The Private Conservancies of the Masai Mara
The private conservancies bordering the Masai Mara Reserve fundamentally change the safari experience. Mara North Conservancy, Ol Kinyei, Naboisho, and Olare Motorogi each operate under community agreements with the Maasai landowners, limiting the number of camps and vehicles allowed within each conservancy. What this delivers to a traveler is time. Time at a sighting without the queue of vehicles that gathers in the reserve proper. Time on off-road tracks the reserve doesn’t permit. Time on night drives that only conservancies allow.
A luxury travel designer for Kenya can match the specific conservancy to the specific trip. Some conservancies focus on cat sightings, others on birdlife, still others on cultural interaction with the Maasai communities that own the land. Benarrivati Africa arranges private conservancy stays as part of broader Kenya safaris, drawing on relationships with the operators who define this category.