Accommodations in - Ngorongoro | Lake Manyara | Tarangire

Accommodations in Serengeti National Park

 
Grumeti is a fabulous Conservation Corporation Camp with all aspects crafted in wood, stone, canvas and steel for the situation. The vast double tents were specially designed to create a light and airy atmosphere, and are each completed with wooden floorboards, dinky wooden bathrooms and wide, hand built beds. Each is set in private surroundings in the bush, and yet just a short walk along pathways lit with open flames to the dining room.

Kleins is situated high on the Kuka Hills in a private concession just beyond the boundaries of the Serengeti, commanding superb views back over it and the plains extending up to Kenya. The further joy of its situation means that Kleins is not beholden to the rules of the park, and thus the maximum of 16 guests at the camp can enjoy night drives and safaris in open-sided vehicles, and also walk in surrounding bush. A standing tradition encourages all guests to climb the small hill behind the camp each evening, and enjoy immaculately prepared sun-downers from the top, although the views from the central dining and bar area are equally impressive


Serena
This is a fantastically designed hotel, all constructed in an East African inspired design from local rock and wood. Makonde carvers have shaped and polished and carved seemingly every door handle and rail, and rooms are wonderfully shaped into unusual but superbly comfortable ‘pixie’ houses that seem to be shaped like mushrooms. These feel very private, with just three extremely spacious and comfortable rooms in each, and most have good, uninterrupted views across the surrounding Serengeti Plains.

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Sopa
This is an older hotel, dating from the late 70s, with all rooms designed to enjoy these excellent views, spreading out in a double-storey spread to either side of the central communal areas. These are decorated in an intriguingly charismatic style, with an impressive rocky water feature at the centre of the reception area, and at least one extraordinarily tall wooden crafted giraffe to greet guests in the dining room.


Kirawira Camp
Kirawira is an extraordinarily fine permanent tented camp, elegantly furnished throughout with Victorian antiques (or reproductions!), including studded leather folding wardrobes and polished brass taps and trimmings. The lavishly tented dining area is laid out across dark polished teak floorboards, all covered with rich woven rugs and surrounded by fine writing desks and 1920s safari memorabilia, and its hilltop position gives fabulous views across mile upon mile of the Serengeti bush all around


Migration Camp
This charismatic permanent tented camp is set in absolute isolation among wide flat rocks and spreading acacia, above a northern branch of the Grumeti River, and footprints in the mud in front of the tents indicate the nightly grass-mowing activities of local hippopotami. This old wooden-stilted camp has recently been taken over and upgraded by the Halcyon Hotel Group, who have refurbished the accommodation with chunky wooden furniture and wrought iron fittings, and built an elegant outdoor spa bath surrounded by wooden decking.

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Ndutu
This low-key lodge is quietly situated on the warmer banks of Lake Ndutu, and offers a small and charismatic choice for slightly more basic but nonetheless good quality accommodation. It is also excellently placed in the middle of the path of the Great Migration, which surrounds the nearby plains in November and June.
Its small, thatched stone rooms are designed in a fairly utilitarian block style, but are well placed in a wild, ground level location with wildlife potentially close at hand and the chance to sit back and enjoy great, silent, uninterrupted sunsets


Nomad Tented Camp
The Serengeti Safari Camp is a fully mobile safari camp accommodating a maximum of 8 guests which moves across the vast Serengeti as it shadows the wildebeest migration. The camp is sited in an area that has the greatest concentration of game or good access to that game at the time of the safari with every possible comfort in the depths of the African bush. The flexibility of this camp gives guests the best possible opportunities for gameviewing probably in Africa as a whole. Guests have the freedom of their own private vehicle with the services of a top professional Tanzanian guide.

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Accommodations at Ngorongoro Crater and surrounding area

Ngorongoro Crater Lodge
One of the most romantic options, with an inspirational and stylish design. The lodge is divided into three distinct 'camps', to ensure the utmost in personal service; retire to your own sitting room for cocktails among the branches of an ancient baobab, bathe with awesome views and dine under the stars - by the light of flaming braziers.

Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge
a lavishly decorated but older establishment on the Eastern aspect of the Crater. The Sopa has a more unusual stylistic expression that apparently dates from the late eighties, but remains evidently nostalgic to the previous decade. The lodge is based around an impressive glass-fronted central atrium overlooking the swimming pool.

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Ngorongoro Serena Lodge
An impressive rocky bastion against the cool highland mists and excellent cosy rooms with full sliding-glass panels between bed and the open jaw of the crater. Rooms are laid out in two levels in long lines along the crater rim, making it feel much bigger than the other Tanzanian Serena properties, but the whole is well decorated with hand-painted ‘cave’-style illustrations and styled throughout to create a good atmosphere.


Gibbs Farm
Gibb’s Farm is a remarkable hideaway between National Parks and conservation areas, a surprisingly English country garden tucked high on a wide African hillside between fields of maize, beans and coffee. A series of bungalow rooms under trailing flower laden eaves set around the old colonial farmhouse. The surrounding gardens continue to remain in a pristine condition.

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Accommodations at Lake Manyara and surrounding area


Kirurumu Tented Lodge
is the only owner-run safari camp and the most atmospheric, with permanent tented rooms built onto a stilted wooden base all designed to give each a private bush enclosure with its own undisturbed view. The open-sided dining room and naturally sanded wood and rock-enclosed bar also make the most of the location, and food and service are excellent. Meals rely heavily on fresh fruit and produce, and vegetables and herbs from their own organic garden, and are greatly enhanced by a selection of fine wines from the bar.

Serena
The Lake Manyara Serena is constructed to an intriguing design with barely a straight line to be seen, so that the whole rather resembles a rambling trogladite village all centred around a wonderful drop-off pool and bar. The views from this central point are clear and far-reaching, and a large fixed telescope to play with, almost rivals Ngorongoro for the sundowner safari experience. Rooms are individual and provide all amenities expected of the Serena standards, including immaculate decoration and reliably delicious restaurant repast


Lake Manyara Tree Camp
Conservation Corporation tented camp, and with tents appropriately vast and impressively decorated to suit the Cons. Corp. style. The camp is intended to allude to the Arabian influences in East Africa, with banana palm thatched huts, artisan beds and fine decoration throughout.

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Accommodations at Tarangire and surrounding area

Tarangire Sopa Lodge
has been recently refurbished and achieved a certain freshness of style, with new sliding glass doors and fresh paint bringing a certain glamorous appeal to the heart of the sunbronzed bush. The makuti-style thatched roof over the reception and dining room is quite awe-inspiringly high and great, and creates a sense of safari grandeur. The Sopa is well positioned at the centre of Tarangire, with excellent safari opportunities in every direction


Tamerind tented lodge
A Luxury Tented Camping in the bush just beyond the actual boundaries of the park approached though fertile fields farmed by surrounding villagers, and sits snug in a clearing surrounded by dense bush. Each tent has its own shower and loo, and comfortable, sturdy wooden beds beneath the ample canvas awning. All tents face onto a centralised ‘bar’ tent, and the impressive dining tent containing a long communal table that is sumptuously arrayed each night with remarkable culinary delights prepared by the camp chefs.

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Olivers Camp
is a small tented camp just outside the boundaries of the park, in its own wilderness. It is a tough drive home, being situated way down in the western reaches, but has an authentic hard-nosed real bush appeal. The entire camp is tented, with a dining tent, laundry tent, kitchen tent, etc, with each spread out among the rocks and trees. As such the camp does not have much of a central focus, and is perhaps better suited to the determinedly anti-social. Vast and ancient boulders nearby provide a good vantage point for sunset watchers, and attract admirably agile rock climbing klipspringer antelope, which are impressively small and quick.


Tarangire Treetops
is an exciting new safari camp in the Tarangire Conservation Area, providing superbly unusual accommodation in comfortable, wooden-thatched treehouses around ancient old Baobab and Mopani trees. The central dining area provides a comfortable and sociable centre to gather after safaris and before disappearing off into your tree, and a selection of cultural and wildlife reference books are available for perusal in the thatched open-air library. Special interest groups can arrange for cultural and environmental specialists to come and give talks.

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