Ngorongoro Tented Camp: crater safaris and Maasai culture

Experience Maasai culture just minutes from Ngorongoro Crater at our luxury tented camp. Surrounded by acacia trees, it lies just 15 minutes east of the famous, wildlife-filled crater floor. We’re usually the first ones down there at 6.30am, so you get unspoilt views of the landscape and animals, from prides of lions to leopards emerging onto the crater rim, elephants and herds of wildebeest. What guests most want to see though is rhinos and this is the one of the best places to spot these endangered animals in Tanzania.

There’s also an enormous amount of wildlife around camp because we’re so close to the crater. Our nine canvas tents are solar-powered and have been designed to blend into the environment, causing minimal impact on nature. This means that animals wander through all the time – we’re visited by wildebeest and elephants almost daily. Often, you’ll be sitting around the firepit having sundowners and a zebra will appear. All of our tents have en-suite bathrooms and we kit them out with gas heaters and hot water bottles, as nights near the crater can get chilly.

You can spend evenings in our mess tent, which has a lounge and restaurant decorated with wooden furniture, cosy rugs and sofas. Have a drink at the bar and then gather around the campfire to chat with the guides. Guests love the close proximity to the crater and often spend all day on a game drive, exploring the crater floor’s forests, plains and lakes. Often, we’ll have a bush lunch in a private picnic site with a full-on BBQ set up, accompanied by views of the swamp with hippos wallowing and monkeys and birds in the nearby acacia trees.

A special feature at Ngorongoro Tented Camp is our connection with the local Maasai community – the chief’s son is even the assistant manager of the camp. Often, we’ll hold traditional African evenings where members of the Maasai community will come in and talk about their culture, perform traditional songs and dance around the fire and lead a BBQ feast where you eat with your hands. Guests love this experience and find it one of their most memorable in Tanzania.