The Villa Rosa Kempinski just opened in Nairobi. Guest room shown here.

The Villa Rosa Kempinski just opened in Nairobi. Guest room shown here.

 

Kempinski Hotels is expanding its portfolio in Africa. With two new hotels opened in Kenya this year, Kempinski looks to add five more in 2014.

Earlier this year, Olare Mara Kempinski opened its 12 luxury tents in the Olare Orok Conservancy, considered a good home base for sighting wildlife that roams the grasslands (think lions, zebras, giraffes and wildebeest). The tents come with four-poster beds, claw-foot bathtubs, outdoor showers and teak decks. (Tip: One has its own private plunge pool.) The tented camp has an eco-friendly focus: the produce for meals is grown in the on-site vegetable garden, and solar panels provide 70 percent of the energy needs.

This summer, Kempinski also debuted the Villa Rosa Kempinski hotel in Nairobi. Spread out over 10 floors, the 200 rooms are dressed in a “European and Pan-African style,” and the Presidential Suite has its very own terrace, plunge pool and outdoor barbeque area. The dining options are extensive: 88, the Pan Asian Restaurant; Lucca, the Italian Bistro; Tambourin, the Arabic rooftop lounge; and the all-day dining restaurant called Cafe Villa Rosa. For night owls, there’s a cigar lounge, and a Taittinger Champagne corner at The Balcony.

Coming Soon: Upcoming openings in Africa in 2014 include the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City in Accra, Ghana, and the Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski in New Cairo, Egypt, set to open early in the year, as well as a newly signed hotel and golf resort in the future capital of Equatorial Guinea, Oyala. Additional plans are moving forward to open hotels in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the end of the year.