The Fashionable Frequent Flyers

It is impossible to truly capture in words just how spectacular our experience was at the Segera Retreat! We’ve stayed at a lot of luxury properties, resorts, and lodges over the past couple of years, but we don’t think any thus far has been more impressive than the Segera Retreat. And that’s not just in Kenya, we’re talking about the world (gasp!). This property is really incredible — it is comprised of six luxury garden villas, the main Segera house, the farmhouse property, and Villa Segera, all nestled within 50,000 acres of the Segera conservancy. And what can you see at Segera? The Segera Conservancy is home to Lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, buffaloes, giraffes, hyenas, gazelles, zebras and so much more. The conservancy is also in the process of acquiring approval to become a rhino sanctuary so that rhinos can be brought into the conservancy and protected, as “we” continue to try and grow the numbers of the rhino population.

In our view, four things exemplified the Segera experience. First, privacy. A huge selling point of the Segera experience is the privacy that your traveling party will experience. The villas are vast, lush, and fairly spaced out, offering complete privacy from other guests when in your sleeping accommodations. The schedules are individually catered and mapped out based on your needs and preferences, from dining to safaris, which means that each of the guests is operating on their own set timeline. The property offers a variety of dining locations, each of which tends to be rotated between guests at different times, thus maintaining the exclusivity of each experience for your traveling party. It’s truly an incredible environment to spend with your partner and/or family.

Second, seclusion. The retreat is nestled within 50,000 acres of a private wildlife conservancy and pretty much has accommodations for eight traveling parties at a time. The Conservancy is not shared with other lodges and retreats, which makes for a very secluded and intimate experience. Guests can only arrive at Segera by private charter, which further limits access to the retreat. It was the kind of seclusion that one associates with peace that cannot be disturbed.

Third, Splendor. Segera is a stunning retreat that is beautifully decorated in a style we like to call “safari chic.” The earth tones and African-influenced design really come through in the various rooms and structures around the property, each with its own unique style that gives that room its own individuality. And each art piece or style has a story attached to it. You will also notice various other unique art pieces around the property which add a certain charisma to the property. We often found ourselves walking around and admiring these pieces during our downtime.

Finally, unmatched service. To put it simply, Segera pays attention to EVERY SINGLE DETAIL. Throughout your stay at Segera, you will be assigned a guide for your party, a server, and a villa attendant, each of whom pays attention to your needs and provide you with what you need. Our guide, Ngimat, server, Dominic, and villa attendant, Dixon, took very good care of us during our stay. Your meals are prepared by various chefs on-site and their creations are immaculate. On every return to your villa, be it from a safari outing or visiting the local communities, a handwritten note on a little blackboard welcomes you back “home.” Indeed, Segera favors personalized hand-written notes to pass messages to its guests, be it an invite to stay at the Bird’s Nest (blog post on that coming soon!) or a note with your breakfast in the wild. It’s a personal touch not seen at many vacation properties. And, of course, Segera boasts fantastic spa services. Roxana is a miracle worker and had us both feeling 5 years younger from our treatments. We could go on and on frankly, but it’s something y’all have to experience for yourselves! It really doesn’t get better than this!

Segera was such a unique vacation experience for us. While luxury is certainly at the forefront of their brand, Segera’s sustainability model and community programs go to the heart of who they are and what they believe. We were extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn about these programs, which our guide Ngimat helped build into our itinerary. We want to share with y’all what we learned and so we have authored a companion piece to this post discussing Segera’s ethos, sustainability programs, and other community programs we were fortunate to learn about during our stay! You can read that post here!