PRIVATE VILLAS & ESTATES By Micato Safaris
e’ve chosen these elegant, exclusiveuse villas and estates because they showcase a variety of gracefully luxurious styles and beguiling locations in East and Southern Africa. They’re just a bright sample of the many private properties we’ve introduced our guests to for five decades. So if your sojourn in one of them is part of a longer safari — which is most often the case — we’ll talk with you about many other topnotch villas, lodges, estates, camps, and hotels for every step of your safari. And at every step from touchdown to takeoff, you’ll be accompanied by your own Safari Director, backed up by our 24-hour Concierge Team in Nairobi and Cape Town, and our large African and American staffs, all of us dedicated to serenely private, hassle-free, heart-sparking safari.
There, there is nothing else but grace and measure, Richness, quietness and pleasure. — Baudelaire, L’Invitation au Voyage
Laikipia Plateau, Kenya
Ol Jogi Ranch Forbes cautions guests at Ol Jogi Ranch to not get too “caught up in the exquisite details”—the “Murano glass globes over lamps, the sumptuous Hermès linens, the perfectly polished Buccellati silver”—but to savour the vast Ranch’s “enchanting, incredible and diverse” wildlife. For generations the home of the Wildenstein family, Ol Jogi is quietly luxurious, stunningly situated, and welcoming in the highest African tradition.
Accommodations at Ol Jogi Ranch Wonderfully, almost invisibly set on a large kopje, a rocky island on the Laikipia Plateau, Ol Jogi is an exclusive-use lodge/home/fabulous African getaway. Which means you’ll have this
magnificent property— its tennis courts, well-curated library, satellite-linked TV room, spa, heated outdoor pool (with a waterfall and flowery island), and large and cheery staff— utterly to yourselves.
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Activities and Attractions Wildlife viewing on the acacia-dotted plains of Ol Jogi’s 58,000-acre private COMPLIMENTARY LAUNDRY FITNESS conservancy is a quintessential safari WIFI SERVICES ROOM experience. We roam with our Micato Safari Director in almost inevitably successful search of the Big Five (including more than 80 endangered eastern black rhinos), rare Grevy’s zebras and reticulated giraffes, fascinating wild dogs,
and oryxes, impalas, and elands aplenty (all of them resolutely protected by 130 PRIVATE 24 -HOUR PERSONAL WINE security personnel). Also easily at hand: CELLAR POOL ELECTRICITY CHEF helicopter excursions into the vastness of Northern Kenya and on the slopes of regal Mount Kenya; horsebacking; all-terrain vehicle jaunts; melodious birdwatching along the lush and twisty Ewaso Nyiro River.
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Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya
Kifaru House
Kifaru House is perhaps the loveliest of the much-revered Lewa Conservancy’s many gems. At the cutting edge of conservation and sustainability, the Conservancy is famed for its rigorously protected white and black rhinos, along with its full repertoire of free-ranging African beasts. Serene and private, Kifaru House’s cottages, each a safari villa of its own, are splendid, intimate, and classically scenic places that exemplify Micato’s enduring goal: presenting Africa in thoughtful luxury and privacy while engaging with the triad that makes our home continent so uniquely exciting (and simultaneously serene): its magnificent wildlife, vast sceneries, and its vital people.
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Kifaru’s five thatched-roof cottages reflect Lewa’s tradition of understated, warmly comfortable luxury. One of the cottages has two bedrooms, making it ideal for families, and all include the most modern of amenities and a spacious tiled lanai for dioramic views of Kenya’s eponymous mountain. Dining and sitting rooms, with a well-curated bar, fireplaces, and a large library—legacy of Lewa’s founding Craig family— make up the main house, and nearby, a heated infinity pool with sitting and dining areas and a massage room.
Game drives led by our Micato Safari Director take us down from the House’s hilltop, into a wonderful medley of landscapes: highland forests, spring-fed copses, classic acacia-accented grasslands. The air is lively with 440 bird species, all of the Big Five are in residence, elegantly designed zebras flow on the landscape, and Lewa’s rhinos roam dinosaurically. Also: horsebacking and camel safaris, grandly arranged picnics in the Ngare Ndare Forest Conservancy, and visits to Lewa’s Community Development Programme.
