Rough Travel Africa Style…the tented camps and lodges of Serengeti

There is an expectation about African safari travel that tends to afflict the uninitiated, who picture camping in the Serengeti as a tent pitched under a spreading Acacia tree and a smoldering camp fire besides which a reflective hunter cleans his rifle.

No such thing. A tented camp in the Serengeti these days has more in common with fine dining and interior décor than rough travel. Since the days of Empire rough travel in Africa has become increasingly refined , and in an industry that is becoming increasingly competitive continent wide, this is something that Tanzania in particular does extremely well indeed.

Serengeti

The Serengeti is one of the most iconic names in African eco-travel. It is one of the most visited national parks in Africa, and one of the best preserved and most definable wilderness areas in the world. It hosts such phenomenon as the annual migration that sees millions of animals travel south along the Western Corridor from Kenya through to the plains of southern Serengeti. Despite the thousands of visitors that flock to the park annually there remains an air in the Serengeti of isolation, of infinite space and unlimited resource. It is a vast area, so much more than the signature plains, and in fact it encompasses almost every variant of African bushveld habitat from rolling hill country in the south, through the vast plains, to the arid Acacia woodland and savannah in the north.

Travel to and through the Serengeti is relatively easy. You can fly in from Arusha to the Seronera airstrip, from where a dozen or more tented camps and lodges await. You can also drive in from the south through the Ngorongoro Crater Reserve, or south from Kenya or Lake Victoria. The park is offered as part of a million itineraries, and served by hundreds of tour operators.

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Serengeti Sopa Lodge

The Sopa Serengeti Lodge has the Disneyesque feel of a theme park exhibit embellished with all the cliched accoutrements to be expected when no expense has been spared and no particular originality applied. From the outside as you approach the building appears austere and regimented, but upon arrival staff dressed in carnival apparel hurry to [...]

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Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge

By far the most lavish and ostentatious of the north Tanzanian Sopa lodges, the Sopa Ngorongoro also has something of a theme park feel about it. It is loudly and proudly poised on the eastern rim of the crater, catching the sunset as the Serena Ngorongoro catches the sunrise, and with a situation like this [...]

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Serengeti Migration Camp

‘Hidden among the rocky outcrops or kopjes of the vast, internationally renowned Serengeti plains is a camp that exudes a decadence reminiscent of old Africa.’
This is the opening preamble to the Migration Camp website, which fairly describes the attributes of this ‘camp’. Old Africa indeed! Tastefully arranged tented accommodation in an isolated setting, overlooking the [...]

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Serena Serengeti

The Serengeti lodges tend to be more hotels in the strict sense of the word than wildlife lodges. For the most part they conform to the layout and standards of any hotel anywhere, with the only distinctive factor of course being the uniquely wild setting of the Serengeti. Again the main players in this field [...]

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Serena Ngorongoro

Arguably the flagship of the Serena fleet is the Serena Ngorongoro, a property so magnificently poised that it must have without doubt one of the, if not the most spectacular view in the world.
It would hardly matter what hospitality standards were applied, since almost nothing can diffuse the majesty of this view. Naturally standards [...]

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