Inside Maasai Mara’s Most Luxurious Safari Stay by The Ritz-Carlton

Travel has the power to transform. And my recent trip to the Maasai Mara National Reserve, in Kenya, was nothing short of transformative. I landed on the Keekorok airstrip, about an hour’s drive from my stay. The longer, more scenic route is a five-to-six hour drive from Nairobi. 

The Ritz-Carlton Masai Mara Safari Camp, the Marriott group’s debut in luxury safari lodges, officially opened its doors on August 15, 2025. The opening, however, hasn’t been without its share of controversy. On August 8, an activist from the Institute for Maasai Education, Research, and Conservation (MERC) sued to stop the opening of the lodge, alleging that its location blocked a wildebeest migration corridor in the reserve. The case was later withdrawn. For its part, the Ritz-Carlton claims that it has done its due diligence and that the site is not disrupting any migration route. Spread over 48 acres, the entire property stands 6.48 metres above ground. 

Shivan Patel, the owner of the Ritz-Carlton, Masai Mara Safari Camp and the JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge in Kenya, says, “It’s so that we don’t block movement of the animals and disturb the natural vegetation of the land.” 

The camp is built on a pre existing government-approved site in the region. The construction is built of lightweight eco-steel with 90 per cent of materials locally sourced. Designed by the Dubai based LW Design Group, the open plan layout of each suite at the safari lodge places you within the Mara ecosphere. 

Pooja Shah-Mulani, managing partner at LW Design, who worked on the project, explains, “It’s about the quiet details in nature that go unnoticed—the way the light shifts as you cross the bridge into the camp, the scent of the trees at dusk, the sound of animals and the feeling of being connected to the pulse of the land and its people.” 

Whether it’s the design of the The Whispering Tree Spa with its open treatment rooms, the gym, each of its 20 luxury tented suites, or dining on the sky deck, every space is designed to blend in with the openness of the land. 

With a staff strength of 200, the Ritz-Carlton Masai Mara Safari Camp is a growing community, providing local employment, fostering partnerships with Kenyan artists, and supporting the local villages. I visit one such village where Philip Soyiantet, a 40-year old Masai local welcomes me with a traditional ceremony.

The main source of livelihood for the 127 people in the village is cattle stock. Their incomes are supplemented through tourism, combined with community support initiatives by the Ritz-Carlton and the JW Marriott, including healthcare and education programmes, enabling them to better support themselves and their families. 

The warmth and hospitality of the Masai is hard to ignore. I indulge in some retail therapy, buying beaded accessories made by the Masai women—a small way of thanking them for welcoming a stranger into their lives, even if only for an afternoon.

My guide, Daniel Scott Ouma, a veteran with over 20 years’ experience in the Mara region and a local of Lake Victoria, drives me back to the lodge. It dawns upon me that the terroir here is unlike most I have experienced for wildlife safaris. It spans 1,500 square kilometres and comprises mostly scrubland. Spotting the big cats isn’t a rarity, as I see them almost every time I go for a game drive early in the morning and later in the evening during the three days that I am at the lodge. 

With 14 well-trained guides, the Mara game drives never disappoint, assures Ouma, and I can vouch for it. I spot lions and cubs—lazy, playful, and sharp. There are more than 90 species of mammals and even more birds in the region, I’m told.

The landscape is almost like a painting populated with zebras, giraffes, elephants, wildebeest, hyenas, gazelles, topis, warthogs and pangolins. The Big Five: the elephant, leopard, rhino, buffalo, and the lion are right there, waiting to be photographed, unperturbed by the Land Cruisers. 

Although the situation is different if one tries to disembark from the vehicle, Ouma warns. The bush breakfast after an exhilarating game drive is the icing on the cake. I sit down with Ouma, and the in-house photographer, Kennedy Amungo, to enjoy a bush breakfast in the midst of wilderness and sweeping plains; it’s a meal I won’t forget in a long time. 

Mara is an emotional experience; a connection you build that lingers long after you depart, calling you to return. As general manager of the Ritz Carlton Masai Mara, Justin Landry, says, “It is where untamed beauty meets the quiet elegance of a truly memorable escape.”

The Ritz-Carlton, Masai Mara Safari Camp is priced at approximately INR 6 lakh per night for doubles.