Mihingo Lodge

The main restaurant and bar/lounge areas are set under thatch in structures built of indigenous olive wood, rocks and terracotta-coloured clay. Local artworks hang throughout the communal spaces, and the bar area sings with bright cushions of all colours. The restaurant serves excellent buffet-style meals made using home-grown vegetables. Below, an infinity pool offers sweeping views over the park, and there's a separate seating area visited at night by the resident bushbabies.

Footpaths, lit at night, link the communal area to 10 tented suites built on stilted wooden platforms and tucked beneath thatched roofs. All are privately located, some in a forest setting, some with a lake view and others perched on boulders. The interiors are spacious and bright, quietly elegant in style, with wooden floors, large netted beds, an en-suite shower (water is solar-heated) and separate flush toilet. In front, there's a sheltered veranda with directors' chairs.

Watch wildlife from the lodge or on guided vehicle and foot safaris. For a cost, book a horse-riding safari (experience needed), a boat trip on Lake Mburo or a mountain-bike excursion. Spend a few hours in the hide watching and photographing the animals; visit the den, a cavern even nearer the waterhole, into which you crawl for a really intimate view; or play tennis on the court. Lake Mburo's savanna, forest and swampy valleys are home to 350 bird species.