Where to stay on safari in Tanzania: Here's a secret: where you sleep decides what you see before breakfast.
This isn't a booking list. It's a guide to the areas we'd put you in and the kinds of places you can stay in each one: what the location gives you, what it costs you, and who it suits. Your shortlist of named camps comes with your itinerary. Why wait? Because availability decides it, and we'd rather get it right than get it early.
8 places to stay
Central Serengeti — classic tented camps
Serengeti
The central Serengeti is the year-round answer. Seronera has resident lion, leopard and cheetah whether the migration is nearby or not, so…
Northern Serengeti — mobile camps
Serengeti
Coming for a river crossing? Then this is the only accommodation decision that really matters. A camp near Kogatende puts you twenty…
Ngorongoro crater rim — lodges
Ngorongoro
What does the rim's higher price get you? One thing: being on the crater floor as the gate opens, ahead of the…
Karatu — farm lodges below the rim
Ngorongoro
This is the smart-value choice, and it's not a compromise. Karatu is farm country an hour below the rim: warmer, greener, and…
Tarangire — camps above the river
Tarangire
In the dry season, the Tarangire river is the only water for miles, and the elephants come to it. Stay at a…
Lake Manyara — escarpment lodges
Lake Manyara
Manyara is a half-day park, not a two-day one, so honestly, a night here works best as a first stop. It's a…
Ruaha — small riverside camps
Ruaha
Ruaha is what people mean when they say they want somewhere with nobody else around. The camps are small, you fly in…
Nyerere — camps on the Rufiji
Nyerere
The Rufiji is the reason to come south. Here you can go on safari by boat, which changes the whole feel of…