Kenya: Where to Stay: Setting: Ol Donyo Wuas Lodge

Ol Donyo Wuas Lodge

Ol Donya Wuas Lodge, founded in 1992 by Richard Bonham, helped pioneer Kenya’s concession model of conservation tourism. The legendary safari guide, who also owns Sand River Selous in Tanzania, picked this spot for his own home and his pioneering sustainable tourism program. With this model, investors lease a large tract of land from local Masai farmers and give a percentage of their tourism revenue to the Masai. In exchange, the Masai agree to remove their livestock from the tract and curtail all wildlife hunting on it. Bonham’s concession grants him exclusive use of over 300,000 acres in Kenya’s Chyulu Hills—otherwise known as Hemingway’s “Green Hills of Africa”—which are located halfway between Tsavo and Amboseli National Parks. That works out to over 15,000 acres per guest if you consider that Ol Donyo consists of only eight thatched-roof cottages (two have an additional bedroom), each of which is solar powered and constructed from indigenous materials. There is a main “mess”, which serves as a communal living and dining area and each guest lodge has one wall completely open to the views of Mount Kilimanjaro. Bonham used the same organic design style in the guest areas that he used for his own house, which includes stone walls, thatched coconut palm ceilings and beds and tables fashioned from fallen olive trees. Bonham has also established the Masailand Preservation Trust, which donates money to local schools and health clinics. From $425/person/night.

To read more about Bonham’s groundbreaking initiative to save lions in the area, click here.