a team of safari lodge staff wearing red shirts and khaki pants waves goodbye 

angama mara safari goodbye

Safari Tipping Guide

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Transformative Tanzania

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First Look: Singita Milele

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Tanzania: 10 Moments We Love

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Member Postcard: An Epic Family Safari in Tanzania

Madagascar Baobabs Sunset courtesy Anjajavy Lodge.

Top Trips to Take with Dad

Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco in Montalcino, Tuscany

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Indagare’s Ultimate Bucket List Hotels: The 55 Most Luxurious Hotels in the World

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22 Best Private Island Resorts to Escape to This Year

Staff Travel

Indagare Team Travels: Where We've Been Lately, Summer to Fall 2021

Members of the Indagare team in Rwanda, 2021

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Just Back From: Safari Stories from East Africa, During Covid

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Just Back From the Four Seasons Serengeti, Tanzania

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Best Places to Hike: The Top 10 Around the World

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Into the Wild: Tanzania

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Safari in Tanzania

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Behind the Scenes with Indagare: Tanzania and the Maldives Honeymoon

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Behind the Scenes with Indagare: Tanzania

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Photo Essay: Graham Springer

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Just Back From… Two New Tanzanian Destinations

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Just Back From...Tanzania

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Seven to Know: Mount Kilimanjaro

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Foundation for Tomorrow

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Tanzania 101

Exteriors - Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, Tanzaniac

Exteriors - Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, Tanzania

Tanzania Packing List

Arusha

City

Serengeti National Park

Zanzibar

Editors' Picks

Indagare Adored

Indagare Impact

Indagare Plus

Many of our preferred safari lodges in East Africa are involved with wildlife conservation as well as community development where they support medical and educational programs as well as conservation initiatives to help change attitudes toward poaching and community development.

On a recent safari, my family and I visited a local school, clinic and village, where we were invited into a Maasai home. The school was not in session during our visit but we were able to wander around the facilities. Our children were fascinated to see that many of the teaching tools, such as maps and diagrams, were painted on the side of the building. “Before the buildings were here,” our guide said, “the classes took place under a tree.” At the clinic, we were told that the most common illness treated was diarrhea, which stunned my children, who, used to clean drinking water and easy access to medicine, couldn’t understand why you would need to go to a doctor for that. “You can die from dehydration or malnutrition if it’s not treated,” explained the guide. “In fact, it’s the biggest killer of children in Africa.” (According to the World Health Organizations, one fifth of all child deaths are attributable to diarrheal illness.)

In the Maasai boma, the settlement where Maasai keep their cattle in a wooden enclosure at night and build their mud houses, we visited a matriarch whose four sons were out with the animals. Three tiny calves greeted us at the door. Too young to go out with the herd, they huddled inside until their mothers returned. A fire burned but gave off only smoke, not light. The small space had two sets of wooden planks set one over the other like bunk beds, where the family of seven slept. We sat on the only other furniture, a small bench. Our guide translated and told us the ages of her children, their daily routine. The Maasai mother, who had a broad grin and a few missing teeth, asked where we were from and about the children’s ages. “Would you like to marry my daughter,” she asked my son. “She is 14 and needs a husband.” His reply, not surprisingly, was “No, thank you.” (But that exchange inspired lots of dinner conservation about cultural traditions like multiple wives and marrying ages.)

When we left the house, some of the young children in the village had laid out their beaded crafts and jewelry. Our kids had brought pens and notebooks and small plastic figurines to give them, and though they spoke no common language; they shared mutual amazement at each other’s toys. Of course, the swapping could have gone on for hours. By dusk, one of the young men had returned. He sharpened a stick into a spear for my son and showed him a lion’s mane. One of the tribal rituals of manhood (a feat that proves whether a young Maasai is ready for marriage) remains hunting a male lion and returning home with its mane as a trophy. Indagare members can <a href="https://www.indagare.com/contact">contact our bookings team</a> to be sure that we work such a visit into your itinerary in advance.

