Elephant Pepper Camp is a luxury tented camp in the game-rich Mara North Conservancy, adjacent to the Maasai Mara National Reserve. It is a delightful combination of a classic safari camp - think comfortable hammocks under the trees and polished brass lanterns - as well as mod cons like plumbed showers and Wi-Fi.
The property is cradled by a shady thicket of elephant pepper trees and looks upon grassy plains. Constructed in 1984, it was named for the elephant pepper trees adorning the site.
Elephant Pepper Camp. Photo from Tripadvisor
Accommodation and Amenities
There are just ten tents at this boutique, Gold Eco-Rated camp: eight doubles and two family suites. All are positioned in the shade of elephant pepper and fig trees, and well-spaced for ample privacy. The two larger tents are particularly secluded, at either end of the site.
The accommodations are handsomely appointed and decorated in a style that harkens to the earlier days of safari. Imagine: canvas walls, wood vanities inlaid with gold basins and faucets, and lanterns aplenty. Amenities are basic but comfortable: solar-powered showers, flush plumbing, and strong Wi-Fi stretches across the camp for those who want to keep connected.
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Every tent is Meru in style - an exterior layer of canvas extends over the inner layer to create a shady veranda at the front. The veranda is set with safari chairs and a table, and it’s a great spot for relaxing and enjoying your views! Some tents are also equipped with a hammock, hanging between two trees a short distance away.
Entering one of the standard tents, you’ll find a double bed or twin beds, bedside stands and lighting, a writing desk and chair, a few shelves, and hanging space. The furnishings bring in mind the campaign of the Indian Raj, with their dark wood and brass notes. This style continues into the en-suite washroom, accessed through a canvas flap at the back of the tent. Facilities comprise flush toilet, twin washstands each with brass basin and mirror over, and shower with hot and cold running water.
Small touches-like hot water bottles tucked gingerly between cotton sheets and hammocks that invite a lazy lounge-are endearing. Layered with area rugs, the main tent has a bar, dining tables, and a “gift shop” armoire. Assemblies of armchairs and sofas beneath chandeliers are nice places to sip wine while looking across the savannah.
Reach for a coffee table book to flip through Kenya’s history or wildlife, or play a game of Backgammon. The low volume of guests at any given time means service here is delivered on a first-name basis.
Before dinner, enjoy a drink around the campfire where you can share stories of the day's sightings. Wi-Fi is available during certain times in the communal areas.
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Dining Experience
At camp, gourmet meals are served in the main tent. Lunch is a set menu served family-style, while dinner is selected from a daily menu. Breakfast is offered after the morning game drive or in scenic spots in the bush. A campfire is lit at daybreak and dusk, inviting guests to sip morning coffee or to linger over a pre-dinner cocktail.
The lounge and dining room at Elephant Pepper Camp occupy one tent each, approached from the guest accommodation along neat pathways through the woodland. In the lounge tent, well-cushioned wood-framed sofas and armchairs surround wooden coffee tables and occasional tables. There’s also a well-stocked bar!
The dining tent contains one long table where everyone dines together. Guests can also opt to eat while out in the bush during the day, but the dining room is always the setting for dinners after drinks and safari stories around the campfire.
The campsite offers plenty of al fresco seating areas, not least a swing chair constructed by a member of the Elephant Pepper team!
The final phase of the camp’s multi-stage renovation is now complete, bringing a full upgrade to guest tents with new furnishings that retain the camp’s rustic elegance while adding modern comfort. The arrival area has been reimagined to enhance the sense of welcome, while the mess and bar tents now feature new furniture for an elevated communal atmosphere.
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Crowning the transformation is the debut of ‘Elephant and Pepper’, a bold new culinary concept centred on the primal art of fire cooking. Drawing inspiration from African bushcraft and global smokehouse techniques, the open-flame experience showcases slow-smoked meats, ember-roasted vegetables, and fire-grilled seafood infused with rich local spices and cooked over aromatic acacia wood.
