Satao Safari Camp Tsavo East

Satao Safari Camp Tsavo East is a luxury tented safari accommodation situated on the border of Tsavo East National Park, overlooking a busy watering hole, a true oasis that attracts thousands of animals for their daily drink and bathing. 

Satao is well-known for its resident elephant herds, who frequently visit the camp’s waterhole and offer excellent game-viewing opportunities. Guests can watch wildlife directly from their tents or the camp’s main area, as the waterhole attracts elephants, zebras, buffalo, and antelopes throughout the day.

The camp is about 160 km from Mombasa and 326 km from Nairobi. The camp is 45 km from Bachuma Gate on the main Nairobi /Mombasa Highway. The camp is in Tsavo East National Park, some 50 km from the main Mombasa Road. 

Satao Safari Camp Tsavo East Accommodation

The camp boasts 20 authentic safari-style en-suite tents, each with private verandahs, nestled among the tamarind trees surrounding the camp’s very own watering hole. The tents are carefully positioned to allow uninterrupted views of the visiting wildlife whilst ensuring total privacy. There are 16 family tents and 4 suites. The ensuite bathrooms offer traditional safari showers, basins, and flushed WCs.

Dining and bars

Lunch is served under a 200-year-old Tamarind tree where you may watch the elephants at the watering hole. Dinner is served in the restaurant lounge area from 7-9 pm. After dinner, you can relax and enjoy the atmosphere of Tsavo by swapping stories of your day’s adventures around the campfire or watch the animals by night from the observation tower.

Child-friendly

The camp welcomes children.

What to see and do

Game Drives, nature walks, and medicinal plant discovery

Tsavo East offers miles of open plains, bushy grassland, and semi-arid scrub. What is more, once you depart from the few ‘beaten tracks’ that exist, you can explore one of the last remaining wildernesses on earth in almost primeval solitude.

Experience the real safari – morning and afternoon game drives through the park with our trained driver-guides. Picnic lunches and sundowners can be provided. The area is renowned for elephants, particularly during the dry season; the last count (1999) recorded 8100.

Highlights and special features

Activities: Game drives in open vehicles. Walking safaris along the Galana River and sand rivers. Sundowners, bush breakfast. Tsavo East National Park is a Wilderness area, and the game can be shy, but it offers great biodiversity. Uncommon species seen there include lesser kudu, gerenuk, fringed-eared oryx, hirola, and Peter’s gazelle. The area is renowned for elephants, particularly during the dry season; the last count (1999) recorded 8100. Tsavo is particularly rich in birdlife.

Aruba Dam

Aruba Dam is an 85-hectare man-made dam built by the Parks authorities in 1952 to staunch the waters of the seasonal Voi River, which flows down from the Taita Hills in the southwest. It usually holds water throughout the year and is frequented by huge numbers of ibis, many grey herons, and a kaleidoscope of other water birds. It is also part of the territory of a large pride of lions, which can often be seen in the dam’s vicinity.

Kanderi Swamp

The Kanderi Swamp lies near Voi Gate and during the dry months provides one of only two drinking areas in Tsavo East, thus attracting large herds of buffalo, impala, and antelopes as well as yellow baboons and lion.

Mudanda Rock

Kenya’s answer to Ayer’s Rock of Australia is called Mudanda Rock, a massive 1.5km whale-backed rock which rears out of the shrub between Manyani Gate and Voi and is famous for its photo-opportunities, offering marvellous light, panoramic vistas, and an excellent chance of prime wildlife shots. It is also an excellent vantage point from which to look down on the natural dam below, which can, at times, attract hundreds of elephants. This area is also known as a favourite leopard haunt, though daytime sightings are rare.

The Galana River

The Tsavo and Athi Rivers join above Lugard’s Falls to form the Galana River, which then flows down to the Indian Ocean. A major feature of the park, the serpentine reaches of this river are fringed by riverine forests dominated by Acacia elatior, the Doum Palm Hyphaene compressa, and the shrub Suaeda monoica.

Lugard’s Falls

Named after Britain’s first proconsul in East Africa, Captain (later Lord) Lugard, the falls are better described as rapids than falls, progressing from foaming cataracts to narrow cascades that gouge deep into the gneiss bedrock, creating fantastic shapes that have been surreally rounded by thousands of years of rushing water.

