Natural Habitat Adventures | African Safaris | Ultimate East Africa Safari

Hotel No. 5

Location
Entebbe, Uganda

Hotel No. 5 is a stylish boutique hotel tucked away in Entebbe’s leafy suburbs, just 10 minutes from the international airport. Its luxurious accommodations on Lake Victoria provide a peaceful escape from the urban buzz. Ten airy rooms open onto a lush lawn, palm-studded garden and shaded swimming pool. Plush beds feature mosquito-net canopies, and oversized upholstered furnishings, including armchairs, add to a cozy and contemporary atmosphere. Each room also has a writing desk. In these calm, earth-toned environs, polished floors are complemented by soft rugs, and a full wall of windows illuminates the space. Each room has air conditioning, en suite bathroom, Wi-Fi, flat screen TV, a safe, and tea- and coffee-making facilities The hotel offers spa treatments and a gym, and the restaurant features a gourmet menu paired with an international wine list.

Buhoma Lodge

Location
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

This inspiring ecolodge provides an ideal location for gorilla treks into Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, since trails into the forest leave directly from the grounds. Eight large cottages are built of local natural materials including sustainably sourced stone and wood, with decor in earthy, muted colors. Each has a private veranda offering expansive views of the virgin rain forest. Comfortable beds welcome you after a long day of gorilla trekking, and each cottage has en suite facilities with flush toilets, hot-water rain showers, locally produced natural bathroom amenities and a secure safe. The lodge's water supply is gravity-fed, and solar power provides electricity and lighting. Each morning, hot beverages are delivered to your cottage, allowing you to wake gently and savor the early morning sounds of the forest. The central lodge comprises an elevated lounge and bar serving local and imported beverages, and dining facilities offering both international and locally flavored cuisine prepared using fresh local ingredients whenever possible. Terrace dining under the night sky is an appealing option. Fireplaces add warmth and atmosphere to cool evenings, providing a cozy environment in which to discuss the day’s adventures. Free Wi-Fi and recharging facilities are available in the bar. Following a long day of gorilla tracking, guests can enjoy a complimentary massage in the spa treatment room by a trained in-house masseuse. The lodge also offers complimentary laundry service and hiking-boot cleaning.

House of Waine

Location
Nairobi, Kenya

The House of Waine, located in the quiet residential suburb of Karen on the outskirts of Nairobi, offers an appealing alternative to standardized city hotels. Set on 2.5 beautifully manicured acres, it was originally built as a lavish private estate. Later acquired by a local family, the elegant property was carefully refurbished, resulting in the distinctive boutique hotel that exists today. The stately home offers guests an authentic experience of personalized African hospitality with uniquely designed rooms, modern amenities and traditional Kenyan charm.

The inn's 11 bedrooms are individually styled and named, each furnished to reflect a distinct theme. Complimentary pastries and fresh-ground coffee are delivered to your room daily. Luxurious en suite marble bathrooms feature large windows and natural light. All rooms have mini bar and Internet access. The House of Waine’s dining menus reflect Nairobi’s many local flavors. Meals are served in multiple locations including the dining room, terrace, garden, lounge and pool pavilion, offering memorable dining experiences amid the verdant lawns and gardens. Guests can also relax on the spacious patio and enjoy drinks poolside. The House of Waine is an easy 30-minute transfer from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and 20 minutes from Nairobi's domestic Wilson Airport.

Nat Hab's Rhino Camp–Ol Pejeta

Location
Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya

Nat Hab's private Rhino Camp offers exclusive access for viewing endangered rhinos and other rare wildlife on the renowned Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Because our camp is mobile, we're able to situate ourselves in secluded areas on the 90,000-acre reserve where wildlife viewing is best. Located on the Laikipia Plateau, this working cattle ranch established in the 1940s set land aside in 1988 to protect rhinos and has since become a global conservation leader. Today it is the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa and home to the world’s last two remaining northern white rhinos, as well as endangered Grevy's zebra and some of Kenya's highest predator densities.