Wildlife and Activities
Elephant Pepper Camp sits in close proximity to the hippo-filled Mara River. The River Pride of lions makes its home in the area; venture a little further, and you may run into the Offbeat Pride. Big game on these plains is noticeable and consistent.
Topi, impala, elephant, zebra, hyena, jackal, buffalo, wildebeest, and warthog are counted among a cast of regular characters. Keep an eye out for giraffe, cheetah, leopard, ostrich, and more.
Open-sided vehicles seat up to seven, and offer power outlets. Twice-daily game drives are the star attraction at Elephant Pepper Camp; opportunities to stretch the legs are limited to bush walks and hot air balloon safaris.
Daily extended game drives in open-sided vehicles and guided bush walks make up your thrilling game-viewing experiences.
Elephant Pepper is unfenced (although there are 24-hour patrols by Maasai moran or ‘warriors’) and game is often spotted in camp.
Wildlife at Elephant Pepper Camp. Photo from Safari-Center
Activities include:
- Game Drives: These take place during morning and afternoon, within the Mara North Conservancy. The conservancy covers almost 30,000 hectares of sprawling savanna, woodlands, and river sources, ripe for exploration! The plains are popular with herbivores such as giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, and antelopes, making for plentiful predator sightings.
- Night Drives: Also enjoyed with a knowledgeable guide, these drives are offered just before dinner.
- Bush Walks: This activity is highly recommended for anyone interested in close scrutiny of Mara North’s plants, insects, and birdlife. There are often opportunities to track big game!
- Community Visits: All guests are invited to visit the homes of Elephant Pepper’s Maasai staff members. The Maasai are happy to show you around their manyattas, huts built using cattle dung and grass.
- Great Migration Viewing: If your stay here falls between July and October, you can look out for the huge herds of the Great Migration!
Elephant Pepper Camp is a traditional bush safari camp shaded by a natural forest of ebony and elephant pepper trees, overlooking the Mara plains. The spectacular annual migration of wildebeest and zebra is by no means the only feature of this World Heritage Site.
The Masai Mara is home to enormous herds of plains game, big cats, and elephant as well as colourful birds, small game, riverine wildlife and beautiful scenery.
The Mara North Conservancy is another social enterprise success story. Local Maasai land owners, who are mostly cattle farmers, decided to form a large conservancy, which leases a big expanse of land to the various safari camps in the area, and with the lease income flowing back to the Maasai. The camps in turn employ people from the local communities, and support education and health care in these areas as well.
WOW! When we landed on the airstrip, we were greeted on the runway by a Maasai Giraffe! James our driver met us at the plane and before we even got to camp we were surrounded by elephants, common zebras, giraffes, and we were lucky enough to see a leopard! Later on that evening, on our evening Game Drive, we saw lions with cubs AND a giraffe that had been born only minutes before we encountered it. And too many other animals to mention!
Wanderlust diaries ; Elewana Elephant Pepper Camp Masai Mara Kenya / Adventerous travel vlog
Commitment to Sustainability
Elephant Pepper Camp has won numerous awards for its sustainable approach to tourism, and it also holds a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence!
Elephant Pepper Camp is one of only six camps in Kenya to have been awarded “Gold Level” Eco Rating by the internationally recognised civil society organisation Eco Tourism Kenya.
The camp achieves environmental best practice by combining old fashioned safari camp know-how with the latest technology, leaving a minimal footprint.
I was impressed by the camp’s various initiatives to interact responsibly with the environment:
After a tour of the camp with Tom, it was easy to understand why. In addition to the camp being 100% solar-run, everything is recycled. Efficiency is everywhere: rainwater is collected to water its own garden, compost for the garden is made from wild animal dung, there is a charcoal fridge, beehives for honey, even a kosher-compliant kitchen!
Guests who arrive can, at no extra cost, plant a tree for the new Elephant Pepper nursery.
