Kenya & the Seychelles

Key Areas of Interest

1. Cottar's Private Bush Villa, Maasai Mara
2. Arijiju, Borana
3. North Island, Seychelles

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Cottar's Private Bush Villa

Property Overview

A contemporary, elegant private villa; the only luxury private villa in the Masai Mara, Kenya. Cottar’s Bush Villa won the World Travel Award for Africa’s Leading Luxury Private Villa 2016 and is one of only eleven Global Ecosphere Retreats in the world.

Experience & Activities

The Cottar family provide genuinely stunning wildlife and wilderness experiences, engaging in the original spirit and essence of ‘safari’: an abundance of wildlife, a guarantee of privacy, and the highest standards of professional guiding, in a luxurious and authentic safari environment.

Positive Impact

The Cottars’ have developed unique, purpose-driven experiences that contribute to sustainability.  They have spent the last year developing safari experiences that have a positive impact to the client, to the complex and unique biodiversity that surrounds them and to the local Maasai community as they move forward into the next 100 years of providing safari and conservation services.

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Some of those experiences include engaging and learning about vulture rehabilitation, spending time with the only all-female conservation ranger unit in the Maasai Mara, learning about the unique medicinal plants of the area, foraging and tasting local wild food, touring the community-owned private conservancy and participating in a reforestation seed disbursal bushwalk experience.

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The Cottar family have been providing safaris for more than 100 years and focus on providing an authentic and individualized safari experience and supporting an ongoing legacy of wilderness, wildlife, comfort and security and honouring a balance between conservation, prosperous commerce, community and culture.

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CULTURE + COMMUNITY + CONSERVATION

Accommodation

• Private Bush Villa

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Cottar’s Bush Villa is available only on an exclusive basis, and comes with a dedicated staff of 8. The villa is over 10,000 square feet in size, and features a large living room, dining room, a magnificent viewing deck, and 5 en-suite bedrooms (4 doubles and 1 twin), all with stunning views. The villa has internet access throughout, satellite TV and DVD, and is powered with electric and solar energy. A dedicated game drive vehicle(s) and guide(s) are provided throughout your stay.

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Highlights

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• Exclusive, private bush home
• Award winning: Africa's Leading Luxury Private Villa 2016
• Excellent 'Big Five' game viewing
• Impactful experiences
• Located on its own private conservancy bordering the Masai Mara
• Community partnership
• Conservation at its core

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Quick Facts

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• Amazing views
• Private pool
• 10,000 square foot private bush villa
• Only private house in the Mara
• Dedicated staff of 8
• Private vehicle(s) and guide(s)
• 5 en-suite bedrooms
• Wi-fi

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Arijiju

Property Overview

Arijiju is a family home. Her architecture borrows romance from the Swahili vernacular, and inspiration from the rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia. Local stone, local timber, and solar power help her tread lightly on the earth but, essentially, she is an anomaly. Her hand cut Meru stone, immense wooden, Lamu-styledoors, functional ironmongery, copper accents and her grassed roofs make an iconic, contemporary living space that is also an incredibly comfortable place to be.

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The menus and wine lists are exceptional, and the entire premises are exclusive to your group.

Experience & Activities

The concept is artfully sustainable. Over 300 elephant, 334 bird species, flourishing lion prides along with cheetah, leopard, giraffe, buffalo and many endangered animals now migrate through or live in this wildlife safe haven. By visiting Arijiju you help to support and maintain the conservancy’s elephant migration corridors, lion research projects and the vital protection of resident black rhino.

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Activities include game drives in the exclusive Borana Conservancy, bush walks, horse back riding, yoga, and massages. Helicopter excursions can also be arranged.

Accommodations

• Exclusive Private Home

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Every detail in the main house feeds a love for raw materials, classic lines and longevity. The main house has three bedroom suites that share a courtyard garden textured with wild herbs and billowing lavender. Light cuts across the space throughout the day creating graphic shadows and sanctuaries of cool on hot days. 

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Walk around this garden and you’ll reach the living space, kitchen then boot room, games room and cinema - all are linked by the vaulted walkways. Stroll on and you find the terraced pool area with dappled daybeds and an outdoor pool bar. Beyond that, along a meandering path, you’ll discover the spirit of  Arijiju - the Retreat - a sanctuary for restoring the body. Here is a massage room, gym, yoga platform, and a hamman with steam room and cold plunge pool.

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Outside the main dwelling, along paths cut into the rock are two very private, generous guest suite buildings. Their floor-to-ceiling glass doorways frame the immense forested views and outside, on their east-facing terraces, chairs hewn out of tree trunks grow blonde under the Kenyan sun.

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Highlights

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• Exclusive private bush home
• Views of Mount Kenya
• Excellent game viewing
• Game drives and wilderness walks
• Mountain biking with experienced guides
• Bush running with experienced guides
• Use of tennis and squash courts, gym, yoga deck, hammam, and spa
• Opportunities to track big game on foot and horse back ride
• Optional helicopter excusions

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Quick facts

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• The house is made up of five rooms so can sleep up to ten adults and four kids
• Pool with beautiful views
• WiFi, Sonos multi room music system, Apple TV, and movies in the home cinema
• Children of all ages are welcome

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North Island

Property Overview

Set foot on a private island in the Seychelles. Infinite, exclusive space where the embrace of lush tropical palms and giant granite peaks dwarf your presence with their drama. With just eleven villas on this Relais & Châteaux property, your footprints will be the only evidence on the island’s vast, untouched beaches.

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North Island epitomises the freedom that complete privacy allows: extraordinary experiences, perfectly personalised to your preferences, and service that is generously big-hearted. The island’s abundance naturally extends to the luxury of choice that a peerless all-inclusive offering provides. Experience a true barefoot-luxury escape on North Island.

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The North Island villas have all been created from local materials harvested during the island rehabilitation process, balancing luxury and simplicity to form a signature architectural style “barefoot luxury.”

Experience & Activities

Your experience on this private island is completely customised to the holiday you are seeking. The rules on North Island are the ones you make yourselves: your schedule is only as full as you wish it to be, and the dress code reflects your own personal style.

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Spending time with the Environmental Team or simply exploring the island on your own will allow you to appreciate the effort that has gone into rehabilitating this natural idyll. The natural beauty of Seychelles has inspired the island's conservation practices and philosophies and has also influenced the design of the guest spaces. 

Accommodations

• Beach Villa

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Set along East Beach and with direct access to the beach and ocean, each Beachfront Villa is hidden away by the natural vegetation, ensuring total privacy as well as ocean views for each guest. Beachfront Villas are generously proportioned with two bedrooms: a main bedroom and a second studio room that can be converted into a second bedroom or a luxurious lounge. A private plunge pool and salon are the finishing touches to this private sanctuary.

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• Villa North Island

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Perched on granite boulders at the far end of East Beach, the Villa North Island offers the quintessential in privacy. Across its 750 sqm of tiered levels that cascade through a coconut grove to the beach, it provides an array of intimate spaces to relax in: a decadent bedroom, oversized marble bathtub, hidden nooks, soft day beds. Follow the graceful decks to sun-toasted sands and into a tepid ocean. Or cool off in the splash pool before watching the sunset, followed by your own private dinner under a starry sky. Ideal for honeymoons, this is a place to make the most romantic memories together.

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Highlights

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• Private island
• Barefoot luxury
• Amazing location
• Incredible food
• Wonderful team of staff
• Conservation program
• Turtles
• Birds

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Quick facts

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• Only eleven spacious luxury villas
• Scuba diving
• Sea kayaking
• Gym
• Swimming pools
• Library
• Boutique

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