Mighty when in full spate, the falls gush through a small fissure, narrow enough for the foolhardy to leap across, before plunging to the pool below, where massive crocodiles bask motionless in the sun.

There is a parking area at the falls, and visitors either climb around the bizarrely eroded rocks or walk down the river to view the rapids. 1km east of the falls, another short diversion takes you to Crocodile Point, where hippos and buffalo wallow and zip-jawed crocodiles grin.

The Yatta Plateau, an ancient valley frozen in time

The Yatta plateau is a ridge or tongue of lava about 300km long and a maximum of 10km wide, which forms a seemingly never-ending backdrop to Tsavo East. One of the longest lava flows in the world, the Yatta affords fabulous views across the rolling reaches of the Park, is an ornithological paradise, and makes a peerless sundowner or picnic spot.

It is made up of a form of lava known as phonolite, which is between 11 and 13.6 million years old. Current thought suggests that the Yatta Plateau was formed when a stream of lava flowed across the land until it found its way into an ancient river valley. The lava then flowed down the valley, taking on the shape of its contours, until eventually it cooled and solidified.

Thereafter, the surrounding land was gradually lowered by erosion, leaving the frozen river of lava standing up as a ridge.

Satao Safari Camp Tsavo East National Park Non-Resident Accommodation Prices

Full board accommodation only & Bottled water in rooms only

Notes

* Christmas supplement 50 US Dollars per person per day 
* Extra lunch (or packed lunch) charged 25 US Dollars per person
* Children between 2-12 years sharing with 2 adults would pay 50% of the adult rate
* Children between 2-12 years sharing with other children would pay 75% of the adult rate

Satao Camp Tsavo East Accommodation Rates Exclude:

* Laundry
* Game drives
* Park Entrance Fee
* All Beverages and drinks
* Community and Wildlife Conservation Fee 
* Bush Sundowner (40 US Dollars Per Person)
* Transfers (30 US Dollars each way per person)
* Game drives (40 US Dollars per person per game drive)
* Extra lunch (or packed lunch) charged 30 US Dollars per person

Satao Safari Camp Tsavo East Resident Accommodation Prices

Full board accommodation only & Bottled water in rooms only

Notes

* Extra lunch (or packed lunch) charged 3,000 Kenya Shillings per person
* Children between 2-12 years sharing with 2 adults would pay 50% of the adult rate
* Children between 2-12 years sharing with another child would pay 75% of the adult rate
* Christmas supplement 4,000 Kenya Shillings per person per day from 24/12/25 to 3/1/26

Satao Camp Tsavo East Accommodation Rates Exclude:

* Laundry
* Game drives
* Park Entrance Fee
* All Beverages and drinks
* Bush Sundowner (4,000 Kenya Shillings Per Person)
* Game drives (- Kenya Shillings per person per game drive)
* Extra lunch (or packed lunch) charged 3,000 Kenya Shillings per person
* Community and Wildlife Conservation Fee Adult/ Child – Kenya Shillings per person per night

Satao Safari Camp Tsavo East has 16 tents and 4 suites. The tent’s interiors are simply exquisite. All are attractively furnished with a unique African design. The suites are larger and positioned closest to the water hole.

Satao Camp tents are suitably designed & adapted to cater to guests with disabilities. The tents are large enough to accommodate extra beds. Each tent is constructed with sisal and boroti poles topped with a makuti roof and features an authentic antique writing desk, racks with shelves, and a private furnished patio.

The bathroom is en-suite and is at the back through a wooden door or canvas zipper. It includes a shower, slate floors with a stunning wooden framework, single or double basins, and a flush toilet.

The onsite restaurant serves local and international meals. Guests can enjoy their meals in the dining area or al-fresco under shaded trees. Guests can be served alcoholic and soft drinks in the well-stocked bar.

In the evening guests can relax and enjoy the atmosphere of Tsavo by swapping stories of the day’s adventures around the campfire or watching the animals by “night” from the observation tower.

Satao Safari Camp Tsavo East activities include; game drives, sundowners, bird watching, and visits to the Lugard Falls, Aruba Dam, and the seasonal Voi River.

Mobile: + 254-721-242-711
WhatsApp: +254-721-242-711
Reservations: +254 718-179-967
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://africanspicesafaris.com