The three levels
A simple tented camp is a large tent with a real bed, its own bathroom and a hot shower. It sits inside the park or right beside it, so at six in the morning you are already in the savannah. At night you hear the animals through the canvas, which is exactly what you came to do.
A mid-range lodge is a built hotel with a pool, a restaurant and a room with a view. More comfort, less sense of being inside the park, and usually a bit further from the gate.
A luxury camp puts the two together: an enormous tent with a wooden floor, its own deck and hotel service, pitched inside the park. It is where most of the budget goes on an expensive safari.
Inside or outside the park
Sleeping inside costs more, and it is worth it. The best hours of a safari are the first and last light of the day, and if your accommodation is an hour from the gate you lose both: you arrive once the animals have gone to ground and you have to leave before they come out again.
At Ngorongoro the difference is starker still: the lodges on the crater rim are twenty minutes from the descent, and the ones outside more than an hour away down a mountain road.
The food
All meals are included, and lunch is usually a box the camp puts together for you to eat in the field, because driving back would cost you half an afternoon of safari.
Special diets are no problem, but tell us when you book: inside the park there is nowhere to buy anything.
