Mara Explorer
Small luxury tented camp · Talek River bend, central reserve (Narok side) · Heritage Hotels
Top-end
Inside the park
Safari company
Mara Explorer is the smaller, quieter sister of Mara Intrepids: ten tents on a thickly forested bend of the Talek River inside the reserve, run by Heritage Hotels. Each tent faces the river and the camp makes much of its outdoor bathtubs. Three game drives a day are advertised and the airstrip is three minutes away. Heritage publishes no rates and no child policy. Choose it for a small, river-facing camp in the central reserve; skip it if you have young children, as nothing on its page caters for them.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Ten tents, all facing the Talek River
- Inside the reserve, central position
- Outdoor bathtubs
- Airstrip three minutes away
Cons
- No published rates
- We found no published child policy
- Inclusions not stated
- Open months not stated
What's here
Arranged from the lodge:
- Game drives
Read from Mara Explorer's own website in July 2026. Anything not listed we could not confirm, which is not the same as it being absent.
What the park charges on top
The rate above buys you a bed. Masai Mara National Reserve charges its own entry fee for every day you are inside. Here is what that adds up to.
- Park entryThe non-resident rate from 1 July to 31 December; $100 from 1 January to 30 June.
- $200per person, per day
- VehicleKSh 1,000 a day for a car under six seats, about $8 at KSh 129 to the dollar.
- $8per vehicle, per day
Three nights means three days inside, so two adults sharing one vehicle pay $1224 in park fees before anyone pays for a bed.
The figure above uses the July to December rate. From January to June the same sum halves for the people. A day is 06:00 to 18:00, and guests in the conservancies outside the reserve pay only on the days they drive in.
The full fee schedule for Masai Mara National ReserveRates at Mara Explorer
Rates on request. Heritage Hotels publishes no rate on the camp's page (read 6 Oct 2026). Ask whether drinks, park fees and VAT are in the quote; the reserve ticket is $100 or $200 per non-resident adult per 12-hour day depending on season (Narok County Finance Act 2023).
What the rate covers is not confirmed. We do not know yet whether meals, drinks and activities are included, so read this as the bed only.
Every figure on this page is in US dollars.
Rates checked on 6 October 2026 against each operator's own website or 2026 rate sheet, in US dollars per person per night sharing unless the entry says otherwise. One figure is a reseller's, not the owner's: Olonana Lodge's $2,450 (safari.com, 6 Oct 2026), because A&K's own page would not load. Angama's rates come from a January 2026 copy of its site, since the live site blocks automated reading. On top of nearly every rate sits Narok County's reserve ticket: $100 per non-resident adult per 12-hour day (6 am to 6 pm) from January to June and $200 from July to December, $50 for a child of 9 to 17, free at 8 and under. Conservancy camps add their own nightly fee, $130 per adult in Mara North, Olare Motorogi and Naboisho in 2026 and $116 in Mara Siana, unless the entry says it is included.
Questions about Mara Explorer
How many tents does Mara Explorer have?
Ten, according to Heritage Hotels' own page, each on a forested bend of the Talek River inside the reserve.
How much is Mara Explorer per night?
Heritage publishes no rate. Ask for a quote and confirm whether the reserve ticket ($100 January to June, $200 July to December, per adult per day) is included.
Is Mara Explorer suitable for children?
We found no published child policy. The sister camp Mara Intrepids, on the same river, runs a children's club, which suggests Heritage steers families there.