Overall, I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a luxurious tented camp in Amboseli. We stayed two nights and did two game drives.
Location: It is about 30-35 minutes from the park gate on a very rough and secluded road and it is quite bumpy, but depending on the time of the day, you may see zebras, dik-diks, giraffes, buffalo, and elephants on this drive. It is a lot closer to Kilimanjaro than most other camps/lodges and the view is definitely worth the drive.
Camp: The camp itself looks very rustic, and it is very quiet. I don’t think it can accommodate more than 40 guests and when we went, there were only around 10 others. The main area with the reception and dining has free WiFi. It is unfenced, and the Masai guards protect the camp from animals like elephants and buffalos. In front of the dining area, around 40 meters away, is a watering hole where you can watch animals such as elephants, giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, waterbucks, elands, and gnus come by while you are eating. Also, the mornings and evenings had terrific views of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Tents: The tents are probably one of the best parts of the camp. Every tent has an unobstructed view of Kilimanjaro that can even be seen from the inside. They are quite spacious with a large bathroom as well. The tents have mosquito netting that kept insects out and a spray inside the tent. Every night, there would be hot water bottles under the covers of the bed which kept it during the chilly night.
Service: Service was excellent, the staff were very helpful and enthusiastic and tried to make our stay as pleasant as possible. They even meticulously planned out and prepared boxes of breakfast to take when we had to leave early in the morning and didn’t have time to eat in the morning.
Food: The food was okay, the set menu did have vegetarian options. It is mostly English cuisine, and lunch has 2 options for starters and dessert, one or two starters vegetarian and both desserts vegetarian. 2 out of the 4 options for the main course are vegetarian and there are also two soups for dinner. Breakfast was fantastic. They were quite flexible with the menu, but some of the dishes just tasted a little plain to me personally. Overall, the food was good enough and the options were good too, and anything that wasn’t was made up for by the animals distracting me while eating.
I personally don’t think any other lodge or tented camp (maybe Tortilis but I wouldn’t know) could beat Elerai Camp in terms of luxury or closeness to nature.
