Olonana: My Favorite Hotel in the World

Part 1 of Hotels That Changed Me

I've been to 65+ countries across all seven continents, and people always ask me for the one hotel. I don't even have to think about it. It's Olonana, a safari camp on the Mara River in Kenya, and it's the place I still measure every other hotel against.

What is Sanctuary Olonana? It's a 14-suite safari camp run by Abercrombie & Kent's Sanctuary collection on a private stretch of the Mara River in Kenya's Masai Mara. Every suite faces the river through glass, with a deck for watching hippos. As of October 2026, rates start around $1,020 per person sharing per night.

Key facts

• Where: a private stretch of the Mara River, Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. Fly into Kichwa Tembo airstrip.
• Size: 14 glass-fronted suites, three of them family suites.
• Rates: from about $1,020 per person sharing per night (November to December) to from $2,450 (June to October), as of October 2026.
• Included: meals, game drives, nature walks, Maasai village visits, bush meals, laundry, airstrip transfers and most drinks (as of October 2026).
• On site: dining room and deck over the river, bar, swimming pool and a spa.
• Stay with us: Olonana is the Mara camp on our private Kenya + Uganda Experience.

Why Olonana is the one

Most safari camps give you a tent. Some of them are very nice tents, but you know you're in a tent. At Olonana you get an actual suite, and you get the river right there in front of you.

This series is about the hotels that stayed with me long after I flew home. Plenty of hotels are beautiful. A few change what you expect from every hotel after them, and Olonana was the first one that did that for me.

Photo: Sanctuary Olonana

The suites

The suites are huge. You walk in to a sunken, half-moon living room, and past it there's a big, beautiful bed with netting draped over it. The whole room faces the river, and the river is full of hippos just living their best life.

Then there's the wrap-around balcony with a daybed. This is where I'd tell you to spend your free afternoon. You can watch the hippos, and elephants, monkeys and other wildlife come through too. It's the bomb.

The bathroom

Back inside, the bathroom is a big slate-floored space with a rain shower large enough to lie down in. Its windows look out onto a lush garden, so you're showering with green all around you. On the river side of the room there's a sunken tub that looks out to the balcony. After a dusty game drive, that tub is where you want to be.

Meals over the river

The main lodge sits right over the riverbed, and you get to choose where you eat. You can sit inside, or outside on the water in the shade. Lunch on that deck, with a glass of white wine and the bush rolling out below you, is the kind of meal you'll still be thinking about at home.

Lunch on the deck during my Kenya trip. Photo: Claire B. Soares

Dinner moves indoors to candlelight and white tablecloths. As of October 2026, meals and most drinks are part of the rate, so you can order the second glass without thinking about it.

Tuna tartare at dinner. Photo: Claire B. Soares

The bar at night

After a long day out in the Mara, the best spot at Olonana is the bar. At night it turns into a spirit tasting lounge, and they pour all kinds of whiskey and, because you're in Africa, some incredible gins. You sit near the roaring fire with your nightcap, and the day you just had finally sinks in. Olonana is by far my best hotel experience in the world.

Days in the Mara

You don't stay at Olonana just for the suite. You're in the Masai Mara, and as of October 2026 the rate includes game drives, nature walks, bush meals and visits to a Maasai village. Golden hour out on the plains is when I take my favorite photos, and you'll want a glass in your hand for at least one of them.

Sundowner on the Mara. Photo: Claire B. Soares

There's a spa with Africology treatments if you'd like a slow afternoon, and a swimming pool for the hot hours between drives. Book a treatment early in your stay so it's waiting for you.

The camp gives back

I care where my money goes when I travel, and Olonana does real work with its neighbors. Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy partners with Maasai communities in the Mara on education, conservation and community enterprise, including building school kitchens and running school lunch programmes. Ask at the camp about visiting one of the schools it supports.

How to stay at Olonana with us

Olonana is the Mara camp on our Kenya + Uganda Experience, a private trip planned around your dates that pairs the Mara with gorilla trekking in Bwindi. We handle the flights, the transfers and the details, so you get to arrive and exhale.

Planning the rest of Kenya? Start with my Maasai Mara luxury safari guide, give yourself two days with my 48-hour Nairobi stopover guide, and read my guide to the Laikipia conservancies if you'd like a second, quieter safari region.

When you're ready, book a free consultation and tell me what you're celebrating. You deserve a week where hippos are the loudest thing in your day.

Next in Hotels That Changed Me: more of the hotels that stayed with me. Each one has a story.