AGAMA Grand luxury-Grumet River Lodge

Arusha Coffee Lodge

An old-fashioned island of quietude tucked away in a plantation, is a great place to unwind after the rigours of long flights.

Arusha coffee lodge 

Arusha is only 3 degrees south of the equator, but its 4,500-foot elevation encourages floral luxuriance and gentle airs. So we’ll be more or less surrounded by enthusiastic greenery as we sit on our Plantation Suite’s veranda—perhaps after a relaxing swim—looking up at massive Mount Meru, a 14,977-foot volcanic colossus that looms beneficently over this quintessentially African city.

Option Lodge Serval wildlife lodge 

One-of-a-kind African getaway that blends wildlife, luxury, and sustainability? Serval Wildlife Lodge is more than just a lodge — it's a conservation-conscious haven nestled in the heart of Tanzania. This boutique property offers an exclusive safari experience that invites guests to stay in close harmony with nature, all while enjoying world-class amenities.

Whether you're a nature enthusiast, honeymooner, family traveler, or simply seeking solitude with a view, Serval Wildlife Lodge delivers a safari stay that’s both authentic and exceptionally comfortable

How can one convey the power of Serengeti?” asked Cyril Connolly in The Evening Colonnade. “It is an immense, limitless lawn, under a marquee of sky. . . .The light is dazzling, the air delectable; kopjes rise out of the grass at far intervals, some wooded; the magic of the American prairie here blends with the other magic of the animals as they existed before man.”

The Serengeti sometimes does remind us of the American prairie, but in truth it can’t be compared with any other place on earth. Its kopje-dotted landscape, its vast and billowing skies, and especially its astounding wealth of wildlife make it one-of-a-gorgeous-kind.

Now  Flying from Arusha, we reach our base, Migration Camp, on the hippo-haven Grumeti River. Known for its superb tents (which, one traveller wrote, “have only one thing in common with normal tents: canvas”) and its dramatic setting in rocky outcrops, Migration Camp is revered for its tranquility (something of a Serengeti specialty).

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Accommodation  options

Serengeri four season lodg.

Grumeti Serengeti River Lodge

Singita Sasakwa

Singita sabora

After breakfast. Maybe we’re close to sighting the Little Five, and need just a little luck to complete the list. The identities of these mini-masterpieces: rhinoceros beetle, buffalo weaver, leopard tortoise (not so mini, really; they can weigh as much as three standard bowling balls), ant lion, and the extremely shy elephant shrew, which weighs not much more than an elephant’s tear.

We take a picturesque flight from the Serengeti to Lake Manyara,

Which our guy Ernest Hemingway thought “the loveliest lake in Africa.” The lake is a birder’s heaven, (it’s frequented by 300 migratory species), and the water from its Crater Highlands–supplied springs makes it a forested redoubt for all the most glamourous large mammals, including the famed Manyara tree-climbing lions. (It’s a little irreverent, but tree-lounging might be a better description.)

 then drive to our base for the next three nights, the lovely Cape Dutch style cottages and suites of the Manor at Ngorongoro, set mellifluously in an Arabica coffee estate next to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. 

And then next day we’ll wend our scenic way up from the Manor to the rim of one of earth’s wonders, the great, green, animal-nurturing caldera of a once catastrophically cranky, now beneficently mellow volcano, the Ngorongoro.

We’re at Vail and Aspen altitudes of well over 7,000 feet, and being up that high, figuratively and actually, we may recall Isak Dinesen’s words in Out of Africa, “The air of the African highlands went to my head like wine, I was all the time slightly drunk with it.” And then we zoom down to the Lost World’s lush and park-like floor (but which, make no mistake, is an animal, not a human, kingdom) for a day’s game viewing and a festive bush picnic.

Accommodations 

.Manor at Ngorongoro

Accommodation options

.Ngorongoro melia 

After breakfast We’ll drive down to the crater floor for an extraordinarily rewarding full day game drive, exploring the caldera’s 100 square miles, spotting lions, elephants, black rhinos, just about all of East Africa’s faunal celebrities, and return to the lodge for quiet, view-besotted sundowners on our cabin’s private terraces, followed by a lovely dinner overlooking one of the world’s most magical places.