Dawn aerial of the hilltop estate in silver-green leleshwa scrub, Lake Naivasha and the Rift hills pale beyond.

Three houses · One hill

The villas

One hill above Lake Naivasha, and three houses on it — the same staff and standard in each, and three different ways to spend a week.

The villas

Three houses, and no second-best.

Each is named for a tree or shrub that grows on the estate — leleshwa, wild olive, yellow fever acacia — and each is taken whole, by one party at a time, with its own chef, butler and housekeeper for the length of the stay. Every bed on the hill is a king, convertible to twins. What actually differs is temperament: where the light comes from, how close the animals feel, how much of the house stands open to the gardens.

O'Leleshwa

The main house, highest on the hill

The gathering house: room for the full party, and the evenings tend to end up here.

Sleeps 8 · 4 bedrooms

O'Lorien

The A-frame in the gardens

The garden house — deep in the planting, and happiest with every door open.

Sleeps 6 · 3 bedrooms

O'Lerai

The deck over the watering ground

The quiet house — smallest of the three, and the one the animals walk past.

Sleeps 4 · 2 bedrooms

The main house

O'Leleshwa Villa

The house the whole estate is named for: its great room rises the full height of the makuti thatch, with a suspended cone fireplace at its centre and the long table under a chandelier of repurposed Malawian glass. A wall of glass opens onto the balcony, which runs the villa's whole length and carries the best lake view of the three houses, first light to last.

O'Leleshwa Villa →

The O'Leleshwa great room — thatch vault, the hood of the suspended cone fireplace at the left edge, the green Malawian-glass chandelier over the long table, low sun through sheer curtains. — The great room — low sun through the sheers, the long table under its Malawian-glass chandelier.

The A-frame

O'Lorien Villa

A steep pitch of thatch, with a triangle of sky let into the gable.

O'Lorien's great room rises into the full A-frame, glazed at its peak, so you get the sky without the weather. Two of the bathrooms are walled gardens: an outdoor shower against the stone, and a freestanding bath among the foliage. Of the three houses, it is the one the gardens have most completely surrounded.

O'Lorien Villa →

O'Lorien's sitting room under the A-frame thatch, the triangular skylight full of cloud, glass doors open to the deck. — The sitting room under the triangular skylight, doors open to the deck.

A freestanding bath against the stone wall of O'Lorien's walled garden, ferns around it, the pole fence backlit above. — One of the two walled-garden baths — the pole fence backlit above the stone.

The smallest house

O'Lerai Villa

Low-slung above a watering ground, it is the nearest of the three to the animals: zebra, impala and warthog come through below, and sometimes animals you did not expect. The deck is shared with the neighbouring residence, screened by planting and a change of level; in practice you will rarely be aware of anyone else.

O'Lerai Villa →

A timber deck under a pole pergola — a bare glass-topped table with six wicker chairs, acacia and bush beyond the rail, the valley opening past it. — The deck under the pole pergola, the valley beyond.

If one of them has already picked you, say so when you write. If not, tell us who is coming and we will help you choose.

Plan your stay →