Combine all this with retro images from Out of Africa and a Hemingway novel, to visualise one of the original safari outfitters still hosting guests in the Mara: Cottars 1920’s Safari Camp. The Cottar family began guiding safaris in the pioneer days for Hemingway and Johnson. Cottars camp is still a beacon for style-conscious wildlife seekers, in a pristine concession bordering Tanzania’s Serengeti and Loliondo reserves. Professionally guided bush walks with excellent guides, game drives in open safari vehicles are Cottars’ hallmark.

Styled with authentic artefacts, antiques and photo albums, the camp discreetly offers modern service, making guests comfortably at-home in its history: vast white tents with ensuite bathrooms, shaded by Acacia trees, views across plains.

Recreational Facilities

Guest activities include Game Drives guided by Calvin Cottar or guides of equal professional standard in either state of the art modern four wheel drive cars, in Cottars authentic and old wooden car or in oxen pulled wagon.

• Alternative to a wildlife watching – a tented Reading Room with an extensive array of Africana, modern books and magazines or Cottar’s natural rock swimming pool with surrounding hammocks are available.
• Because Cottars 1920 Mara Safari Camp is located outside the game parks, Guided Walking and Night Drives are also highly permitted and recommended. By walking, guests can get much closer to nature, and if an opportunity to track wild game presents itself, Cottar’s trained trackers will take guests even closer.
• On a more self-indulgent note, Cottars masseuse is based full-time at the camp for complimentary Massages, Manicures and Pedicures. Butlers who have been trained to provide guests with discreet, yet attentive service will meet any other needs that guests may have.

The Rooms

Cottar’s Camp accommodates up to 22 guests in authentic white canvas tents, which are spacious and luxuriously furnished. They incorporate original safari antiques from the ‘,20’s, private en suite dressing room and bathrooms, main bedrooms and verandas.

Cottars 1920s Safari Camp, which is situated in the Masai Mara, bordering the Serengeti and Loliondo ecosystem, in an untouched 200,000-acre exclusive concession providing the discerning guests a guarantee of privacy and an abundance of wildlife.

Cottar’s Camp accommodates up to 16 guests in 8 authentic, spacious white canvas tents (7 doubles and 1 honeymoon/family suite). Each tent has a canopied verandah and is luxuriously furnished with safari antiques from the 1920’s.

The Camp has private en suite dressing rooms/bathrooms with canvas baths, bucket showers and flush toilets. The camp is equipped with a tented library/reading room and the cuisine and silver service is of the highest standard to be found in the bush. Each tent has its own private butler.