Hammerkop Migration Camp

This was a very nice camp with everything we were looking for. However, I must start with a strong word of CAUTION, as we had a very unfortunate "welcoming" to the camp that tainted our initial experience. When we arrived to the camp, the manager Morris took a call on speaker phone from his director. We could easily overhear his director state very rudely that they had not received payment from our travel agency, and that we would not be welcome to stay there if we did not provide payment in full. Keep in mind, we had already paid a large sum of money for this camp and we were not informed there was an issue with the payment until we are actually at the camp in the middle of the Masai Mara. We were essentially their hostages and felt like we were being shaken down for thousands of dollars. Why would payment not be confirmed prior to our arrival, so this could be addressed ahead of time? We became upset and reached out to our tour group (Natural World Kenya Safari), who was able to help sort this out within an hour. The way it was handled gave us the impression they were trying to scam us. They claimed they have had issues with our tour group paying them in the past. If that is the case, why would they wait until we are stranded at their camp with no where to go to confirm the payment had gone through, and tell us we would need to make another payment directly to them or find somewhere else to go? This all happened within the first 5 minutes of us arriving to the camp. After the unfortunate start to our trip was sorted out, and we were allowed to stay there as planned - everything else that followed was wonderful. We were treated with nothing but kindness once they told us they were able to confirm our payment. The tents were comfortable, clean and well maintained. The food was fantastic. The location was perfect, with our tent overlooking the river were we would see hippos, crocodiles, and baboons from our front porch. We had a fantastic experience overall, but I would be weary to stay there again due to how we were initially treated.

We stayed here as 5 couples and really enjoyed our time. The amenities are excellent for a hotel in the wild. The staff were friendly and very responsive. The views of animals in the Mara River and that of the sunrise and sunset were awesome. The hotel arranged for a bush lunch which we enjoyed. I would definitely recommend and especially during the animals migration season.