JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge

Amazing in every way. Staff, food and room were stellar. Game drives are magical. They were doing some construction during our stay due to some flooding which is understandable but a bit uncomfortable. Truly my only complaint, otherwise 10/10.

The JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge was a FABULOUS destination. Luxury accommodations, unparalleled cuisine/dining experiences and top tier activities/excursions including morning/evening safari drives. We loved it all! We were there for three nights and we sincerely categorize this as a bucket list event!!

If you want to experience GREAT service this is the place to stay. I have visited plenty of top hotels and have not experienced such dedicated service as this JW Marriott. The staff went above and beyond to satisfy anything we asked for. I would of mentioned their names but sadly I'm not good in remembering names.

Truly a incredible experience at this lodge. They take care of you from the moment you arrive till the last second you leave the airstrip. Special shout out to Joseph our amazing game drive driver. Incredible knowledge individual along with Johnson(scared of lions a lil lol) Nelson at house keeping kept our room extremely clean and tightly at all times. Ask for Noah for all your dining needs and Richard for all the wonderful drinks!! Wilson front desk staff was really helpful to move around our flights and helped us with all bookings. Book the SPA ASAP! Ask for Faith and Ivy. A must go to resort ASAP.

Wow! Visiting from Canada as part of our honeymoon for October 1-6, this was part of the trip of a lifetime! From the moment we got off the plane, we felt like royalty treated by the staff at JW Masai Mara lodge. We've only had positive interactions with the staff and other guests, whether it was Thelma at front desk, Diana their cultural ambassador, or even the servers that were not specifically assigned to us, we had a delight being treated like no other hotel. We were assigned Vincent as our driver and Faith as our spotter, as well as Leshan as our waiter. We had so much fun joking around and just fitting in at the lodge. Vincent has over 17 years of experience as a guide, and it shows as not only was he able to find the animals that we were looking for, but also put us in a great position for photography by ensuring he shut the car off when we were beside animals, to putting our vehicle in as low of a position we could get to see the animals. We could tell Vincent is a well-respected guide given he seemed to always have connections to other drivers (whether JW or not) to find out about animal spottings. Speaking of photography, it was a great benefit to have the camera rental from Canon's partnership with the lodge. We brought our own camera, and having the camera rental meant we were both out on the drives and having fun! A safari without a proper camera does not do justice for the experience, and we felt extremely lucky to have two for our game drives. The only criticisms would be the food options; while at worst things tasted decent to even amazing, there wasn't much choice in the breakfast menu as we would have liked. Still, the soups and fish dishes for lunch and dinner were amazing. This was our first safari adventure, and we are so glad to have gone to JW Marriott Masai Mara! While we can't say its the best in Kenya if we haven't been to any others, I wouldn't be surprised if it was for any guests that have been to this lodge and other safari experiences. Until next time.

The JW Masai Mara is an amazing hotel and experience. The hotel does so many things exceptionally but has a few things it needs to work on in order to get to 5 ⭐️. Pros: -Our game driver, David, and the experience in the reserve were phenomenal. Truly next level - David was willing to take the drives at our pace and we were out with him for 2 full days during our 5 day stay. He is next level. -The Canon studio and getting to use the camera made our trip photos SO much better! This is a HUGE pro. We did not take advantage of the support to edit our photos but we should have. We did have them move the photos to our phones and for about 2000 photos it took less than 5 minutes. This might be the best amenity at the hotel. -The front desk crew & management are very helpful and kind. Diana particularly was wonderful in sharing the Masai culture with us. We appreciated her stories and hospitality. -The property is beautiful & very well maintained. Additionally the rooms are incredibly well appointed. The outdoor shower was a huge favorite for us. We also appreciated not having a tv so we could connect with nature & the full experience. -The spa is wonderful! We didn’t do any treatments due to wanting to maximize time on the drives but we loved using the steam room, sauna & cold plunge. Just make sure you make an appointment to use them. -The rooms are so well taken care of during your stay. Our housekeeper and mini bar attendant were amazing. -The ability to book an experience like this on points is fantastic. We heard a stat that 80% of the visitors are on points. Cons: 1. The tip culture is OUT OF CONTROL. We had read the reviews and brought cash to tip our driver, house keeper, servers, etc. We are happy to tip for great service. However 2 experiences left a sour taste in our mouths. 1st, our restaurant server told us on the first day that he should be tipped individually and not to tip using the restaurant check (which is weird that they give you this at an all inclusive). We were so turned off that we only tipped him on the restaurant bill & did not hand him any cash. It made our restaurant experience very uncomfortable the whole week. 2nd, a Masai warrior is required to walk you to & from your tent at night for safety. They expect a tip each time as well. One gentleman even stopped short of the restaurant and looked us up and down until we handed him a 20 (all that we had). He showed up to our tent the next morning to walk us to the breakfast, which is not required, saying there was an animal nearby. We highly doubted that because he did the same thing for a tip in the morning. We were so put off by it. 2. For a place that commands $3000 a night, you’d expect that there would be choices at the restaurant. The theme night concept is fun for a day but when every meal has an Indian food flair to it, it gets old fast if you don’t like Indian food. We asked for something different on the true Indian food night and were treated like we were abso