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Serengeti, Tanzania
The Villas at Four Seasons The Serengeti is the Africa of our dreams, amazing in its enormity, its almost infinite skies and long, golden reaches, its million-year quiet, “a paradise caressed by light and air in their most special forms,” as the great lover of safari Peter Beard said. And few places are better situated to revel and relax in that paradise than the Villas at Four Seasons. Set aside in sublime privacy from the larger Four Seasons Safari Lodge, the magnificently designed, astutely luxurious villas look out at the great Plain and its free-roaming animals through floor-to-ceiling windows and from large, view-besotted decks.
Accommodations at The Villas at Four Seasons The three private villas each have their own kitchen and plunge pool and range from one romantic bedroom to the grand, three-storey Presidential Suite’s three. All the villas are graced with bespoke, African-chic furnishings and, as befits such an exclusive property, all needs are anticipated, and if something unanticipated pops up, your Micato Safari Director will quickly talk it over with the Villas’ top-notch staff, and…presto.
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Activities and Attractions Private game drives in the Serengeti with your Safari Director are revelatory. Early morning game drives give us the COMPLIMENTARY LAUNDRY FITNESS chance as they limber WIFIto observe lions SERVICES ROOM up for their workday; hippos galumph in muddy pools; mile-long streams of wildebeest and zebras trace migratory paths; elephants, as Isak Dinesen wrote,
“pace along as if they had an appointment at the end of the world.” We pay hearty visits to the local Maasai, hot-air PRIVATE 24-HOUR PERSONAL balloon over the POOL Plain, and revel ELECTRICITY CHEFin the pure air and monumental clouds that “look like you could scoop them up with a spoon,” as the great Elspeth Huxley wrote.
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Laikipia Plateau, Kenya
Arijiju
Vanity Fair praises Arijiju’s “sensuous genius,” and Condé Nast Traveler rhetorically asks, “Is this the most beautiful house in Africa?” Nestled in the private Borana Conservancy overlooking the game lands of the Laikipia Plateau, graced with views of lordly Mount Kenya, the grand estate and home is an epitome of thoughtful luxury, with five gorgeously appointed suites (and a rooftop “Constellation Suite” for sleeping under the stars). It has its own spa, gym, clay tennis courts, extensive sun-dappled gardens, a talented resident chef, and an amiable staff of 14.
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Accommodations at Arijiju Arijiju is an exclusive-use home enveloped in the calm, majestic style of a 12-century French monastery. Its vaulted archways and stone passageways give way to a landscaped courtyard flanked by three suites, with two more hidden in nearby olive groves. Cozy sun-trap hideaways, king-size beds, large mirrors, and indoor and outdoor showers are among the comforts here, and thought-
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fully eclectic furnishings like copper bathtubs and Indian campaign desks are accented by chandeliers, walk-in fireplaces, and other grand touches. A terraced pool, game room, library, spa, gym, yoga studio, tennis and squash courts, and healthy, earth-totable, Moroccan-inspired cuisine prepared by Arijiju’s chef complete this serenely private oasis.
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Activities and Attractions The Laikipia Plateau is famed for the richness of its wildlife, and Arijiju’s location within the private Borana ConCOMPLIMENTARY servancy allows us LAUNDRY to game driveFITNESS with WIFI SERVICES ROOM our Micato Safari Director in carefree privacy. The Big Five are all to be marvelled at, along with scores of mammal and avian species. We enthusiastically arrange helicopter-supported fly-fishing
jaunts and rambles on Mount Kenya’s slopes; picnic excursions to the giant sand dunes of Suguta Valley or the PRIVATE 24 -HOUR gathering PERSONAL traditional place of the POOL ELECTRICITY CHEF Samburu at Singing Wells; visits to the Reteti Elephant Orphanage, or to Lake Turkana, where Micato’s old family friends, paleontologists Louise and Meave Leakey, are presently exploring.
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Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa
Cheetah Plains
The three exclusive-use Cheetah Plains houses “ratchet up the luxury factor while committing to sustainability,” says The New York Times. Set in the private Cheetah Plains Private Reserve, part of the equally private Sabi Sand Game Reserve, Cheetah Plains glows with the pure patina of Africa, polished to a stylish, contemporary gleam, a beacon for those of us looking for well-imagined luxury and a dedication to sustainability. Just one of the personal passions of owner Japie van Niekerk is the property’s contemporary gallery space, a vivid showcase of some of Africa’s most celebrated artists.
