Name: Ngulia Safari Lodge
Address: Tsavo National Park West, Tsavo, Tsavo, Tsavo, 90414, Kenya
Rating: 7

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24-hour reception

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All Spaces Non-Smoking (public and private)

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Wheelchair Accessible

Accessibility

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Breakfast

Buffet breakfast

Cafe

Restaurant

Meals

Wi-Fi

Internet

Barbecue grill(s)

Sun Deck

Recreation

Parking

Parking nearby

Conference Hall

Business

Pets allowed (under 5 kg)

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Ngulia Safari Lodge

Tsavo

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

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lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

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not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

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pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

I was supposed to spend one night in this lodge but the overbooking and they cancel our booking 2 days before our arrival. They give us the only option to spend the night 2 hours drive from there.. WE LOST A LOT OF TIME !

Pay attention to overbooking

We stayed there for one night when doing a safari in Tsavo West. The hotel was build in the 60er and it seems that nothing has been changed since then. The staff is ok, some were friendly some were not. The biggest issue was the amount of cockroaches and other insects we had in our room and that were crawling through the restaurant and around the buffet. When talking to the staff they didnt really care.   Overall the rooms felt dirty and not well kept. We were happy that we had some travel sleeping bags with us, so we didn’t get too much in touch with the bed linen. I understand that given the hotel is in the middle of the safari park and that you will also have some insects there, but it was just much more then in any of the other lodges we stayed. 

Hotel is infested with cockroaches 

Some background:
This lodge was included in our safari and having read some reviews a few days before we were due to stay, we desperately tried to find an alternative as the reviews were quite bad. 

This lodge is by no means great, BUT it wasn’t as bad as I’d anticipated after having read the reviews. 
The rooms, the food, the service was all very very basic, but it was at least clean. 
The “restaurant” was a gazebo outside where the food was really not great if i’m honest.

Rocks thrown at elephants:
I’d read in some reviews that staff at the lodge feed a leopard every evening by luring it towards the lodge with meat, which immediately rang alarm bells for me. Anywhere we’d been up until then, expressly said that neither they, nor residents, should feed the wild animals. 
Our first evening we were watching from the hotel as some elephants drank from the watering hole, only metres from the lodge reception. It was lovely to see, completely wild and natural, but then two members of staff entered onto the National park ground from the hotel towards the watering hole. They began to throw rocks towards the elephants, which I worked out was their attempt at scaring them off so that they could lure out the leopard with the meat. 
They persistently threw rocks at the family of elephants, several of which hit them! I could not believe what I was seeing and was so angered that I went and found the manager and complained in no uncertain terms. 
He said that this was not a regular occurrence which was a blatant lie given that he knows they feed the leopard every night. He seemed more concerned by the fact that I told him I would be writing a review about what I had just seen, explaining that if I had seen a review detailing this, I would DEFINITELY not stay here.
I am a strong believer in animals being wild and free, hence I did not expect to travel all the way to Kenya, avoiding zoos etc all my life, only to see what was essentially abuse and human manipulation. 

Please do not stay at this lodge for many reasons, but most importantly the fact that they are happy to throw rocks at elephants. 

Completely and utterly disgraceful, would never return to this lodge.

Rocks thrown at elephants by staff!

The lodge is inside the park and this is a great advantage.
You go easily on to the Game Drives and don't loose any time.
Around the property you can see always animals, such as Elephants and baboons. The lodge has a special spot for leopards, usually they place a piece of meat and if you are luck the leopard will come to eat at night.
We were lucky on the 2nd night, and we saw 2 leopards fighting over the meat.
The restaurant area is very large and you get to sit and relax and watch wild life.
Pool area is also nice and has a cool viewing point.
Our room had an incredible view as well.
Staff was very friendly.

I think the lodge could improve a few things. The room only had 1 plug to charge the phones, so they could add extension cords.
It was quite hard to charge all phones and camera because of that. Also because electricity was not on during the night.
Hot water was available only a few hours at night.
It would be amazing if they installed sun heaters, as the place has plenty of sun.
Some bulbs were burned in the room, which is also something easy to keep an eye on and fix.
The bathroom was too dark, I think it could be added light.

Nice place

This place is a dump, the rooms are dirty . Lamps hanging on wires off the wall. Spiderwebs over your head while laying in bed. We didn’t sleep as it was to creepy. Be advised to keep everything off the floor and bed as I’m sure they got bed bugs.
Be advised. See pictures

STAY AWAY from this place

I usually stay in budget places but decided to splurge over christmas. My driver booked this hotel in my behalf and for two nights over christmas for a family of 4 came up to a whopping $700us dollars.. when I got there and checked in i noticed they gave us 2 rooms. 1 would have been enough as our room had 1 double bed and 1 single bed. Anyways I got over that as it was not the hotel's fault but my driver. The hotel and staff are absolutely fantastic. The first night we saw 2 leopards. Eating the meat they left out for them abd chasing each other. It is such a great base for exploring Tsavo west. having visited nearly all the parks in Kenya I can say hands down Tsavo west is my favourite.. the most scenic and so many animal viewing opportunities.. Mzima springs are an absolute delight. The food and facilities at the lodge are amazing! Stagf go above and beyond to help you. Special shout out to Dennis our waiter who took such great care of us. I highly reccomend this place as I feel it gives you a fantastic experience. I would make sure and check though if you are a family of 2 adults and 2 toddlers like us that only 1 room is needed

Best place to stay when visiting Tsavo West

People smoke around. No hot water, warm water. Tiny rooms in bad shape. Clean and comfirtable bed. I do not recommend to come here. Tour guide changed our hotel for this horrible place 😱
This hotel needs to be fix it is a shame to have a place here and not take care of it.

Horrible rooms and food!

An amazing get away. Location five star- choose your room with care to avoid noise from public areas.
Game viewing spectacular- staff member “Debora” needs special mention.. quick and attentive..
Waterhole / leopard feeding amazing! Two spectacular eland families viewings near maktau gate , at least 100 strong..
Only disappointed with the short time allowed in rhino sanctuary (4-6pm) and the lack of road signage— apparently over 100 resident black rhino .. did not see even one..

Best value for money

We stayed there in june 2022 for 1 night we had a fantastic time up close to the animal's at the water hole. The staff was very accommodating and very helpful, the food was very nice. We didn't see the leopard but we did see a hyena. Overall a lovely place and will be staying there again on our next visit to Kenya. 

A great safari lodge

I’ve had to edit my earlier 5 star review of this hotel as I have learned from our driver that the driver’s quarters are poor. We had a fantastic time watching elephants at the waterhole right in front of our room. However, our driver was cold and couldn’t sleep in a room with no windows. This is not acceptable given the hard driving the guides have to do here. What a shame as the setting for this place is stunning.

Ngulia Safari Lodge

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