Philip Briggs is a guidebook writer and travel journalist specialised in African travel. He first backpacked between Nairobi and Cape Town in 1986 and has been travelling the highways and byways of Africa ever since. Since the 1990s, he has researched and authored several pioneering Bradt Guides. These include the first dedicated guidebooks to Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda and Somaliland. He has worked on guidebooks for several other publishers including AA, Insight, Berlitz, Eyewitness, Frommers, Rough Guides, Struik-New Holland and 30 Degrees South.
Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge

Best safari camp for: Quick access to Ngorongoro Crater
If there's one obvious drawback to Tanzania's most exclusive lodges, it’s that they tend to be priced out of the range of all but the deepest of pockets. So here’s a shout out to Serena, a long-serving East African hotel chain that runs a number of larger lodges which hit a popular sweet spot between comfort and affordability.
Ngorongoro Serena ranks among the very best of these, with its centrally heated rooms and scenic location on the western crater rim.
I often recommend this lodge to serious wildlife enthusiasts, because it is the closest option to the main descent road into the crater, making it particularly well suited to early morning game drives.
At a glance
Destinations
Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Activity
SafariRelated Guides

The best places to see the wildebeest migration

Sometimes called ‘the greatest show on earth’, the wildebeest migration sees mega herds of almost two million wildebeest, zebras and gazelles continuously travel thousands of kilometres in a broadly clockwise direction from the southern Serengeti, north into Kenya’s Maasai Mara, and back again. The migration is one of Africa's classic safari experiences, drawing visitors year round to witness this magnificent spectacle.

The best safaris in Tanzania

Tanzania is one of the best places in Africa to go on safari. I first backpacked through it in the 1980s, when I was far too cash-strapped to think about going on a costly safari, so I spent most of my time exploring remote coastal towns, then took a lengthy train and ferry trip from Dar es Salaam to Zambia via Lake Tanganyika.

Trekking in Tanzania

I’ve spent my career trekking in some pretty far-flung places, from Nepal to Norway.

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Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge
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