Accommodations at Cheetah Plains The Plains Houses accommodate up to eight guests per house. A sleek, heated swimming pool, day beds that overlook the waterhole, cool polished stone throughout, and muted palettes that invite the outside in, all make the Houses ideal for an exclusive family safari or a merry party of friends. Each house
has its own staff and chef, and features graciously appointed, wide-windowed, free-standing private suites (two of which are interconnected, thus nicely suited to families), adjacent to elegant shared spaces that include an expansive living room, sun deck, lap pool, wine gallery, and dining room.
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Activities and Attractions We make our game drives in prototype, soothingly silent electric Land Cruiser safari vehicles, a much-lauded innovation pioneered by Cheetah Plains’ visionary owner. The private Sabi Sand — quite a bit larger than 10 Manhattans—is revered for prime Big Five viewing; leopards, lions, rhinos, elephants, buffalos, cheetahs, zebras, giraffes, antelopes, and 500 bird species roar, bleat, grunt, sing, and live in
unbound freedom. Our explorations with our Micato Safari Director make for soul-expanding experiences much talked about before and after — by the pool, around the fire, at the splendidly laid dining table of this opulent lodge. And another Cheetah Plains attraction, one of van Niekerk’s passions: its contemporary gallery space, a vivid showcase of some of Africa’s most celebrated artists.
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Stellenbosch, South Africa
Delaire Graff Owner’s Villa Famed for its sublime setting in the Cape Winelands, for its winery, superb artwork, exquisite cuisine, and luxury lodges, the Delaire Graff Estate is now graced with what it calls its “pinnacle,” the sumptuous Owner’s Villa. Micato is a longtime Delaire Graff Estate enthusiast, and agrees that the Owner’s Villa has taken it from the sublime to the sublimest. Featuring a 45-foot pool, four bedrooms decorated by artworks curated by diamond magnate and philanthropist Laurence Graff from his private collection, and just about every luxe amenity imaginable, the Owner’s Villa is a Winelands masterpiece.
Accommodations at Delaire Graff Owner’s Villa The exclusive-use Villa’s four artful, spacious bedrooms feature a walk-in closet and private terraces looking out at the Winelands’ spectacular mountains and rolling vineyards. Spread across two floors, with two bedrooms on each floor, the Villa features a grand pair of living rooms, a dining room (graced by a Julian Schnabel showstopper), a jacuzzi terrace, family room, and a fully-equipped gym. All meals, it almost goes without saying, are bespoke, prepared by the Villa’s chef to match the high Delaire Graff standard.
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Activities and Attractions Our Custom Safaris staff will present a wide variety of activities available to you in the Winelands and in ever-jazzy Cape Town itself, only a 40-minute drive from the Villa. Just a few of them: private wine tastings; bicycle jaunts with catered picnics; culinary expeditions to some of the Winelands’ out-of-the-way bistros and
world-class restaurants; soaring balloon rides; walking tours of nearby Franschhoek; horsebacking in the vineyards; and a host of other adventures, many of them exclusive to Micato, thanks to our long relationship with Delaire Graff, and our many decades of experience in this salubrious part of the world.
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Thornybush Private Game Reserve, South Africa
Kubili House
Set in the private Thornybush Game Reserve adjacent to Kruger National Park, Kubili House is an architecturally masterful, five-bedroom, exclusive-use villa created by South African-born New York financier Julian Koski. Lovingly built as a family residence—“We wanted to give our kids a different perspective of the world,” Koski says, “something environmental, ecological, human” — Kubili House is a tour de force, not only of design, but of spirit. As one visitor wrote, it’s “like an elephant: strong, overwhelming, sensitive, beautiful, faithful, highly intelligent, unforgettable….”
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Accommodations at Kubili House Kubili House’s five bedrooms and convenience and luxury, the House has expansive common areas have an airy, three swimming pools, a spa and steam open-plan, “New York loft-meets-French room, and an animal-magnet watermaison Robb Report reports. PRIVATE hole serenely viewable from the House’s WINE CLIMATE feel,” the PERSONAL COMPLIMENTARY LAUNDRY WELLNESS CONTROL CHEF WIFI SERVICES FACILITIES POOL Furnished with pieces from the many decks. And a delightful footnote: CELLAR Donna Karen Urban Zen Collection, the House has three specially equipped antique wooden beams from France, camping vehicles for overnight safaris into original artworks, and every modern the little-touristed Thornybush Reserve.