Elewana properties have a self-imposed sense of social responsibility: The name is derived from a Swahili word that means harmony and understanding. The company’s philosophy embodies that by designing the safari experiences and camps to have low impact on surroundings and reduce & recycle waste.
One small example: when I was picked up for my safari weekend in the Mara Conservancy, my guide handed me a metal water bottle and told me that the camp was working on reducing plastic water bottle waste. All weekend, at camp and in our safari truck, water was provided in reusable containers. I really appreciated the effort (and the help keeping hydrated).
Elewana runs a charity to help protect & develop local communities and wildlife: Land & Life Foundation is the charitable face of Elewana, focused on creating a sustainable future where communities and wildlife thrive together. With 100% of operational costs covered by Elewana, Land & Life works in key wildlife conservation areas across East Africa in the key areas of nature conservation, education and health.
It is heartwarming to see how much the Kenyans love their country, how proud they are of it, how they clearly understand the necessity and benefits of the conservation of huge areas, and the policies to prevent further poaching of wild game.
The Kenyans that we met along the way were all so kind and welcoming, and were fantastic hosts. Single-use plastics were wisely banned in the country about six years ago, and the lack of garbage littering both Nairobi and the more rural areas that we visited was notable.
Safety and Security
*This property is unfenced and located in a wildlife area, so large and potentially dangerous animals do pass through. If you opt to stay here, always be alert when walking around the camp and request for a member of staff to escort you if you have any concerns.
Unfenced, elephants, vervet monkeys, and other four-legged visitors are apt to wander through. (Worry not, night security will escort you to and from your tent.)
At EPC, I was led to and from my tent at dusky and dark hours by a Maasai warrior wrapped in traditional red fabric and carrying a spear on their shoulder.
There’s a different sense of danger when you see a weapon, when you walk behind a warrior who has been trained to fight lions & is hired to work security against wild animals (instead of humans).
To be clear - I never felt unsafe, and I appreciated the intimacy with nature that the fenceless camp provided.
In fact, being in the conservancy, staying in (very luxurious) tents surrounded by the sounds of nature, and having the Maasai warriors on guard at night were key factors in feeling as though I was truly “on Safari” in that idealized imagining of adventure in Africa.
Part of the Elewana Collection
Elephant Pepper Camp is listed in the Elewana Collection, joining 15 high-quality boutique properties across Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar. Elewana Collection, named for the Swahili word meaning “harmony,” is comprised of 16 boutique lodges, camps and hotels in iconic locations across Kenya and Tanzania, each of which has been carefully selected for its unique accommodation and iconic location to provide unparalleled African wildlife-viewing and beach holiday opportunities, with an emphasis on style, comfort and conservation.
Accommodation is booked on a full-board basis, including all meals, a selection of alcoholic and soft drinks, and a laundry service. The camp is accessed via 30 minutes’ game drive road transfer from Mara North Airstrip.
“These renovations are more than just cosmetic upgrades - they’re about deepening the connection between guest and place,” said Kieren Day, Chief Operating Officer of Elewana Collection. “Elsa’s Kopje and Elephant Pepper Camp are two of our most beloved properties, each with a distinctive spirit.
“With spectacular views over the plains of the Mara North Conservancy, Elephant Pepper is a very good option for great game viewing along with high levels of comfort at a decent price.
Elephant Pepper Camp was a real highlight, the food was incredible and just how remote it was just made the experience really special. This camp is great, it was the highlight of our trip. The camp facilities are great but what makes the difference is the staff.
Customer Satisfaction
The staff is really nice and values customer satisfaction above all. Andrew, the relief manager, is a great professional and he could very well manage a 5-star hotel anywhere in the world. He is passionate about his work.
Georges, our driver, was passionate about his work and it was clear he was enjoying the game drives almost as much as we did. The game viewing in Mara North was simply exceptional.
We enjoyed everything about Elephant Pepper Camp: Hosts: Patrick and Sophie, the morning and evening fires, game drives, food, tent, the Maasai people, and of course, the incredible animals EVERYWHERE.
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