Simba Campsite A — Hotel in Arusha

I rarely write bad reviews but this experience has left us feeling more sad and taken advantage of than angry. We saved for years to have the Safari and honeymoon of our dreams, and the night we spent at Simba campsite was the worst night for us. I didn't think after paying over $7,000 to a tour operator for a safari trip you'd get a night with a budget and basic tent. The world is really going in the wrong direction. Around the Ngorongoro Crater area, you either get this budget campsite or unaffordable luxury lodges. It'd be nice if a mid-range accommodation existed there. What to expect: a sturdy tent for the cold winds, smelly sleeping bags, hard twin mattresses, a cold water shower after a 10hr safari drive, long bathroom lines, no toilet paper, no towels, the showers don't have hooks to hang your clothes, so they get wet in the shower and overall had no view and no animals were seen or heard around the tents. There are also at least 30 tents all very close together. You can't sleep when you can hear everyone talking late at night. The common eating area was also loud and as much as I love a backpacker atmosphere, I didn't pay for one and even the younger backpackers seemed miserable. A younger woman was so happy that I had toilet paper to share and everyone walked out shivering cold from the showers. It was a very short night of no sleep and you wake up early to start the next Safari day. So choose wisely and I guess you need to spend a minimum of $400 for a comfortable night in this area. I recommend Pakulala Camp which is more expensive but I wish we would've...

It's a weird feeling to be camping at 2400mtrs, just a degree away from the equator, and needing to be wearing thermals to stay warm.||Simba is a large campground, with 2 lots of amenities. The area we camped at, as part of a tour group, had communal kitchens and dining spaces. The toilets worked, they even had toilet paper, and there were 2 showers (at least in the men's block). As with many other sites we visited, be prepared for low water pressure and often a cold shower as the hot water units are small and totally inadequate for the number of campers. They do have staff who regularly clean the amenity blocks, so that was good.||There was plenty of space for all the various groups. Being located on the lip of the Ngorongoro Crater the views are spectacular!||Based on the scat around the tents zebras were the nocturnal visitors we could hear munching on the grass. Our guide even had to make some noise at dusk, to encourage the browsing bull elephant to go around our camp rather than through it.||So, measured against other camp sites we visited, Simba is not too bad. If you're planning on travelling down into the crater, it is a good spot to...

Simba A is the only public campsite at Ngorongoro, so odds are you may well end up here, especially on a cheaper safari trip. The campsite is huge, so in the peak season you could well find the place very crowded. The dining lodge has the most power points I saw at any public campsite on my safari - great for recharging cameras. There are two toilet/shower blocks, with the ones furthest away from the dining lodge being the nicest.

The site is frequented by lots of animals - during our stay we saw several elephants in the foliage at the perimeter of the campsite... and whilst having a campfire at night, we looked up to see ~15 buffalo about 15 meters away from us, leading to us beating a hasty retreat! Park rangers are on site to keep an eye on the animals...