Aerial View-Maasai Village Visit , Tanzania

Maasai Village Visit

The Ngorongoro Crater is a large caldera, or collapsed volcano, that sits like a giant bowl on the Tanzania highlands. Considered one of the seven natural wonders of Africa, the crater has walls 2,000 feet high and a floor that covers 100 square miles. Like a gigantic natural terrarium, the Ngorongoro Crater is home to vast species of wildlife, approximately 25,000 large animals, and because many of the animals cannot scale the walls, they live within their own contained landscape. The area is known to have one of the densest populations of lions so the upside of a visit is that you are very likely to see many of the Big Five; the downside is that you will also see many other people and vehicles, which is why it is best to come early in your safari. You can cross the Big Five off of your list and head out into more secluded wilderness and enjoy the drama of what each day brings without the worry of whether or not you will go home without seeing a lion.


Exterior View at Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, Tanzania

Ngorongoro Crater Safari

Every year, two million grazing animals pass through Tanzania's Serengeti and Kenya's Maasai Mara on a migration that is considered one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on earth. Countless films, from the Oscar-winning documentary The Serengeti Shall Not Die to IMAX’s Serengeti, have celebrated and shared the parade of animals on their massive march over hundreds of miles. It’s a journey that repeats every year, and to see the endless plains swarming with herds of hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra is breathtaking.

In fact, the sound of the hundreds of hooves and the way the ground trembles with their thunderous movement may be even more impressive than the sight. Close to 1.5 million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra and 500,000 Thomson gazelle chase the wet season and prime grazing. Calving occurs between January and March when the grasses in the southern Serengeti are short so predators can be seen most easily. When the rains end in late spring, the wildebeest begin their march north from the Ndutu area toward the Grumeti River and around August cross the border with <a href="/destinations/africa/kenya">Kenya</a> into the Maasai Mara, where they stay until fall. In November and December, they head south again to the Serengeti where the cycle begins again.

Ideal Tanzania itineraries should incorporate seeing the Great Migration. Indagare members can <a href="https://www.indagare.com/contact">contact our bookings team</a> to plan a safari tailored to their interests.

Grazing Animals at The Great Migration ,  Tanzania

The Great Migration

The Serengeti, which means ‘endless plains’ in Swahili, covers an enormous plateau that lies between the Rift Valley to the east and Lake Victoria to the west. The region broadly encompasses the National Park itself, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Maswa Game Reserve, the Loliondo, Grumeti, Ikorongo Controlled Areas and the Maasai Mara National Reserve in <a href="/destinations/africa/kenya">Kenya</a>.

Established in 1951, the Serengeti National Park permanently protects close to 6,000 square miles of eternal wilderness with the highest concentration of large mammals in one of the oldest ecosystems on Earth. The famous female pilot and author Beryl Markham wrote of the Serengeti plains in 1942,“In the season of drought they are as dry and tawny as the coats of the lion that prowl them, and during the rains they provide the benison of soft grass to all the animals.”

The hunters, the hunted, the crawling and the flying all find their place in the unique plains and savannahs, while the great herds of wildebeest continue their millennia-old <a title="The Great Migration" href="/destinations/africa/tanzania/tanzania-tanzania//activities/great-migration/">Great Migration </a>for which the area is famous. Its familiarity in our consciousness is thanks, in no small part, to the work of Professor Bernhard Grzimek who, along with his son Michael, spent two years in the late 1950s documenting the migration paths of the wildebeest. The resulting film, The Serengeti Shall Not Die is arguably the most influential wildlife film ever made, winning the Best Documentary Oscar in 1959 and alerting the world to the plight of Africa’s wildlife. In the 1960s, Tanzania’s president declared that one of the country’s founding principles was safeguarding its wilderness. In 1981, the area was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Aerial View-The Serengeti , Tanzania

The Serengeti

The highest peak on the African continent draws adventurers and climbers from around the world who come to make the climb. Known as one of the most accessible high world peaks, Kilimanjaro has a summit that can be reached without any technical climbing. There are various routes to reach the crater’s rim or summit, with the easiest being the most crowded. But all offer an incredible diversity of landscape from tropical to alpine to Arctic in just a week’s trek.

Indagare members can <a href="https://www.indagare.com/contact">contact our bookings team</a> to arrange a Kilimanjaro trek that is suited to their abilities and interests.

To learn more about the experience of hiking Kilimanjaro, read <a href="https://www.indagare.com/destinations/africa/tanzania/articles/seven-to-know-mount-kilimanjaro">Seven to Know: Mount Kilimanjaro</a>.

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Mount Kilimanjaro

See & Do

Our review of Singita Faru Faru Lodge, with modern glass houses for rooms and an infinity pool over a watering hole in Tanzania's Grumeti Reserve.

