Luxury Tanzania Safari Review: Migunga Tented Camp, Serengeti North Wild Camp, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater

We visited three parks/areas starting with the smaller park Lake Manyara (less than one full day) then on to Ngorungoru Crater (1 full day, I would not recommend less), then on to the Serengeti National Park (stayed 4 nights).  We did this as 3 nights lodging and 4 nights "luxury tent".  We did much of our own research on the accommodations to check that it would fit our style, but also listened to our planner to ensure we did not end up somewhere that had no animals/action.  Luckily neither of us got sick, but if either had, we could have very comfortably survived the time at any of the accommodations we stayed.  The food at all places was phenomenal, especially the hearty soups every night with fresh bread at dinner.  Boxed lunches are what you would expect, not terrible, not great.  We decided one day in the middle to go back to camp for lunch and that meal was also fantastic!  Otherwise, we ate the boxed lunches every day and spent as much time as possible on the road looking for the animals.

One thing I would recommend is to drive instead of take the short jumper flight from the Crater to Serengeti area.  Our planner had said it is doable, and we initially chose it for the sake of not losing our private driver and having to suddenly join other people in their vehicle.  This was worth it for that reason (just two in a truck was ideal for maneuverability of taking pictures and seeing what was going on) as well as for the extra time sightseeing.  There was a portion of the way that did not have too many animals, but the scenery was beautiful the whole way and much of it did have animals here and there.  We took the short flight from Seregengeti back to Arusha at the end and once was enough!  Our pilot was great, but those planes are tiny and if you are tall (my husband is 6'4") it is like being a sardine in a can. 

Regarding the parks we visited, our favorite was Serengeti.  Standing up while 4WDing and searching for animals out the top of the safari truck was awesome!  Ngorungoru Crater took second place because it gave the opportunity to see the Big 5 and just get that out of the way to relieve pressure about what we had not yet seen, so when we ALMOST saw the Big 5 a second time in Serengeti it was a bonus.  We did not catch sight of the rhino in Serengeti, but did see a Serval cat.  And rhinos even in Ngorungoru were barely distinguishable even with binoculars, but still counts! ;-) 

When reflecting on the highlights of the animal experiences, my thought is "all of them" were highlights.  There were so many great things and surprises, from animal interactions with other animals to sounds things made that you have never heard to just seeing so many of one type of animal in one place.  One of the cooler things we saw was a "mini river crossing", it was not THE crossing but there were lots of opportunities at smaller river crossings and our guide noticed the animals positioning to cross and we saw the whole thing unfold, right down to several zebra & gnu changing direction to abandon it and 5 hunting lionesses running in to ambush it (I was so happy to see nobody get caught.  ha ha, apparently I am in the minority of safari goers to NOT want to see that part of the nature played out in front of me). 

In general, I was amazed at the number of different lions we saw in the Serengeti over four days, easily 100+, more often active (setting up ambush, feeding on a kill that we did not see happen, etc) than not.  Many people said all the lions they saw were always just laying around in cat piles.  I credit our guide a lot, combined with luck for the right timing.  Apparently you could do walking tours as well as horse back, both of which sound really intriguing, but I would say do a couple of days by car first and see if you really think you have the guts to walk or ride a horse after you see lions and cheetahs stalking through tall grass and leopards jumping down from trees.  Glad we did not find out about that option before we booked the trip because we may have made a mistake of trying one, which I had no desire to do once we got there.  Don't get me wrong, I did not feel scared at all of the animals while there, but you have to respect their space and don't be stupid.