Introducing the ‘Century Safari Experience’

Our new three-night immersive safari in the Maasai Mara launched in May 2026, honouring Sir David Attenborough on his 100th birthday.

A hundred years is a long time to look at anything closely. For our family, it has been spent in the Maasai Mara - watching ecosystems shift, species adapt, and the practice of conservation grow up alongside us. For Sir David Attenborough, it has been spent bringing the wild into the world's living rooms, and reminding all of us what we stand to lose.

On the 8th May 2026, Sir David Attenborough turned 100 and it felt only right to mark the occasion in the way we know best: out in the bush, around a fire, under the wide African sky - connecting guests closer to nature, conservation and community. So we have created something new - the Century Safari Experience, a three-night immersive journey at our award-winning Cottar's 1920s Camp, shaped by the themes that have defined his work and by a century of our own time in this landscape.

A safari built around three ideas

The itinerary is structured around three threads drawn from Sir David Attenborough's life of storytelling: the relationship between indigenous communities and the wildlife they live among; the patient, slow work of field observation; and the predator-prey balance that gives the Maasai Mara its particular character.

Each is explored in the field, with our award-winning guides, alongside conservancy rangers and visiting specialists. It is part reflection on what the past hundred years has changed - and part commitment to what the next hundred must protect.

As Louise Cottar, our CEO and co-owner, puts it: "At Cottar's Safaris, responsible and meaningful tourism is how we protect wild places - funding conservation, supporting local communities, and ensuring the Maasai Mara endures. This experience draws on a century of guiding, a lifetime of natural history storytelling, and a shared belief that the wild is worth protecting. We think guests will find it both deeply engaging and genuinely transformative."

What's inside the three nights

Expect pre-dawn wildlife drives through the Maasai Mara National Reserve and our private Olderkesi Conservancy, bush walks with expert trackers, time with the Maasai Mara's first all-female ranger unit, outings with the Kenya Birds of Prey Trust. Evenings bring outdoor film screenings, fireside talks on everything from pangolins to Maasai culture, and stargazing. There's Warrior School, a village visit, a dinner celebrating the bond between the Maasai and their livestock, and an intimate fireside chat tracing more than a hundred years of our family's history in Kenya.

The three-night Century Safari Experience is available throughout the year from US $3,450 per person, based on two adults sharing, including full board accommodation and all activities.