Accommodation

Three tiers, one journey.

There are different levels and types of accommodation styles in the bush or during your stays on safari. We have grouped them into 3 main levels and some are unique, adventurous, stylish, luxurious, lavish, opulent and all with accommodative services you may need at such a level in the African wildernesses. Each level reflects your interest and budget, and a combination of different levels makes your safari even more exciting and adventurous but with respect for the client's personal interests.

A tented suite beneath a giant baobab at Swala Camp, Tarangire

01Tier one of three

Canvas.

Under Canvas Camps

These camps are built with canvas walls that separate you from big games and bring you close to nature where you can hear lions roar or laughing hyenas at night. Most of these camps are semi-permanent/few are permanent and relatively small camps with a max of 12 suite tents including two family suite tents that are two tents interconnected together. They do have bathrooms or roof-open bucket showers and flushing toilets inside the canvas tents with a couch/sofa/chair inside or outside on the verandas for nature view during breaks, also equipped with cupboards, tables and electricity generator or solar powered during your stay. They serve fresh meals a day with drinks but some with limited choices or services like wifi, swimming pool, hair dryer or washing machine but rather hand wash, but they are so adventurous.

In this tier: 10 camps
Where: Serengeti 8, Tarangire 2
Book by: Four to six months out

Start with Mbuzi Mawe among the kopjes, or N. Serengeti Under Canvas if you are chasing the crossings.

All ten camps

An Edwardian tented suite at Kirawira in the Western Corridor — Kirawira Tented Lodge, Western Corridor

02Tier two of three

Honest.

Boutique Camps & Lodges

These are permanent camps/lodges and more advanced, offering more services and resources. They accommodate relatively big groups as they contain between 30-40 standard rooms. They provide a variety of services and resources including swimming pool, wifi, laundry machine, curio shops, hair dryer, massage, electricity 24 hours, safe boxes and more meals and drink choices.

In this tier: 21 lodges
Where: Serengeti 11, Ngorongoro 6, Tarangire 2, Manyara 2
Book by: Four to six months out

Start with Kirawira, or Ngorongoro Farm House for the coffee-farm version a few kilometres from the crater gate.

All twenty-one lodges

An infinity pool over the waterhole at Four Seasons Lodge, Central Serengeti — Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, crater rim

03Tier three of three

Ultra.

Ultra-Luxury Lodges

People who are looking for lavish and opulent stays while on safari in deep Africa wildernesses, here you are. They are 5-star luxurious lodges or hotels that provide executive high-end services to presidential services in the African middle of nowhere. They provide international standards and luxurious services while enjoying, a few meters away, surrounded by big games of Africa like elephants, hippos, lions or buffaloes. They are more equipped than all other two previous levels, and their styles are magical including medical assistance just in case.

In this tier: 16 addresses
Where: Serengeti 8, Ngorongoro 4, Tarangire 3, Arusha 1
Book by: Up to fourteen months for peak season

Start with Four Seasons Lodge, Grumeti River Lodge, or Singita Grumeti on the private reserve.

All sixteen addresses

What scales up across the tiers

The wildlife is the same wildlife.

A leopard on a private concession in Loliondo is the same leopard you would watch from a tented camp on the public side. What changes between the tiers is everything around the wildlife: how much of the land is yours, how the meal arrives, how many people share the road to the sighting.

Privacy

At the canvas and boutique tiers, you share the road. Other vehicles, other guests, other guides calling each other in to the sighting. At Ultra-Luxury you move onto private concessions where only your lodge’s guests can game-drive. The leopard is the same leopard. The road is yours.

Staff ratio

A typical canvas camp runs one staff member per two guests. A boutique lodge is closer to one-to-one. Ultra-Luxury properties run four staff to every guest, and often higher. You feel this in the rhythm of the day: how quickly tea arrives, how invisibly your room turns over, how named your butler is.

Lead time

Canvas and boutique camps can usually be booked four to six months out. Ultra-Luxury needs nine to twelve months for peak season, and can want fourteen. If your trip is for July and it is March, the top tier is likely full, and we will say so before you put money down.

What stays the same

The same drivers and guides work across the tiers. The same parks. The same migration. The same chance of seeing what you came to see. We have moved repeat clients down a tier when they realised the wildlife was the part they loved; we have moved them up when the polish was. Both choices are right when they fit the traveller.

Our Arusha team in the field, Northern Tanzania

How we choose for you

We will not sell you up. Listening comes first.

Most operators have a financial reason to put you in the highest tier you can afford. We do not. Our team in Arusha runs the same number of trips at the canvas tier as at the ultra-luxury tier. The right fit beats the most expensive option, every time.

When you reach out, we ask: who is travelling, what does the wildlife matter compared to the polish, how many days, what month. We answer the same day. We send a draft itinerary with the tier we think is right and the reasons. If our read is wrong, you say so, and we redraft.

Our Arusha team

Tell us who is travelling. We will find the right tier for the trip.

Plan Your Safari