Fabulous wilderness setting with the rolling green hills of the Chyulus behind which is fronted by magnificent views of Mt Kilimanjaro, the savanna and active waterhole. The lodge is best in class with a classic safari setting
A great place with the much needed silence away from daily life, it's also closely located from the capital.
It's a nice place to spend. At around $100 per person per night.
The best you can have in East Africa cheers ol Donyo
It was as good as living there .nice place.thanks to Richerd &Tara Bonham
Ol Donyo Lodge is the best place to be, everything is amazing and an awesome view of Kilimanjaro and El Mau-twin mountain.
Beautiful camp with ever changing views of Kilimanjaro in the distance
Positives:
Property - at first sight: a really lovely property. Each room comes with a star bed (so you can sleep under the stars), and a nice plunge pool which a number of birds, baboons, monkeys, squirrels, etc, use as their watering source. You can sit on your sun lounges and enjoy the views.
Hide - the viewing hide (upper and lower). The property has a man-made reservoir where a number of animals / game come to drink water (elephants, zebras, giraffes, impalas, gazelles and warthogs).
Negatives:
Management - similar to Mara Plains (see also our review of Mara Plains Camp) the regular manager has left due to visa issues. The property is currently being managed by 3 managers, 2 of whom are relief managers (Lauren and Addi). Lauren is sweet but very young , and this is not her normal profession. Addi (who actually took us to our room and checked us in, and who used to manage a property in Masai Mara), gave the impression that he was biding his time and guests requests or quirks were an inconvenience. There is no doubt Addi is a knowledgeable bush-man but his personality did not seem well-suited to managing.
Monkeys - the second day we came back to our room to catch a monkey red-handed running out of the room with our sunscreen. He had already chewed through our malaria pills, my prescription ointment for bug bites, taken part of my iPhone headset, and soiled our bed. We managed to track someone down, who came over and changed sheets, etc. But neither Lauren or Addi came by. Late afternoon (before our afternoon game drive) we saw Lauren and mentioned it to her. She seemed rather nonplussed and then Jonathan (one of the waiters) chimed in oh yes we always tell guests to lock up their medications and creams as the monkeys always come for them because they are sweet . Needless to say my husband and I were furious as no-one (including Addi / Lauren) had told us this. It is not a problem to have monkeys running around our room, it s actually kind of cute, or to lock up medications and other valuables.
It is problem to (A) not be warned, and told what to put away and (B) replace things (i.e. prescription ointment for bug bites) in the middle of the bush!
That evening Addi came over and admitted that he had forgotten to warn us. By then it was too late, obviously.
Bugs - I have been to Africa 5 times and this is our third safari. I can honestly say I have never seen so many bugs, cockroaches, beetles, etc, running around the room or flying around the dining / common space area. I am American and I don t like (in fact, I hate) bugs. When we asked Addi if we could have room sprayed (similar to Mara Plains Camp) or if something could be done about it his attitude was very much get over it, you are in the bush . Needless to say that did not go down well.
Guide - Konee; Daniel our Mara Plains Camp guide was engaged and seemed to be interested in the game drives and animals / game: Konee was much less so. Half the time when we would stop next to a pride of lions or elsewhere he would be on his iPhone. The one time he joined us in the Hide (to watch the elephants) he kept sighing and yawning: we finally said we are fine by ourselves if he wanted to leave . He initially said no, then said he should go and ask them to fill the man-made reservoir with more water and didn t come back.
Recommend?
No. Unless (A) you have no / little interest in seeing the animals / game (which makes me question why you are going on a safari) or (B) really prefer doing other things like the lava cave walk, horseback-riding, or going to a local village or (C) really love spending time with a huge number of bugs. We consistently saw more animals / game from our pool or next to the man-made reservoir than we did during our game drives.
Heaven on earth Ol Donyo lodge is one of the best kept secrets in Kenya. Loved staying her and having amazing views of the Chyulu plains from my room. And the private pool sealed it for me. We also rode horses through the plains and watched a lioness trying to eat a tortoise during sunset. No luck for the lioness unfortunately. The Chyulus is one least visited conservancies in Kenya but if you get a chance please do. You need a proper 4X4 car to go around and there are camp sites for campers as well by KWS.
Excellent people, excellent lodge, excellent service, excellent experience.
This lodge gave us the greatest travel experience my wife and I have ever experienced in our lives, and we are in the hotel business. Beautifully designed with incredible staff flaunting the most natural intuitive service you could come across, anything less than 5/5 is an insult to this place.
Very beautiful place,game wise and Masai culture is outstanding .
I m still at Ol Dono Lodge and I don t want to leave it s so UNBELIEVABLE ! The staff makes you feel soooo special and want to make sure u have a wonderful experience- you just have to come see it for yourself -
Heaven on Earth! This lodge is immaculately beautiful and the service is better than anything I've ever experienced.
All of the grey water from the lodge is filtered and runs down to a watering hole in front of the rooms. This brings in animals from all over so the game viewing is incredible even from your back porch or private swimming pool. There's nothing like waking up in the morning and peeking over the covers to see wild elephants enjoying a drink.
There are fun activities that you might not find at other lodges such as mountain biking, horseback riding, and hiking. I could go on and on about Ol Donyo but all my comments would come down to this...JUST GO THERE!
Peaceful and tranquil, the staff is out of this world.. Vivid protocols are all in place and strictly observed. I highly recommend it. The rooms are also so amazing with each having its own plunge pool. Games drives and the sundowners are amazing too.
Wonderful place to have a relaxing time and enjoy the nature and wildlife. Great staff, marvelous setting, excellent guides. The food is simply magnificent.
Very nice accommodations (especially after a few days in a basic Tsavo bush camp) with good food and wine. Mt Kili was is fine form and truly spectacular. Game viewing was pretty good, but the lack of water in the area means no huge herds of Plains game. As a result, the lodge water hole is a big attraction, especially for the resident super tuskers.
Chyulu hills are beautiful and the view of Mt.Kilimanjaro is perfect.
Beautiful setting but very breezy winds in apt. (Bedroom , bath etc)
Need more furniture to try to block off gaps in the billowing curtains. No way to shut out the winds - maybe 6-8 knots? We'll make do tonight but need to improvise going forward . Wind just blew over the luggage rack as I type I had set up to try and knock down the wind a bit by holding back the curtain . Another luggage rack just blew over . I have moved all the furniture I could to hold the curtains back but it is not enough. We are paying a lot for a poorly designed accommodation . Whoever designed this place was long on style but total fail on function
Can't stand staying in a wind tunnel . Ridiculous
Bill & Claudia
My stay at OL Donyo was Awesome from the Lodging to the staff(Sandra,Jackson,John,Joshua,Isaac,Douglas and Kevin)who were stupendous Rita and Winnie gave awesome massages and had the sweetest personalities. The food was top notch!! I really enjoyed all the staff!! Last but not least I want to thank the AWESOME and REMARKABLE Maasai Warriors Konee and Moses who took me on the best game drives and taught me so much about their people ,culture and animals. Go you'll love it!!
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