In a context of rustic luxury, Rhino Camp provides our guests thrilling wildlife encounters and intimate moments in nature you simply can’t get at a standard safari lodge. Imagine sleeping under canvas beneath the Milky Way, so thick with stars that it looks like clouds, listening to the roar of a distant lion. Yet while our tented camp may evoke the ambience of a vintage safari era, you won't sacrifice modern-day comforts. Each spacious tent has a full bed with deluxe bedding; a bedside table and floor rugs; an attached en suite bathroom with wash basin, toilet and safari-style shower; and a covered veranda for private relaxing. Imagine Ernest Hemingway or Teddy Roosevelt (though we surely do not hunt) perched on the porch of their own private tents, scanning the savanna for game, and you’ll picture what it's like to stay in our mobile camp—albeit with more amenities! A crew of experienced camp hosts is on hand to provide for your every need, whether it's a hot bucket shower on demand or a hearty meal artfully prepared over the campfire.

Nat Hab's Rhino Camp is the ideal base from which to explore this diverse wildlife haven that contains many of Kenya's endemic northern species. We'll hope to see the legendary Big Five and more on day and night safari drives and guided walks set against the backdrop of snowcapped Mount Kenya. At the end of each exhilarating foray into the bush, return to the comforts of our tented camp, redolent with the ambience of East Africa's classic safari era.

Nat Hab’s Mara East Camp—Private Mara Conservancy

Our luxury mobile tented camp is the perfect base for wilderness family adventures. Situated in a remote location on a private conservancy in the Maasai Mara adjacent to the national reserve, it offers outstanding proximity to prime wildlife viewing without the crowds. Each tent has a shaded veranda with table and comfortable chairs. Inside the heavy-duty canvas walls you'll find shelves, luggage racks and hanging caddies for your personal items. At night, sink into cotton linens, duvets and blankets to ward off the chill, with the added comfort of a hot water bottle provided each evening. En suite bathrooms have flush toilet, sink, warm water dispenser and safari-style hot showers. Solar-powered lighting is available around the clock in each tent, with charging facilities for all your electronic needs in the main lounge. After sunset, camp paths are illuminated by kerosene lanterns. Fine meals are served in the dining tent or outdoors under the shade of an acacia tree. A separate lounge tent offers comfortable furnishings so guests can sink back and share stories of the day. Once darkness falls, gather round the campfire and listen for the the roar of a lion while the Milky Way puts on a bedtime show.

Nat Hab's Migration Camp–Serengeti

Location
Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

This deluxe mobile tented camp is designed to travel with the natural flow of the wildebeest migrating through the Serengeti ecosystem. The camp’s mobility allows us to follow the herds, optimizing our chances to witness the migration and ensuring outstanding wildlife viewing at all times. From December until March, the camp is ideally situated to intercept the migration in the Southern Serengeti. From June through October, the camp is positioned to intercept the migration in the Northern Serengeti.

The camp is comprised of eight canvas tents with two lounge/dining areas. Each tent is either a twin or double (triples are also available) with toilets and safari-style bucket showers in en suite bathrooms. The open communal area surveys the plains, so you can enjoy wildlife viewing over a drink as you relax in the lounge or bar. The dining room, also set beneath canvas, offers a classic bush dining experience. And after dark, classic lanterns provide a romantic glow throughout camp.

Guests will enjoy the intimate ambience of this traditional canvas safari camp that provides an authentic experience of the wild Serengeti as much as it does rustic luxuries. Our close-knit Tanzanian camp staff ensures that personalized hospitality, excellent food, and a warm, relaxed environment are hallmarks of a stay at our private mobile camp. And, since our staff follows the migration with our camp year-round, they are a font of detailed information about the wildlife and the overall experience.

Nat Hab’s Serengeti Plains

Location
Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Newly built in a remote location in the less-visited eastern Serengeti, our own safari camp offers stylish bush accommodations exclusively for Nat Hab guests. The Namiri Plains area where our camp sits was previously off-limits to visitors for two decades during a period of habitat rehabilitation to increase the cheetah population. Surrounded by open range and kopjes—large granite outcrops that dot the plains—our private camp offers fabulous wildlife viewing in diverse habitats, particularly of the abundant feline predators that live and hunt in this area. It also provides exceptional seclusion, set among fever and acacia trees with no other camp in sight for miles.

