out. I'm sure it was a very profitable piece of business for Kichwa but not a great experience for regular guests.

But given we stayed in both the standard and luxury tents for two nights each I can give you a good evaluation. The standard tent is adequate but with two single beds. There are no separate electric outlets so if you need to recharge you need to bring your gear to the bar. The bathroom is fine.

The luxury tent is worth the up charge. More spacious, a full king sized very comfortable bed, larger bathroom and electric outlets.

Once the GE crowd left the dynamic really changed as the staff was focused on the guests. Stanley, the asst GM was very helpful, Thorne - our minder!- was very solicitous, and Simon our tent butler was always watching over us.

The food is excellent and the marinated, grilled pork chops served at lunch one day were to die for. Meals are buffet style and the selection is always pretty broad.

One highlight was that on our last night there a formal dinner was set up was on our deck which was also strewn with rose petals! But, we had made dinner plans with another couple so we did not get to enjoy it. But a very nice gesture on their part.

Kichwa has a magnificent ground level view of the Masai Mara and plenty of game is on view. At the edge of the property is an infinity pool overlooking the Mara. Cooling off in the pool and looking at a giraffe is a once in a lifetime experience. Also, there is a family of wart hogs living on the property who are very tame but you do need to watch where you step. There are also monkeys who will sweep in and steal your food as well as antelope on the edge of the property. If your tent is at the far end of the property you cross a stream where a 20ft python lives. Our tent neighbors saw and videos it. I have snakes!

Finally, make sure to book am early morning balloon ride. Very expensive but the experience is awesome and the safari breakfast was outstanding.