Lake Naivasha Sopa Vakansieoord

Set in one hundred and fifty acres of grassland studded with acacia bushes and trees, the resort is not only home to our resident giraffe, waterbuck and both vervet and colobus monkeys, but it is also a night stop for the hippos when they leave the lake every night to come and trim the grass on our expansive lawns. With Sopa's traditional and conscientious care for the environment, we carefully positioned all the buildings on our property so we did not have to fell any of the many trees there. As a result of this, we had to come up with a radically innovative and artistic design for the main public area building which now snakes its way between the trees with long and graceful curves.

It is also why you might well ask just why our two swimming pools with a children's section and a pool complex with its bar, snack kitchen, pizzeria and health spa; our tennis court; our two conference halls with their four differently sized meeting areas, and our stables are so widely set apart.

Accommodation is offered in cottages that are built in a crescent shape, and each have four rooms, two on the ground floor and two on the top. The exterior walls of the cottages have stone walls giving it character, and creepers and bougainvillea add a lot of colour. The same stonework is carried into the rooms, and is the exterior bathroom wall. The banister going up the top floor is wrought iron as well and the same creepers and bougainvillea are entwined around them.

Our double-storey guest cottages with their ingeniously designed roofs gently sweep away from one side of the main building to form a crescent which leads towards the lake shore. While the upstairs guest rooms have a single king-size bed and the downstairs ones have two queen-size beds, both have one thing in common and that is an extraordinary amount of space as well as lavishly appointed bathrooms. All rooms have large frontal windows, televisions, mini-bars, telephones, electronic safes, tea and coffee-making facilities, and spacious, open-air verandas.

A section of the circular lounge roof gently curves away to shelter the dining room with its huge chandeliers and a large, centrally located fireplace. The dining room also has a large, outdoor patio with umbrella-shaded tables for those who wish to enjoy an open air meal during the day, or during our often warm and balmy evenings.

The swimming pool is always a favourite spot for kids because of its open-sided snack restaurant which fills them up with pizzas, burgers, hot dogs, toasted sandwiches and, of course, French fries. However we also have an a la carte menu here, and we use this area for private dinner parties.

The lounge area in the main public area building is split into upper and lower levels and the main bar is located between these. By way of a total contrast, the pool bar is located in the roofed but open sided area between the swimming pool and the tennis court.