&Beyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge

The view from the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater is one of the great sights in Africa, and Crater Lodge puts your suite right on the edge of it. Thirty suites look straight down into the caldera, 600 metres below.

Inside, the lodge is theatrical, with chandeliers and a great deal of polished wood. Your butler meets you at the door. That butler runs your stay. On the last evening of every journey we use it on, a three-course dinner is served on your private deck as the Crater floor goes dark below you.

The days start early. You go down into the Crater at first light with your own vehicle and guide, before the floor gets busy, while the mist is still lifting off the soda lake. Lion, rhino and the flamingos on the lake are the reasons people come. Older guests can stay parked above the lake for as long as they like; the more restless can follow a lion pride across the floor.

It suits families, and anyone who wants the Crater properly rather than as a day trip from somewhere else.

On East Africa by Air a Cessna Caravan brings you to the Lake Manyara strip, and a private vehicle carries you up through the highland forest to the rim. On Tanzania Complete a helicopter flies you in from the Grumeti. You leave by vehicle and Caravan for Kilimanjaro International, or by helicopter to Lake Manyara for the flight to Zanzibar.

Good to know

• Balloons do not fly inside the Ngorongoro Crater. For a balloon at dawn, we arrange it over the Mara or the Serengeti.
• The rim is high and nights are cold for much of the year. Bring warm layers.
• Tanzania is a malaria country; take advice on prophylaxis.

Country: Tanzania