Into the Wild: Hotels with Free-Roaming Animals

“You’ve woken up, made your morning coffee and you amble to your hotel room window to see – a cheetah prowling past. Or perhaps you’re greeted outside your room by a mischievous monkey, or the call of a toucan. If you’d like to get up close and personal with wildlife on your next holiday, but you also appreciate luxe accommodation, read on for a list of where the two meet.

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Port Lympne Hotel
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Image credit Wikimedia.

Port Lympne Reserve is a 600-acre park in Kent that’s home to hundreds of exotic animals. It’s the brainchild of the Aspinall Foundation, a conservation-focused charity. Its mission: to reintroduce captive-bred animals to protected wildernesses around the world. On the reserve is the Port Lympne Hotel, a four-star where rooms come with fantastic views of Kent’s answer to the Serengeti, with giraffes, zebras, and rhinos roam around the park.

Animals on view: African elephants, painted dogs, De Brazza’s monkeys, clouded leopards, and western lowland gorillas are just a few examples of animals that have been successfully bred here as part of the reserve’s conservation work.

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Sarova Salt Lick Game Lodge
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Located in the Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary in Kenya, the Sarova Salt Lick Game Lodge provides some seriously memorable views of the surrounding plains and bushland. The private 28,000-acre reserve borders Tsavo West National Park, and the lodge includes 96 rooms, each perched on stilts above a popular watering hole. You can spot African wildlife here with ease – just look out of your bedroom window any time of day.

Animals on view: Elephants, impala, zebra, hartebeest, waterbuck, Thomson’s gazelle, and lesser kudu, among others.

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Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
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The comfortable interior of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disneyworld in Orlando is inspired by Africa, and displays one of the largest African art collections in the world. But the view from the back (and from many rooms’ balconies) is the real treat here. There’s an 11-acre reserve full of contented critters gently grazing. There are little touches in each guestroom, such as handmade tapestries and Maasai shields.

Animals on view: The expanse of land here is divided into four ‘savannas,’ each of which is home to a different selection of animals (there are 30 varieties). On the Arusha Savanna, for example, there are giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, eland, and gemsbok, among others.

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Lapa Rios Eco Lodge
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The Lapa Rios Eco Lodge is situated at the tip of Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, on the outskirts of Corcovado National Park. The lodge is in a thousand-acre private rainforest reserve; walk the short distance between your bungalow and the pool, and you can encounter all kinds of wildlife, from monkeys to exotic birds. Hiking, kayaking, snorkelling, surfing, and zip-lining are readily available – as are on-site yoga classes.

Animals on view: Capuchin monkeys, three-toed sloths, scarlet macaws, and bottlenose dolphins are all common sights; howler monkeys, true to their name, can often be heard as well as seen.

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Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole
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Jackson Hole is the valley below the Teton Range – a 40-mile stretch of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. Grand Teton National Park shares its northern border with the more famous Yellowstone, and most of its prairie wilderness has remained largely unchanged for thousands of years, and is home to the wild animals of the great west. The Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole is an upscale alpine lodge that makes for a luxurious stay on the sheer edge of wilderness; you won’t quite get animals greeting you at your doorstep, but they’re never far.

Animals on view: Expect to see bison, pronghorn, elk, bald eagle and moose. Mountain lions, badgers, wolverines, grizzly bears and wolves are more elusive. Head to the nearby Snake River to see beavers and river otters.”