Adventure · Sasaab pilots
Heli-Safari Over Samburu
See the landscape the way our pilots have known it for twenty years — from above, at dawn, before the heat sets in.
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Samburu · Owned Property
Sasaab
Open desert, a helicopter waiting at dawn, and a Samburu community whose land this actually is — our most adventure-led property.
Written with the Carr-Hartley family — and with input from the Samburu community whose land borders Sasaab and whose guides lead most of what happens here.
Why This Property Exists
Built for scale and movement, not stillness
Sasaab sits above the Ewaso Nyiro river, looking out over open Samburu desert — a landscape that reads more starkly and more widely than the greener country further south. It's the property in the collection built around motion: a helicopter based on-site, long game drives across genuinely open terrain, and camel treks that cover ground a vehicle can't.
It's also the property most directly woven into a specific community. The land Sasaab sits on borders Samburu community conservancies, and most of the guiding team grew up on this land — not hired from elsewhere and trained for the job, but people whose knowledge of this desert predates the lodge itself.
Guests who want quiet, enclosed intimacy tend to prefer Giraffe Manor or Solio. Sasaab is for guests who want to cover distance and feel the scale of the place.
Location
Samburu, Kenya
Rooms
9 rooms
Best for
Adventure, culture
Ownership
Owned by The Safari Collection
Culture · Samburu community
A Samburu Morning
Time with a nearby Samburu community, led by guides from that same community — not a staged performance for guests passing through.
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Adventure · Sasaab
Camel Trekking at Dusk
A slower way to cover the same desert the helicopter flies over — for guests who want to feel the ground, not just see it.
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River-View Rooms
Open-fronted rooms facing the Ewaso Nyiro river and the desert beyond it.
Rooms With Plunge Pools
A handful of rooms with their own small pools — useful given how open and warm this part of Samburu runs.
The Main Lounge
Where the helicopter briefings happen most mornings, before the day's route is decided.
Our Footprint, Here Specifically
This land belongs to a community first — Sasaab operates as a guest on it
Sasaab sits adjacent to Samburu-owned community conservancy land. A share of guest revenue supports the conservancy directly, and the majority of Sasaab's guiding team are Samburu, employed from the surrounding community rather than brought in from elsewhere. Wildlife protection here is inseparable from the community's own land management.
- Samburu community conservancy partnership
- Grevy's Zebra Trust
In Pictures
What a morning actually looks like here
Guide's Notes
Read the notes →
Why we fly at dawn, not midday
One of our pilots on the specific reasons timing matters more than most guests expect for a heli-safari here.
From the Family
"Sasaab only works because the Samburu community lets it work. We're guests on that land as much as anyone who stays with us."
The Carr-Hartley Family
— Owners, The Safari Collection
Meet the family behind it →
Your Safari Designer
Thinking about building an adventure-led trip around Sasaab?
Sasaab pairs well with a quieter property either side of it. Tell us what kind of pace you're picturing for the rest of the trip.