Maasai Mara Sopa Lodge

Located high on the slopes of the Oloolaimutia hills, Masai Mara Sopa Lodge was one of the first safari lodges to be built in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, a reason why its gardens and trees are so lush and mature. All the buildings follow the design of traditional African round houses with conical roofs, and these stretch along the line of the hills with the impressively large public area buildings and the swimming pool at their centre.

Reception

Airy and spacious with an adjacent gift shop, the area – which incorporates a guest information desk – is decorated with warm earth colours and lit by an enormous, Afican calabash chandelier.

Lounge

This is located down a few carpeted steps from the reception, and is also accessed via convenient points from both guest accommodation wings. The large, comfortably furnished circular area has a massive central fireplace whose chimney soars twenty metres up to the top of the thatched conical roof. The walls and their murals are painted with a pleasant fusion of earthen colours to create an extremely warm ambience, and the room has a well appointed bar set to one side of it. Two doors access the sheltered but outdoor veranda with its views over the swimming pool, the gardens, and the game reserve beyond, and this is linked to the outdoor dining room patio by a bridge. It is also here that we provide complimentary afternoon tea or coffee together with sandwiches and cakes before your last game drive of the day.

Accommodation

The lodge has fifty guest cottages divided into two wings to either side of the main public areas. Each of these house two spacious guest rooms with queen and king size beds; mosquito nets; electronic safes; dressing tables; en-suite bathrooms and sheltered verandas that all have views over the gardens and the game reserve beyond. Six of the cottages each contain two suites with larger bedrooms and bathrooms, and both indoor and outdoor seating areas. In addition to all of the above, the honeymoon suite has an extremely large, luxuriously appointed bedroom with a king size bed; dressing table and indoor seating area. Its lavishly appointed bathroom contains both a shower and a sunken bath; and its sheltered veranda offers some of the most magnificent views available over the African landscapes below.

Dining & Wining

The Jumbo Bar make it the perfect place. The pool bar is sheltered by a garden. The Ol Murrani Bar is a stand-alone structure. It has a warm ambience. It also has a timber deck. The dining room has a fireplace. Its walls are painted with pastel colours to match those of the simply exquisite, natural-stone framed paintings of everyday Maasai life, and its separated, generously sized buffet tables offer garden fresh salads, succulent main courses, live cooking areas, an extravagant choice of desserts and a selection of cheeses. The dining room also has an outdoor timber deck should you wish to enjoy your meal beneath umbrella-shaded table. It is here that, every other evening, we provide our guests with an Africa night food extravaganza which incorporates the best of traditional African food which our executive chef fuses with whatever he thinks best in order to fully satisfy your appetite.

Meetings

The lodge’s meeting and event venue can accommodate 18 to 90 pax. Well located from the main building, the Baraza room can cater for social functions and corporate entertaining. The venue is an open area which has a magnificent view of the stunning sunset, and the mountain as a back drop.

Weddings and special events

Maasai Mara Sopa Lodge is the ideal setting for wedding ceremonies. Our wedding packages are tailored for intimate events by way of not only the honeymoon suite, but also by way of just how well we can organize something extremely special for you, be it by way of a flower bedecked hot air balloon; a ceremony amongst the huge fig trees which line the Mara River; or even a more open air event during  which both wild animals and the landscapes beyond form the backdrops for your wedding photographer.

Location

Maasai Mara Sopa Lodge is 250kms from Nairobi, 105kms from Narok, and 220kms from Naivasha. While we are located barely a kilometer outside the reserve, it is still necessary to enter the wildlife conservation through either the Oloolaimutia or Sekenani entrance gates. The flying time from Nairobi to the nearest airstrip is about an hour, and from there it is a 30 minute game drive to the lodge.

About Maasai Mara

With its hills and riverine, this conservation takes up an area of 1,510 sq.kms. It is owned by the Maasais who have ensured that the splendour of the Mara exists today. It is one of the world’s finest game destinations. This is because it plays host to an abundance of every form of wildlife possible. Not only this, but the reserve is also world famous for its annual migration of literally millions of wildebeest – not to mention tens of thousands of zebras and gazelles – when they annually migrate north from the Serengeti, usually between July/early August to October, to find food. To access the reserve’s lush grazing they first have to cross the Mara River with its battalions of enormous and hungry crocodiles and, if you are lucky enough to watch one of these crossings, it is an event you will never forget.