Ngorongoro Farm House, Northern Safari Circuit

rooms

With 52 stone chalet style cottages and rooms, you might think that the Lodge would feel large, but the clever scattering of the accommodation, it remains feeling intimate. 

There’s a 49 standard rooms which can be arranged as twins, doubles and triples.  There are also three suite rooms with King size beds for those seeking additional space. 

All rooms are stylishly decorated with polished stone floors, en suite bathrooms with enormous showers, big comfy cream chairs, some with an open fire and large veranda. All have comfortable beds, mosquito nets and private verandas with views across the rolling lush landscape.

facilities & activities

The main lodge area sits next to a beautiful Jacaranda tree and is built under a larger thatched structure with bar and dining area where all meals are taken. The setting ensures the Lodge remains feeling intimate whilst still offering a range of facilities such as the lovely swimming pool area.  For those seeking some quiet time, there is a small Massage room where experienced staff members can give you a half or full body massage.

You will likely rise early for breakfast and select your picnic lunch before setting off in to the Ngorongoro Crater for the day before returning in the late afternoon. Other activities on offer here include guided walks through the attractive paths in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

In the afternoon, you might like to join a guided walk of the farm, visiting the vegetable garden and farm animals or choose to accompany one of the local Masai guides for an early morning or evening a trek to learn more about their culture and customs and use of local plants.  If you are happy to travel further afield, we recommend an excursion to the nearby Lake Eyasi in the Rift Valley, still inhabited by a tribe of hunter-gatherers, the Hadzabe, a relic of ancient times. 

dining

In the mornings, you can enjoy a buffet style breakfast with cereal, pastries, fruit, tea and coffee. You may also help yourself to a hearty cooked breakfast which sets you up nicely for the day ahead.   Meals are normally served in the main area and sometimes a buffet lunch is set-up around the pretty pool. Guests have an ample choice of food prepared with local produce, including from the farm itself.

In the evenings, guests tend to head to the bar for pre-dinner drinks and congregate around the open fire on the deck, discussing the exciting events of the day before dinner is served. This is generally a three course affair, with soup starter, main buffet with plenty of variety and options, followed by desert, tea and coffee and post dinner drinks. 

family

Ngorongoro Farmhouse is a fabulous place for families to stay. It offers wide open spaces for little ones to burn off any excess energy after being on a safari vehicle, by running around the lovely manicured gardens. There is a large swimming pool for the children to play in and for the adults to cool down after the days activities.

The staff are relaxed and welcoming to younger visitors and parents are able to relax a little from the possible heightened sense of the wild when out in the open bushveld.

For families the lodge offers several interconnected rooms, to enable parents and children to stay reassuringly close together, and the extensive and well manicured grounds provide a good playground for a child to let off steam after a couple of hours cooped up in the safari vehicle.

They also have a small number of farm animals such as pigs, goats and cows for the fresh milk. Other than visiting the Crater, the children enjoy spending time on guided walks around the farm, doing a Maasai walk, and seeing the coffee being roasted in the afternoons.

location

The lodge is located in the Karatu area which is 2 ½ hrs drive from Arusha, 40 mins drive from Lake Manyara and less than 5 minutes drive from the entrance to the Ngorogoro Crater area.  It serves as the perfect location for a driving safari starting in Arusha or as a perfect stop-gap lodge to stay in, in-between travelling from the Tarangire National Park when making your way towards the Serengeti National Park.

Ngorongoro Farm House is a ‘drive in’ lodge which means you need to bring your own guide and vehicle from Arusha.  Typically a two night stay works well here spending the first day game driving in Lake Manyara and the second day game driving in Ngorongoro Crater. However, once here, with the variety of activities on offer, it’s certainly possible to stay longer and use this as an economical base from which to explore the farm and nearby area.

The Ngorongoro is a fascinating and unusual Conservation Area which includes the phenomenal game rich viewing area of the Ngorongoro Crater, and then extends through the Crater Highlands, in which local tribes are permitted to maintain their traditional lifestyles in as natural environment as possible. This spectacular volcanic landscape is rich and fertile, with stunning craters and lakes, and the high altitude creates a malaria-free micro climate.

The Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest intact caldera in an exceptional geographical position, forming a spectacular bowl of about 265 square kilometres with sides up to 600m deep, the stalking ground of around 20,000 to 30,000 wild animals at any one time.

The crater floor consists of a number of ecological environments that include grassland, swamps, forests and Lake Makat, a central soda lake filled by the Munge river. All these various habitats attract various wildlife to drink, wallow, graze, hide or climb. Although animals are free to move in and out of this contained environment, the rich volcanic soil, lush forests and spring source lakes on the crater floor tend to incline both grazers and predators to remain here throughout the year.