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Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby

Series 1

Episode 3: Giraffe Manor, Kenya

Duration: 59 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Two ScotlandLatest broadcast: on BBC Scotland HD

Available for 5 months

In the third episode of this eye-opening series, Giles and Monica discover Giraffe Manor, a unique hotel where giraffes, staff and guests all coexist in a 1930s Scottish-style hunting lodge on the edge of Nairobi National Park. It is the operational headquarters of Tanya and Mikey Carr-Hartley, fourth-generation Kenyans who also own three satellite luxury lodges and camps throughout Kenya and east Africa's wilderness. But it is at Giraffe Manor that they serve an awe-inspiring breakfast like no other, as giraffes join guests in the hotel dining room. After sharing breakfast and a kiss or two (with the giraffes, that is), Monica meets head chef David Kisevu and goes food shopping with him in the bustling Nairobi suburb of Rongai.

Going a very long way beyond the lobby, Giles and Monica fly to the remote but luxurious outpost of Sasaab Lodge, a six-acre plot set within 82,000 acres of land owned by Samburu tribespeople. The Samburu are the hotel's landlords, receiving a fee for every guest that stays, and the hotel offers local people employment - up to 75 per cent of the hotel's staff are Samburu. Giles and Monica follow their new co-workers back to their village to find out how the hotel has impacted tribal life. Giles spends time with Samburu warrior Jacob, who trained for three years to be a safari guide. He takes Giles on a cross-country camel ride that he won't forget in a hurry. Show less

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