Borana Lodge, Kenya — UNCHARTED®

Overview

These lands were the inspiration for Pride Rock in The Lion King, and the conservancy has since made its name as a protector of the rhino.

Perched on the Laikipia Plateau with views of Mount Kenya, Borana Lodge is run by the Dyer family. When they first arrived, horses were the only way to get around, and they still believe riding is one of the best ways to see wildlife: an old way of travelling that brings you close to the land and everything on it.

Type: Safari lodge · one of The Originals
When to go: Anytime; best Jan–Feb and Jun–Oct
Ideal for: Families · Couples
Geography: Savanna below Mount Kenya
Experience: Conservation, and on horseback

Borana · The Dyer family

Everything the lodge earns goes to the wild.

250+rhino across Lewa–Borana

90,000acres without a fence between them

95%of the power from the sun

The Dyers ranched this hill country below Mount Kenya long before anyone came here on safari. They opened Borana Lodge in 1993, built by local craftsmen as one of East Africa’s first eco-lodges, with Fuzz and Bimbi Dyer hosting the guests themselves, and in 2007 the family committed every shilling the lodge keeps to protecting the land. When rhino poaching was at its worst they made room for more: twenty-one black rhino arrived in 2013, the fence with Lewa came down, and the joined landscape now holds more than 250. We have known the family for more than twenty years, and Michael Dyer still heads out with the rangers.

Days at Borana

How the days go here.

Mornings start early on Borana, with the horses saddled and the rhino scouts already out. Everything else bends around the light and what you feel like doing.

Our history here

From the Bush Homes^® days to Daisy in the saddle.

Borana was on the map of Bush Homes^® of East Africa in 1998, the family ranches and private houses our story began with, and we have been sending travelers up the hill ever since. More than fifty journeys in the last ten years alone.

Then Daisy Cunningham went to work there, hosting guests and leading the horseback rides out across the conservancy. She knows the horses by name, and the family knows her. So when we send you to Borana, we’re sending you home, in a way.

Daisy Cunningham · hosted guests and led the rides at Borana

When we send you to Borana, we’re sending you home.

Meet Daisy ›

Our take

“One of the most personal and authentic stays in Kenya. Not a big camp. The family connection to the land is palpable.”

The UNCHARTED® travel designers

The main house

The cottages

Stone, cedar and thatch.

Eight rooms in six cottages along the hillside, built of rock and cedar by local craftsmen, each with an open fire lit every evening, a deep tub looking out at the bush and a verandah of its own.

Good to know

Hosted by the Dyer familyEight rooms, six cottagesFirst guests in 1993Best Jan–Feb, Jun–Oct250+ rhino across Lewa–Borana90,000 acres without a fence betweenAbout 95% solar120+ rangersMore than thirty horsesPride Rock, an hour’s walkGlobal Safari Winner 2025Members of The Long Run

Conservation

Every night here pays for the rhino.

Borana was a cattle ranch. Today it is one of Kenya’s great rhino strongholds, and the lodge is what keeps it that way: since 2007 the Dyers have put everything it earns into protecting the land.

250+black and white rhino across Lewa–Borana

90,000acres, no fence between them

120+rangers, nearly all from the neighbouring communities

10+ yrswithout a rhino poached

The rangers

The men and women who protect the rhino with their lives.

Behind the lodge is one of the most impressive conservation operations in Kenya: Borana’s rangers, out on foot every day across the conservancy and the Lewa–Borana landscape, and the headquarters that keeps them in the field. Guests can join the rhino scouts at first light, ride along on an evening deployment, or train with them.

Chip and Sandy went behind the scenes with Michael Dyer, from the rangers’ operations to an evening at the Dyers’ house, and came home convinced it is one of the finest pieces of conservation anywhere. Borana and UNCHARTED® are both members of The Long Run, the alliance of places that balance conservation, community, culture and commerce.

1993The lodge takes its first guests
1998Borana is on our Bush Homes^® map
2007Every shilling goes to conservation
2013Twenty-one black rhino come home
2025Our Global Safari Award

The year at Borana

When to go.

Borana is open all year. The dry months are the classic ones, clear and gold, with the game drawn to the water; the rains turn the hills green and bring the young.

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Dry season, the best of it
Between the rains, quieter
The rains: long in April and May, short in November

Where it is

Borana Conservancy

Laikipia, Kenya

0.23° N · 37.32° E

Fly from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport to the Lewa or Borana airstrip, where the lodge meets you. Borana sits just north of the equator on the northern slopes of Mount Kenya.

Global Safari Awards 2025 · Winner

Sundowners fit for a Lion King.

Our 2025 award went to the evenings at Borana: a drink on the escarpment as the light goes gold over the hills that inspired Pride Rock. Borana is in the running again in 2026.