REVIEW: PORT LYMPNE RESERVE TREEHOUSE HOTEL
The Height of Luxury Among Rhinos at UK’s Top Safari Experience
We get a wild taste of the high life, staying at a luxury treehouse overlooking 26 glorious miles of green, savannah-like scenery, with two rhinos barrelling around beneath us, like oversized puppies.
It’s difficult to believe we’re not on an exotic, Kenyan safari and are in fact, just 90 minutes from London at Port Lympne Hotel and Reserve in Kent.
This extraordinary park is set within 600 acres of English countryside, which is home to more than 900 animals and over 75 species, and its prime purpose is to help The Aspinall Foundation’s successful efforts to save and repopulate endangered species.
On arrival, we check in at its grand, Grade II listed mansion, which was built for Sir Philip Sassoon and has welcomed everybody from Winston Churchill to Charlie Chaplin.
The Cape Dutch style mansion sits within 15 acres of immaculate, landscaped gardens, complete with hippo water features. Inside, we discover a gloriously eccentric and opulent warren of spaces, with hand-painted murals of dramatic wildlife scenes and a made-for-Instagram pink, flower-festooned Moroccan Courtyard.
Then we head to the bush-style lodge, where khaki-clad staff give us the keys to our golf buggy - if we think our kids’ excitement (and let’s be honest, our own) can't get any higher, the buggy raises it several notches. All Treehouse guests have their own buggy to explore the park, which is particularly magical in the evening, when you have it and the animals to yourselves.
We drive past primates, wolves and rhinos, through a grand security gate into the Treehouse Hotel area. Voted “Best Tourism Experience” by Tourism South East, these ten, glass-fronted apartments sit within the trees at the top of steps, which snake through the jungly scenery, above the rhino enclosure.
It already feels like an adventure as we make our way to the top, where we arrive on our wrap-around balcony and get the first, jaw-dropping sight of our view across the grassy plains, to the English Channel and beyond.
Inside, we find a sleek, fully equipped kitchen in an open plan lounge-diner, with floor-to-ceiling, panoramic windows and doors to the terrace. Through sliding, Japanese-style glass doors, there are two elegant bedrooms (a double and twin) and spacious bathroom.
Tara Bernerd is behind the interior, so its sophisticated aesthetic reflects its setting, with olive greens, crisp whites and earthy tones. There are Scandi-style lounge chairs, earthy concrete lampshades and tawny fabric wallpaper. Naturally, all the luxury touch points are here - the fluffy white dressing gowns and slippers (which my three-year-old immediately dons) Nespresso machine, and luxury (sustainable) Bamford toiletries.
This is just one of the many extraordinary accommodation options, which also includes the Lion Lodge - bathing in luxury with a lion’s nose pressed against the window - Rhino Lodge, Bear Lodge, Giraffe Lodge, Wolf Lodge, Hog Deer Creek, Leopard Creek and an assortment of futuristic bubbles, forest hideaways and glamping experiences.
Eventually, we drag ourselves away and head to the Treehouse Clubhouse (above), with internal and external fire pits, where we enjoy our welcome Proseccos, while our children are given bags of marshmallows to toast on the firepit outside, under the watchful eyes of the rhinos. It is pure magic.
We jump back into the buggy and zip off for dinner, while the children squeal at the pleasingly bumpy ride and wave at the wolves, slumbering together like cuddly huskies.
Dinner is in the beautifully restored Garden Room, originally the stable yard of Sir Philip Sassoon's country estate. True to the name, its black or exposed brick walls are festooned with leafy foliage, while its glass roof is studded with oversized chandeliers.
It’s opulent, but cosy and welcoming and our children happily plonk themselves among the perfectly chopped, tapestry cushions.
All of the food is sustainably sourced from artisinal suppliers, with produce picked from the Po