Saruni Samburu is built into rock on high ground in the Kalama Community Conservancy, next to the Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya, and guests game-drive in both. There are six villas: two singles and four family villas, each family villa holding two en-suite bedrooms. The lodge has two pools, a spa, viewing decks over waterholes and a private photographic hide at a waterhole. Activities include day and night game drives, guided walks with Samburu guides, rock-art visits, a children's programme called Warriors Academy, birding, and treks on the sacred mountain Ololokwe and to Thumb Rock, both restricted to guests aged 18 and over. An elephant sanctuary excursion is also offered.
What sets it apart
Its rock-built villas on a high ridge in a community conservancy, with a dedicated waterhole photographic hide, set it apart from the riverside tented camps that dominate the Samburu area.
Who it suits
Photography from a hide; northern Kenya dry-country species; families.
The essentials
| Country | Kenya |
| Where | Kalama Community Conservancy, adjoining Samburu National Reserve, northern Kenya |
| Property type | lodge (rock-built villas) |
| Rooms | 6 villas — two single villas and four family villas, two of the family villas having a single entrance and two having dual entrances so they can be let together or separately (operator's own site) |
What it costs
Saruni Samburu publishes its own rates. Published on the official site: "Rates from US$800", per https://sarunibasecamp.com/our-properties/saruni-samburu/, as listed September 2026.
Rates move by season and are almost always quoted per person per night sharing, so read the property's own page before you budget.
About the photographs
The pictures on this page are stock photographs of African bush and desert country, chosen to suggest the kind of landscape you find around the dry country of northern Kenya. They are not photographs of this property, and we cannot verify where any of them was taken — a stock library records the photographer, not the place. We use them rather than borrow the property's own marketing images, which would imply we had been there. For pictures of the rooms, see the property's own site.