HOLIDAY IN THE WILD

WITH KENYA OFFERING VISA-FREE TRAVEL NOW, THE AFRICAN WILDLIFE FANTASY HAS COME HOME TO ROOST.

- PALLAVI PASRICHA

Dreaming of close encounters with the Big Five in Masai Mara, watching the Great Migration on a hot air balloon or a brush with Kenya’s colonial past?

As you ponder choices for board and lodge, Spice picks out the cream of the crop—whether its the newest on the block, hotels where history plays mannequin or uber luxury camps in the heart of the African bush that will give the Kenyan adventure an extra edge.

Giraffe Manor 

Tuck into pancakes and waffles as the endangered Rothschild giraffes, who live in the surrounding forest sanctuary, stick their long necks in through the hotel’s glass windows looking for their breakfast fix—grass pellets. Sprawling over 12 acres, the ivy-covered manor house that dates back to the 1930s, lies in the Langata suburb of Nairobi. The 12 rooms (named after giraffes of course) are divided between the Historic Manor and Garden Manor and some come with giraffe feeding access. These graceful creatures may even put in an appearance at the swimming pool or keep you company at high tea on the lawns. www.thesafaricollection.com/properties/giraffe-manor/.

Price £963 (Approx. ₹1.02 lakh) per person per night.

Sarova Stanley 

“She arrived as a Princess and left as Queen Elizabeth II after learning of her father’s (King George VI) death when she was visiting Kenya,” Steve Kinguli, Head of Concierge at Sarova Stanley, tells me as he takes me around this iconic luxury hotel where she stayed in Nairobi. I get goosebumps.