Ngorongoro Crater Lodge

Rates from USD 400 per person per night fully inclusive

Address Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, Ngorongoro Crater, Northern Tanzania, Tanzania
Telephone Bookings : UK Reservations 0845 227 0141
Rooms: 30 suites in three camps
Website http://www.tanzaniaodyssey.com/lodges_info/ngorongoro-crater-lodge.htm?fr=s

Recommended by Brian Jackman, AA Gill; Conde Nast Gold List 2005; Taschen
Hotlists: Hotels For Funk and Fantasy, Hotels for Funk and Fantasy
Awards: 1 ) UK Condé Nast Traveller voted Ngorongoro Crater Lodge - Favorite Overseas Leisure Hotel : Middle East, Africa & Indian Ocean Islands & 2nd Best Hotel in the World in the 2005 Readers Travel Award 2 ) CC Africa triumphs in Travel + Leisure's 2005

Press quotes

“The largest unbroken volcano crater in the world is the dramatic setting for Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, on the edge of the Serengeti. The lodge has 30 circular suites, inspired by Masai huts, but with decks, silk curtains and beaded chandeliers – a luxurious base from which to explore.” The Independent 07

The Hotel Writes

Three million years ago, Ngorongoro, one of the highest peaks in Africa, towered alongside Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania. Today, Ngorongoro remains a place of drama and beauty - the most remarkable wildlife haven on our planet. High on the south-western rim stands Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, commanding views of this natural wonder that often moves onlookers to reverential awe."

Crater lodge consists of three adjacent, glamorous camps with 30 Maasai-inspired suites perched on stilts on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. From the outside, this unobtrusive lodge resembles a magical Maasai village, and was described by travel magazine, Discover Africa, as "Versailles meets Maasai in the game lodge at the edge of the world". Set in classic crescents, each stone and thatch suite has spectacular views of the crater from large glass windows in the bathroom, lounge and bedroom, yet is almost invisible from the crater floor.

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Gemma Pitcher's Review of Ngorongoro Crater Lodge

Often described, inaccurately, as the ‘Maasai Versailles’, Ngorongoro Crater Lodge is that rare thing - a truly original hotel. ‘Maasai Versailles’ isn’t quite right as a description, firstly because the simple mud huts of the exterior are nothing like Maasai dwellings, but in fact owe more in inspiration to the houses or fortresses of West Africa. Tall mud-brick chimneys and abstract wall designs apart, the relative simplicity of the lodge’s exterior structures gives little hint of its flamboyant interior.

The keynote at Crater Lodge is drama - from the impossibly grand, firelit dining areas to the enormous, velvet-draped beds, the lodge responds to the volcanic moods of the Ngorongoro Crater itself, a vast amphitheatre in view from every window and breathtaking in its constantly changing patterns of light and shade, burning sunlight and boiling cloud. Anywhere else in Africa, a hotel this extravagant would seem out of place, even tasteless, but perched as it is on the lip of one of the most dramatic natural wonders of the world, such a fantastical structure seems entirely appropriate. Where else in the world can you have an aromatherapy massage in front of a roaring fire while gazing down into a volcanic crater, one of the earth’s most breathtaking natural spectacles?

Romance is the other major factor at Crater Lodge - the bedrooms are enormous, baroque, almost camp in their homage to the passionate traditions of the Paris Opera - silk-upholstered footstools, claw-footed bathtubs scattered with rose petals, taffeta curtains and gilt-framed mirrors. In the corner of each room, leather armchairs are drawn up in front of a cosy earthenware fireplace, a decanter of sherry at the ready for the chilly highland evening.

At glass-fronted Tree Camp, a private, a more secluded collection of just six bedrooms hidden from the rest of the Lodge by lush vegetation, the crater seems closer and more immediate, the mists that cover the rim in the mornings melting away by lunchtime to reveal the shadows of clouds chasing each other across the vast green expanse of the caldera floor. Inside, an enormous baobab grows up through the floor of the dining room, incorporated into design that fuses the modernity of plate glass with the timeless textures of bark and wood.

Area airport information

Airport Name: Kilimanjaro Airport

3-Letter Code: JRO

Distance from Airport to Hotel: 2 hrs 30 min