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Activities and Attractions We game watch at Kubili from two vantage points. First, and more or less continually, from the House itself, which was designed to commune with its environment and abundant animals. And, second, from well-equipped safari vehicles, guided by our much-credentialed Micato Safari Director, into the Thornybush Reserve’s bushveld, immersing
ourselves in an ancient, little-changed natural history that almost makes human history seem like a confusing afterthought. Much else is in store, but one of our favourites: a private helicopter zoom over the dramatically plunging Blyde River Canyon, perhaps with a mountaintop picnic before flying back to your safari home at Kubili.
Kalahari Desert, South Africa
Tarkuni Homestead Once the home of the Oppenheimer family in Tswalu, their private game reserve, the largest in South Africa, Tarkuni’s understated elegance eloquently bespeaks the family’s deep African roots. Set between two mountain ranges in the soul-stirring, animal-rich vastness of the Kalahari, recently redesigned, exclusive-use Tarkuni is a sublime sanctuary from the too-often unmelodious world into a “a whole world,” the great Elspeth Huxley wrote, “that revolves in balance with itself more perfect than the finest symphony.”
Accommodations at Tarkuni Homestead Tarkuni’s five luxurious suites each have a magnificent ensuite bathroom that features outdoor showers, and, on their outside terrace, a starbed for sleeping under the brilliant Kalahari stars. Tarkuni guests are attended by a dedicated team that includes a host, a very crackerjack chef, and, of course, your
Micato Safari Director. Moments of calm and action item-free contemplation are enjoyed in the shady cabanas that surround Tarkuni’s quiet pool. Starlit meals are served in the traditional boma, while two lounges with open fireplaces add to this exclusive homestead’s brilliantly familial serenity.
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Activities and Attractions Vast and gorgeous Tswalu is owned and operated by the country’s immensely prosperous and conservation-minded Oppenheimers (of De Beers diamonds and much else). Game drives here are wonderfully private; Cape buffalo, leopards, and rare black rhino, desert-adapted elephants and lions, aardvarks and pangolins, and a host of hardly less compelling mammals and
avians prosper in Tswalu’s diverse habitats. In addition to game drives, Tarkuni offers a variety of ways to soak up the Kalahari’s subtle beauties: horsebacking and walking safaris, helicoptering over the Kalahari; and excursions to see San petroglyphs, mysterious reminders of the successful hunter-gatherers who lived in the Kalahari centuries before our respectful visit.
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Personalized Activities Safari offers a wonderful mixture of peaceful repose and thrilling activity. And each of our private villas and estates abounds in both. We’ll help you choose the ideal villa or estate for your safari, and we’ll discuss—before and during your safari —a host of ways to bask in physical, philosophical, and very private exultation. Top of the list, of course: safari drives with your Safari Director in Earth’s greatest game lands. And then: horsebacking and helicopter jaunting; private wine-tastings; ballooning and hiking; camel-safariing; candlelight dinners in the bush; unrehearsed visits to traditional villages; and many other ways to put you in the presence of the marvellous, all made possible by our studious expertise and our long and close relationships with the owners, operators, and staff of these private villas and estates.
Arrangements Your first phone call or email begins the process of creating a fully private Custom Safari…to one or more of the private villas and estates in this booklet, or to any of the scores of simpatico luxury lodges and camps we frequent and recommend. Our cheery Custom Safari experts will consult with you and plan a safari of any length and level of luxe. About transportation: Arranging private jet safaris has been a Micato speciality for decades. We know the ins and outs, the permissions and strip lengths, FOB s and immigration requirements, and we’re masters at untangling and scissoring red tape. And mixing prop and helicopter charters into the bush with international and intranational jet travel is old hat for us.
The villas and estates in this booklet are only a sampling of the many more exclusive-use properties enjoyed over the years by our guests — not to mention three generations of Pintos, pictured here: Micato’s founders, Felix and Jane, with Anna behind them, and Dennis and Joy, and behind them, the third generation, Sasha and Tristan, ready to tackle the world.
To see more enchanting private villas and estates, go to:
Micato.com /villa And to have a safari chat with our experts, email us at Inquiries@Micato.com, or just give us a call at 800-642-2861. Talking safari is something we love to do.
Luxury is the discipline of abundance. — Andre Gide