Best hotels in Tanzania

Rhotia Valley Tented Lodge is located deep in the farmlands of the Ngorongoro Karatu region of northern Tanzania. It's the long-term project of two Dutch doctors who saw the beauty and need of the community, and built a camp to serve both tourists (particularly as a conference venue), and the local children by means of an orphanage and a school. A stay here is a lovely break from the early mornings on safari and it's a good base from which to explore the surrounding area, including the infamous Ngorongoro Crater (which might require an early morning start!). It's a simple but intimate and totally charming lodge, and impressively, 20% of the nightly rate is donated to the children's home and other related projects.

In a hidden corner of the wildlife-rich Seronera region, this brand new camp channels the golden age of African exploration with a thoroughly modern conscience. Strategically positioned to offer both prime game viewing and blissful seclusion, the tents are spaced far enough apart that you might fancy yourself the only souls for miles - until a passing elephant reminds you otherwise. This is the Serengeti as it was meant to be experienced: raw, beautiful, and with just the right touch of understated elegance. In a landscape where wildlife thrives year-round, you'll find yourself transported to the legendary early 20th-century safaris, complete with all the comfort but none of the colonial pomp.

Nyikani Camp is a seasonally mobile camp that makes its way around the Serengeti in hot pursuit of the annual Great Migration – arguably the greatest wildlife spectacle on Earth. Join the camp on its Ndutu leg in the southern Serengeti, which becomes blanketed with short grasses after the November/December rains. For 4–5 months, wildebeest, zebra and antelope (trailed by predators) congregate in their thousands to graze and calve. Ndutu lies in the rich Ngorongoro Conservation Area, so there's plenty to see year round, and new Nyikani Camp's hillside setting is a lovely place to take in the sights.

Kichakani Serengeti Camp is a new addition to the Tanzanian luxury safari circuit. The elegant camp operates on a mobile basis, following the wildebeest migration across three locations in the Serengeti as the herds thunder from north to south. Each location has been carefully selected to coincide with the million-strong herds of beasties, offering front-row viewing of the incredible spectacle. The camp itself is a blend of vintage, explorer-style nostalgia and contemporary flair, and even better, the whole construction is totally eco-friendly, leaving not a trace on the landscape when the tents are picked up and rebuilt in the next spot.

Previously known as Grumeti Serengeti Tented Camp, &Beyond Grumeti Serengeti River Lodge offers relatively exclusive access to a park well known for its swarming game and its popularity with wildlife lovers. The sustainably-designed lodge, tucked into tall evergreen woodland on the banks of a Grumeti River tributary in the Serengeti's remote western corridor, combines an earth-bound design with a sophisticated edge. The location is excellent for game and bird viewing, and its guides have an impressive knowledge of their surroundings. Add to those attractions, faultless service levels and great accommodation, and you're looking at one of the best camps in the vast Serengeti.

The Central Serengeti, home to a dizzying array of wildlife, big cats galore, those quintessential rippling grass plains and the rather lovely Nyikani Camp. A relative newcomer to the Serengeti safari scene, the camp is perched atop a small hill, the bush views stretch endlessly from your tent door and the high season crowds seem a distant memory. Nothing is too much trouble here and the experienced team will spoil you from the moment you leap off the Jeep. It may be fresh-faced, but Nyikani is all about old-school hospitality and game viewing that you will never forget.