Safari lodges and camps across East Africa

A safari lodge is a permanent building of stone or timber, with rooms much like a hotel's. A tented camp uses canvas tents on raised platforms, usually with an en-suite bathroom, a flush toilet and a hot shower, so you hear the bush around you at night. At the top end the two are equally comfortable; the difference is how close the walls bring you to the outdoors.

A mobile camp moves during the year to stay close to the Great Migration in the Serengeti: on the southern plains around Ndutu for the calving season, and in the north near the Mara River for the river crossings. The tents are quicker to put up and take down, but most still have en-suite bathrooms.

For the Mara River crossings, usually July to October, stay in the northern Serengeti in Tanzania or in the Maasai Mara in Kenya. For the calving season, roughly December to March, stay around Ndutu and the southern Serengeti plains. The herds follow the rain, so the timing shifts a little every year.

Conservancies beside the parks, such as those around the Maasai Mara and Amboseli, limit how many vehicles can gather at a sighting and allow night drives and guided walks, which the national reserves and most national parks do not. Many lodges there also pay a lease to the local landowners.

Yes. Every property on this page can be built into a tailor-made safari. Tell us your dates, your budget and the parks you want to see, and our team in Arusha will suggest lodges that fit and check availability.