Kudu Lodge & Campsite — Hotel in Arusha

Be wary, first impressions can be misleading. I truly wanted to give 5/5. However, at 8pm, when my family and I wanted to shower, there was no hot water. Gave the benefit of the doubt, and went to bed. Only to wake up at 4:30am, and there continued to be no hot water.

I called reception and no one picked up. Went to the reception hall, and there was no one there.

Found a friendly worker, who tried to help me, but there was a huge language barrier.

And still had no hot water.

At 5:20 I called reception again, and no one picked up.

At 5:30, I went there and found someone who told me they do turn on the hot water, at the evening time and at 4am.

And they did come shortly thereafter, and fixed the water situation in the room.

Throughout my trip through Tanzania, I have been in hotels, that were very budget friendly. And I had no issues with reception and hot water.

What if you had a medical emergency at 3AM, and couldn’t reach anyone from reception from your room?

I understand things happen and nothing is perfect.

But there’s never any excuse for not being to reach out to reception/fluent English speaking at anytime.

This hotel is pitiful and I have learned my lesson.

To anyone who is reading the review, please ask them, how their hot water policy is. And who is available at 3AM, in case you’re having a heart attack in your room. (And I asked them about it, there is no one in person at reception during those...

Kudu Lodge was a great spot to stay in Karatu for two nights. The highlight of the lodge for us was the gardens. They are very well maintained and add to the lush natural vibe of the lodge itself, with mature trees and lots of wildlife making use of them. We didn't use the pool area but it looked fantastic and the gift shop was a great place to buy small presents etc with very reasonable prices. Breakfast, lunch and dinner offerings are fantastic, with a large range and high quality.||The rooms themselves are very spacious and equipped with all of the needed amenities. Despite being spacious, the layout of the rooms themselves was quite odd. The rooms are quite dark, with limited lighting. There is no master light switch and you can't reach any light switches from the bed itself. So you would need your phone torch each night to turn the lights off, then make it back to bed! The bedside cabinets sit outside of the mosquito net, further limiting access to your phone, water etc. Showers were very good. Covering the high level window in the shower area were fabric curtains - no idea why you would want curtains which would get wet in a bathroom, especially seeing nobody could see in through the window.||A final frustration in the rooms was the internet, which was very spotty. Sitting outside saw quite good internet but unfortunately the mosquitos would find you quite quickly.||Overall, a pretty...

During our trip to Tanzania, my siblings, mom, and I were able to stay for a night at the wonderful Kudu Lodge and Campsite. Alas, as we were on a tour, we were unable to enjoy the lodge during daylight hours. Despite this setback, my mom and I went exploring immediately and found, to our delight, that the staff had labeled all the plants (to be researched later!). The rooms were amazing and comfortable, and the dinner consisted of a buffet, filled with vegetables, salads, fruits, soups, and so on (plenty to choose from for any picky-eater!). If you have the chance, go see the pool (it has a giant elephant next to it), listen to the birds in the early morning (the staff leaves print outs in the room with the types of birds found at the lodge), and visit the gift shop next to the dining hall (it has almost any kind of locally-made souvenir one would want, from dresses to canvas paintings, musical instruments to toys, carvings to coffee, etc). Nothing we bought in the gift shop was broken thanks to the careful attention of the shopkeeper for the evening. We thoroughly enjoyed our limited time here. Bear in mind that drop off for laundry is early in the evening, so if you are on a tour, you may miss both the drop off AND pick up times. Just something to...