Seven large walk-in safari tents built atop wooden platforms offer exceptional space, comfort and privacy. Put aside any image of what constitutes a "tent" in your mind and exchange it for a vision of a huge, airy, light-filled canvas suite that simultaneously creates a luxurious personal retreat while making you feel at one with the expansive wilderness around you. Each has a large private wooden veranda, interior personal lounge space appointed with beautiful sustainable hardwood furnishings, a sleeping area with a large and comfortable bed, and a full en suite bathroom with flush toilet, hot shower and twin basins.

A common lounge offers gathering space with contemporary flair, perfect for relaxing and convivial encounters after exciting game drives. The dining area is the scene for fine meals prepared by our talented camp chef and kitchen staff. And given our prime location where the short-grass plains meet the acacia woodlands, wildlife is abundant here, and we often spot animals directly from camp while sitting with a book or sipping a gin and tonic from the fully stocked bar. The nearby Ngare Nanyuki underground river creates pockets of permanent water that support year-round wildlife concentrations. Big cat sightings are unrivaled in this area, which is a hub for scientific research on predators,

Plantation Lodge

Location
Ngorongoro Highlands, Tanzania

A green oasis amid the red-brown hills of the Ngorongoro Highlands, Plantation Lodge lies at the center of a working coffee, flower and cattle plantation, surrounded by rolling green farmland and lowland forest. Its 17 individual bungalows provide superb comfort and amenities, each with a separate sitting area, wood-burning fireplace and private veranda overlooking lavish gardens and manicured lawns. The individually furnished rooms and suites are uniquely decorated with the owners’ fabulous collection of safari antiques and Tanzanian arts and crafts. The small size of this owner-run lodge, combined with its colonial-style charm, creates an intimate atmosphere where personal attention and a concern for detail are evident at every turn. The lodge enjoys a prime location for safari access: it's very near the entrance of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a quick hop from Tarangire and Lake Manyara national parks, and a relatively short drive from the Serengeti.

Ngare Sero Mountain Lodge

Location
Arusha, Tanzania

Before or after your safari, enjoy a serene setting among lush gardens filled with bougainvillea and jaracaranda surrounding a colonial German farmhouse at the base of Mount Meru. The original 1905 house was transformed in 1974 into a tranquil guest lodge filled with antiques, and it is still owned and run by the same conservation-minded family today. Long covered verandas offer views of Mount Kilimanjaro from overstuffed chairs, while indoors, a fireplace provides warmth when the sun goes down. Ten garden rooms front an expansive lawn across from the main house, with private porches for relaxing. Beneath the beamed timber ceilings, sink into a canopied king-size Zanzibar bed or two twins, with elaborate carved wooden headboards. A separate lounge area is appointed with colorful local fabrics and handmade ottoman sofa. Each room has a large en suite bathroom with tub, rain shower, dressing area and separate toilet. Meals at the main house are served in the dining room or al fresco on the shaded terrace overlooking the gardens and small lake. Menus feature homemade fare incorporating organic vegetables from the lodge garden and local small farms, fresh-baked breads and pastries, locally grown coffee that's roasted at the lodge, and more. The property generates its own hydroelectricity, and all drinking water comes directly from its natural spring, which also supplies fresh water to neighboring villages.

Do as much or as little as you like at Ngare Sero. Fifty acres of sprawling grounds invite a stroll through forest that's home to black and white colobus and Sykes' monkeys. The owners have planted more than 3,000 indigenous trees on the property, which shelter native wildlife and 200 bird species. Take a boat ride on the lake, fed by crystal-clear coldwater springs rising in the forest and inhabited by many different frogs, freshwater crabs and fish. Ride a horse through the woodlands as you look for abundant birdlife. Play a round of croquet, take a refreshing swim in the 100-foot pool, or rejuvenate with a massage at the open-air spa, enhanced with essential oils.