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Singita Faru Faru Lodge

The Singita Sabora Tented Camp is one of those special properties that seems to effortlessly excel in every category. Situated in a secluded spot on 350,000 reserved acres of the grassy savannah plains that make up the Serengeti region of East Africa, the camp is composed of ten tented suites that are seamlessly integrated into the wilds that surround them.

From their base at the Sabora Camp, guests embark on daily morning and afternoon game drives—including sundowners and spot-lit evening returns—as well as walking safaris, mountain biking tours and community visits with local tribes. On these excursions, visitors can expect to see the safari animals they've always dreamed of: lions, leopards, cheetahs, Maasai giraffes, zebras, elephants, gazelles, bat-eared foxes, buffalo, wildebeest and Colobus monkeys. This wide variety of game-viewing opportunities is largely due to the diverse ecosystems of the Serengeti: in addition to grassy plains, there is also riverine forests and thorny scrubland. Those who visit from June to October will also witness these animals during their migration season. (For those who intend to travel throughout Tanzania with the animals, the Sabora Camp is in proximity to other favorite lodges via light aircraft.)

The property underwent an extensive renovation in 2019, reopening with a brand new modern-chic take on the glamping experience. Sabora's new interiors most closely resemble the aesthetic of its sister property, <a href="https://www.indagare.com/destinations/africa/tanzania/serengeti-national-park/hotels/singita-faru-faru-lodge">Singita Faru Faru Lodge</a>. The khaki tents at Sabora may not look special from the outside but having been jazzed up by the design wizards behind Singita, they are extraordinary within. While it is a tented experience, each accommodation comes equipped with modern amenities such as an indoor and outdoor shower, a deep soaking bathtub, and an expansive deck overlooking the plains where herds of giraffes, zebras, buffalo and impala frequent. The canvas walls allow guests to fall asleep to the distant sounds of wildlife passing by, the effect of which is most impressive during the Great Migration. Sabora’s rooms and common areas are topped off with decor like jewelry, pottery and art from local artists, giving the property a delicate sense of place that perfectly matches the understated design and color scheme.

The stunning impact of a bygone world brought back to life in such painstaking detail and yet backed up by every modern comfort takes some getting used to. To focus on the view outside from a reclining position on an antique daybed decked out with pillows and Maasai blankets or to thumb through the historic photo albums of legendary white hunters that rest on a leather-topped coffee table? To write a letter with one of the porcupine quills that sits next to an ink well on the campaign desk, to tap into the wireless internet on your laptop or to pick up a pair of antique brass binoculars and scan the horizon from a teak lounger by the pool?

Decorators from around the world should flock here for an appreciation of layered details. The tent poles are wrapped in hand-sewn leather. The bar at the main tent is adapted from an antique wicker basket from a hot-air balloon with brass and leather details still intact. The bath tent (or powder tent) by the pool has hand-blocked curtains and antique commodes refitted with modern plumbing. Hurricane lamps hung in a tree create the perfect spot for a dinner under the stars served with white linens, crystal and silver. Waiters will provide Champagne on ice and lap blankets. Of course, all of the standard Singita Grumeti activities are on offer, such as twice-daily game drives, horseback riding, a tented gym and tennis (though guests may need to share court space with zebra from time to time).

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Singita Sabora Tented Camp

Our review of Mwiba Lodge in Tanzania, where the pleasures of glamping have been taken to a whole new level with excellent service.

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Mwiba Lodge

Stay

The Dutch capital is sometimes referred to as the Venice of the north thanks to its UNESCO-protected canals and its Master painters (it was home to Rembrandt and Van Gogh). It's the kind of city where you can take in its history and soak up the scene at a canal-side café or explore its museums on foot, bike or boat.

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Amsterdam

Having maintained a stable government for more than a decade since its civil war, Mozambique is now inching back into the travel spotlight, particularly appealing to East Africa aficionados searching for the perfect beach and safari combination.

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Mozambique

Although most travelers are drawn to this land-locked African country to see the endangered mountain gorillas—and that wildlife experience is unlike any other—it is the resilient spirit of the people and the beauty of the landscapes that make so many vow to return.

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Rwanda

Great Combinations

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Samantha Griffith, member since 2011

P.I., member since 2016

Get inspired with unique insights about Tanzania from the Indagare editorial team and community.

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