Ngorongoro Crater Lodge

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Consistently voted 1 of the 10 best hotels on the planet, Ngorongoro Crater Lodge blends local Maasai architecture with unparalleled opulence and grandeur providing guests with a unique safari experience while perched on the rim of an inactive volcano.

The lodge is divided into three camps: North, South, and Tree each with ten suites a piece. Guests enjoy lavish luxury from their own stilted, hand-crafted, banana-thatched suite with their own private balcony. Antiques, beaded chandeliers, Persian rugs, and brocade sofas take these rooms beyond the safari camp norm to the level of a French chateau in the wilds of Africa. Floor to ceiling windows showcase stunning views of the surrounding area and within the crater itself. Guests can soak in decadent luxury in a giant bathtub lit by a hand-beaded chandelier. Adjoining suites are available for families. Each camp has its own dining and sitting areas waited on by a private butler.

South-east of the Serengeti in Northern Tanzania, the lodge rests upon the rim of Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest, inactive, and completely intact caldera. Dense forests fed by the fertile volcanic earth provide a home for over 25,000 resident mammal from predators to prey. Here guests can spy large herds of wildebeest, buffalo, zebras, and Thomson’s gazelles as well as their predators the cheetahs, jackals, lions, and hyenas. The forest, marshes, and highland meadows are also a favorite of the elephants.

The lodge takes advantage of its beautiful and diverse ecological playground and provides a range of activities. Guests can participate in either a late afternoon crater view hike or full-day Empakai Crater hike to a bird walker’s paradise. Since game drives take a while to reach the crater floor, the lodge offers a morning or afternoon drive. Pink flamingo flock to the shallow Lake Magadi and hippos play in the nearby swamp on the crater floor. The lodge offers an exciting cultural experience to spend the day with the Hadzabe Bushmen and learn about their life and hunter-gather skills. In addition, tours to Olduvai Gorge, known as the cradle of mankind due to the discovery of the oldest homo-sapien remains by Mary Leakey may be booked as well as tours to the nearby Shifting Sands of volcanic ash dunes. For those wishing to stay nearer the lodge, champagne tasting and African drum performances are available with advanced notice.

Dine like kings and queens in the deep red décor of the domed dining room lit by opulent chandeliers and the glow of the setting sun from the floor to ceiling windows. An all-inclusive resort, the rates include three meals, soft drinks, house wines, and local beers and spirits with additional beverages for purchase.

Like its sister &Beyond properties, Ngorongoro strives to protect and promote its local community by supporting ventures like planting over 30,000 local trees to working with the local Maasai community on education and conservation projects. So, while guests relish the opulence and luxury of a five-star hotel, they are funding conservation projects that will help sustain the surrounding natural wonder and resident wildlife.