Treetops Hotel, Aberdare National Park, Kenya

Location:

Treetops Hotel is located in the forest at Aberdare National Park, and is a world-renowned rustic treehouse that is dedicated to game viewing. It was originally built in 1932, and became famous because this was the place where the then-Princess Elizabeth learned of her fathers death and ascended to the British Throne in 1952. Treetops lies in the path of an ancient Elephant migratory route between the Aberdare Mountains and Mt Kenya National park, and is strategically situated right in front of a watering hole and salt lick. There isn't much to say about the location, other than the fact that once you are at the hotel, you are not allowed to leave. 

Your trip to the Treetops Hotel will at some point involve their sister hotel called the Outspan Hotel. The Outspan Hotel is located outside of the Aberdare National Park in Nyeri town. To get to the Treetops Hotel, you can either take their free shuttle or have your driver drop you off directly at the gate, which can be difficult to find if your driver doesn't know where it is. To get back, you have to take their shuttle. The drive is about 30 minutes with their shuttle.

Room Comfort:

The rooms are small and basic, but most guests do not come here for the comfort but rather for the game viewing. Nevertheless, the rooms are outdated and uncomfortable. All rooms have twin beds and most have shared bathrooms, although there are a few that have en-suite bathrooms that you can upgrade to. Toiletries and two bottles waters are provided in each room. We should mention that there aren't any locks on the doors from the outside, meaning that you can't lock your door once you exit. On the inside, there is a latch to secure the door. The room walls are thin and you can hear the guests in the surrounding rooms.

We should also mention that the hotel is situated on stilts and once you are at the hotel you are not allowed to leave, not even to go outside.

Cleanliness:

The rooms and viewing areas were clean. The shared bathrooms were also fairly clean although they are starting to show their age.     

Service:

The service wasn't that good, but with so many guests there, it really didn't surprise us. Check-in is located at the Outspan Hotel and depending on how and when you arrive, it could be slow. For example, if you arrive independently at the same time as a large tour group, it will take some time to be checked-in. We arranged to have lunch boxes made at the Outspan Hotel for our hike in the Aderbare National Park but when we arrived at noon they didn't have them ready. We were told that it would take them over an hour to prepare them which we didn't really understand or accept. Instead, we told them to pack some fruit and pastries from their breakfast so that we could be off to our hike. 

Food:

The food at dinner was simple but decent. Dinner is served for everyone staying at the Treetops Hotel at a specific time in a relatively small room. Benches are set-up to seat approximately 16 people in a confined space, which made some people feel pretty uncomfortable. Dinner is a set menu but does have enough choice to satisfy most people. The food is passed along a sliding tray in the centre of the table so that you can take what you want.

Buffet breakfast is held at the Outspan Hotel and was relatively poor compared to other hotels in Kenya. The pastries kept running out and weren't replaced fast enough by the staff. The omelette station was understaffed to keep up with the demand. 

Overall Value:

The entire experience at this hotel felt cold and impersonal. There are too many problems with the way people are treated at this hotel to justify spending a night here, including:

• In the morning everyone is requested to wake up at 6AM to be driven to the Outspan Hotel for breakfast. With shared bathroom facilities, it makes it very difficult to plan when to get ready to be ready on time. It really did feel like we were being herded out of the hotel like cows so that the next batch of tourists could be brought in.
• There is too much chaos at this hotel with all of the people running around and talking loudly to truly enjoy where you are. We are surprised some animals actually came to the waterhole with all of that noise. The entire experience of seeing animals at that hotel felt unnatural and artificial. There are better hotels in Kenya to stay at to see wildlife from the window of your room that still feel natural.
• The buzzer system of spotting animals is suspect. We left our buzzer on all night and it only buzzed on two occasions, once for a hyena and another time for a rhino. If you look at the hotel's posted list of animals that come to the waterhole on a daily basis, it's very unlikely that on any given day, these would be the only two animals arriving there. The other interesting observation was that our buzzer did not buzz after 11PM. Again, it's unlikely that none of the 4 animals on their list came between 11PM and 6AM. Either their list contains animals that come to the waterhole during the day when no one is there, or the person responsible for buzzing fell asleep or none of the 4 animals came to the place between 11PM and 6AM. You be the judge.
• The hotel was very busy with tourists, mainly retirees, and did not feel African.
• The hype for this hotel is too great for it to live up to expectations. The fame of this hotel is based on an event that happened over 50 years ago. That part of the hotel barely exists anymore.
• There is no privacy at this hotel. You have to eat dinner with everyone and leave with everyone. When the buzzer goes off, everyone is at the viewing areas at the same time as well.
• There aren't any provisions at the hotel for special needs, such as wheelchair access for example.

Needless to say, we do not recommend a night at this hotel.

Other Notes:

There is a buzzer in each room that will sound when a particular animal arrives at the waterhole, which you can turn off at any point. There is 1 buzz for the arrival of a hyena, 2 buzzes for the arrival of a leopard, 3 buzzes for the arrival of a rhino and 4 buzzes for the arrival of an elephant. There are wildlife viewing decks on every floor which are large and easily accessed.

If you can arrange to do a hike in Aberdare National Park, then do so. We did arrange a hike, but unfortunately it was very short and was cut even shorter when we spotted a wild elephant long our path.

Our Rating: 2.5/5   Year Reviewed: 2009

Expedia.ca and Priceline.com offer the best prices for this hotel. You can also visit the hotel's website at: www.aberdaresafarihotels.com

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