Borana Lodge

Eight stone-and-thatch cottages sit on a hillside above Hyena Valley dam on the 35,000-acre Borana Ranch, where elephant and black rhino come to drink below the verandas. The Dyer family has owned this land for three generations and the lodge was built in the early 1990s using stone quarried from the ranch itself, old fence posts for floorboards, and constructed entirely by local craftspeople without heavy machinery. The main lodge splits across two sites on either side of the hill: one with a pool overlooking the waterhole, the other a large thatched house with a long bar, fireplace and dining room for afternoon tea and pre-dinner drinks.

Since Borana dropped its boundary fence with neighbouring Lewa Conservancy in 2013, the combined 92,000 acres has become one of East Africa's most successful rhino habitats, home to more than 250 black and white rhino. Twenty-four per cent of every night's stay funds the conservancy's conservation budget, including a mobile clinic and a team of more than 130 rangers. Being a conservancy rather than a national park, guests can track black rhino on foot at first light or ride horses through zebra herds. Game drives are also available, as is horseriding, mountain biking and helicopter flights.