Kenya Sweetwaters

Meet our neighbors at this luxury tent camp in a private game reserve in Nanyuki, Kenya; it's a wild experience for family travelers to Africa.

Going on safari is typically a series of fascinating one-night stands as you move from one game park to another. But Sweetwaters Tented Camp, on the savannah grasslands below Mount Kenya, is the kind of place you should plan to stay for a few days, especially with kids.

There are plenty of chances to go on daily “game drives” in a 4×4 through the private 24,000-acre reserve to see giraffe, zebra, hartebeest, baboon, elephants, gazelle, waterbuck, and more. But when you need a break from the Land Rover, you can hang around camp and visit with the resident black rhino, Morani, and tame warthog, Blow. Or, arrange an excursion next door to the Jane Goodall  Sweetwaters Sanctuary, a small refuge for rescued chimpanzees. 

In the later afternoon, relax on your front porch while you watch the elephants and other animals drink at the waterhole: all 39 tents face the water. And don’t think this is anything like the camping you do at home.

The walls and roof of this structure may be of canvas but it’s really a canvas cottage on a cement base with a sumptuously furnished interior and a private bathroom. Tents have one king or two twin beds and a rollaway can be added. Families of four or more need two tents.

There’s a swimming pool, badminton, a game room with Scrabble and cards, and wildlife movies that are shown on request. There are even activities for kids that you arrange when you get there, such as a “tree planting ceremony” that uses young seedlings which are grown in collaboration with a project that helps local street children. Kids can also enjoy their own bush breakfast or they can take a camel ride and assist with grooming and feeding the camels that reside at camp.

Editor’s Note: Kenya has experienced a string of terrorism related incidents since 9/11. At publication, travel to Kenya is being considered safe again as long as visitors take substantial precautions for their personal safety. Since August 2008, the U.S. State Department’s revised Travel Warning allows Peace Corps workers to resume their in-country assignments.  For updated travel advisories, please visit http://travel.state.gov.