The joys of a family-friendly safari holiday in Kenya, staying in luxury camps with kids’ clubs

Leaning over the side of a four-by-four safari vehicle makes it difficult to keep your camera steady. We are in the Mara Naboisho Conservancy in Kenya and can hardly believe our luck, we just happened upon a cheetah and her two cubs who have shown interest in us.

It’s a bit alarming how close they get, especially when they stand on their hind legs and start gnawing at the wing mirror. My nine-year-old daughter sits in the back with her father, who holds our four-year-old son tightly. Only when one of the cubs looks like he wants to jump in does our guide, Lenkume, turn on the ignition to scare off the cheetahs.

Lenkume tells us that a young cheetah once jumped into his truck, landed on an American tourist’s lap and tore her jeans with razor-sharp claws.

Involuntarily you wonder, is going on safari with young children such a good idea?

Absolutely, is the answer. A safari holiday has always been a dream and when I heard that Great Plains, run by conservationists and filmmakers Derek and Beverly Joubert, now offers family-friendly safaris, we plundered our piggy banks, because it doesn’t come cheap.

First three days in the Chyulu Hills National Park, staying at the Ol Donyo Lodge, before taking a 45 minute flight to the Mara Naboisho Conservancy in Maasai Mara where we stay at the Mara Nyika camp for three nights.

It’s an ambitious itinerary of over a week (we’ll fly to Nairobi first), so when we land in the golden fields of the Chyulu Hills, we head straight into the bush.

Dan, our guide, comes to the small plane with our very own Land Cruiser, complete with a fully stocked fridge, picnic table, chairs, two pairs of binoculars and a Canon camera. Thanks to these extras, you don’t have to use up a precious baggage allowance (15 kg per person in a soft bag is all allowed on the small internal planes) and you can keep all the images on a USB stick.

Everything you need, from wet wipes to sunscreen and insect repellent, is included, and since the camp does your laundry for free, you can pack sparingly. A fleece, layers that you can take off during the day, a scarf to wear over your mouth on dusty roads, good shoes, a cap and good sunglasses are essential.

Itineraries are personalized and ours includes breakfast in the bush next to a lagoon with hippos and crocodiles, as well as drinking gin and tonics in the four-by-four at sunset while watching lion cubs roll in the long grass.

An exciting nighttime safari is also thrown in. With infrared flares we observe groups of hyenas and lions, while stars high above the landscape provide the most beautiful light show.

Great Plains offers an all-inclusive kids’ club, meaning if the kids are tired or bored, there’s plenty to do at camp.

‘The food is excellent and there is a varied children’s menu for young explorers,’ says Katie of her stay at Ol Donyo Lodge (above) in Chyulu Hills National Park

During an ‘exciting’ night safari, Katie uses infrared flares to observe packs of hyenas and lions (file photo)

Activities include archery, spear making, learning how to make a fire, pizza making and watercolor painting in the log cabin overlooking a watering hole. The latter is the only source of water in 40 miles and attracts numerous wildlife including zebra, impala, elan, monkeys, baboons and lions.

Horse riding is offered, as are visits to Mbirikani, a local Maasai village an hour away. Here we are welcomed by village elders and invited into their houses – huts made of cow dung.

There is no running water and no electricity. But with the help of a translator, we get a real insight into local life. And it’s humiliating.

On another day, a trip through the bush is organized to see the work of the Big Life Foundation. This is an anti-poaching organization that cooperates with the Kenyan government. Bloodhounds, named Bonnie and Clyde, work with park rangers to track down illegal poachers.

There’s so much to do – and it’s so educational for the kids – it’s tempting to go on a non-stop adventure, but it would be a shame not to enjoy the camp too.

‘No day in the Maasai is the same and we are amazed by the sheer number of animals’, says Katie

Each of Ol Donyo’s six lodges has private butler service, a plunge pool, a “star bed” (on the roof) and great views of the 300,000-acre conservation area. The food is excellent and there is a varied children’s menu for young explorers.

It may seem like the luxury experience is unmatchable, but our stay at Mara Nyika proves this wrong. Nyika means ‘great plains’ and the camp is surrounded by acres of lush grassland where elephants roam at eye level from the stilt tents.

We choose one of the newly renovated family tents with two large bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, complete with claw foot copper baths and walk-in showers, and a huge balcony where we have breakfast with the monkeys.

This is a more exposed camp than Ol Donyo and we are given a safety briefing on arrival. No one is allowed to leave their tent at night and there is also 24 hour security.

No two days in the Maasai are the same and we marvel at the sheer amount of animals. The ‘Big Five’ are here and although we don’t encounter rhino, we do see the other four – elephants, lions, leopards and buffaloes.

The children have been given a list of wild animals and we have hours of fun ticking off the names of all the wonderful creatures we saw and learning their collective name: a troop of ostriches, a group of mongooses, a school of hippos.

Perhaps best of all is seeing a leopard and her cub as our son George falls in love with the warthogs and insists he wants to take ‘Pumbaa’ home. It’s hard not to think about the Lion King and the Circle Of Life – we’ve always loved the Disney hit, but nothing beats seeing Simba in the flesh.