Singita Mara River — Hotel in Mara Region

This was our first Tanzania safari lodge, after a week in Rwanda. Notwithstanding our tripadvisor handle, we are travelling as a couple for our 30th anniversary, as our three kids are working or in university now.|What an amazing three nights!|This is a tented experience. But what a tent and what an experience! On our first night we were given a beautiful tent at the end of the very small number of tents on one side of the lodge tent. Room service was offered but we decided to go for dinner in the main tent. All of the tents overlook the Mara river. They are all very thoughtfully appointed and beautiful, and the views of the river are spectacular. We were very happy though that we went for dinner in the main tent. A dramatic storm rolled in with wind and rain, and actually tore a number of tents including ours. We were moved to one of the family tents, a tent identical to that which we left, with another tent across the deck. This would be a great place for a family as well. The tents are very comfortable. There is running water, flushing toilets and showers. The camp is son solar power so that the evening showers are hotter than the morning showers. But you did not feel like you were staying in a tent.|The service is terrific — gracious and attentive. We were warmly welcomed on arrival and after each game drive. The food was terrific as was the wine. This is not the camping experience you had as a kid!|But the true star of the show is the wildlife. Wow.|Should probably leave the review with that word, but will add some more in any event.|Our guide, Mishi, was and is truly a force of nature. She is one of the very rarest of sightings in the Serengeti-a female guide. She has two young children, 6 and 8, and still guides and now trains others and is involved in expanding the guiding community to include more women. Her instincts and knowledge of the animals and nature of the Serengeti is truly impressive. If you have her as a guide, you have been blessed.|We saw two incredible crossings of the Mara river by the Wildebeest as part of the migration. The first lasted 25 minutes, the second — same crossing point same day — lasted 45 minutes. Life-changing is an overused term, but these were close to life-changing experiences. The wild power of instinct and nature are overwhelming. The crossings were very successful for the Wildebeest, but not for one 2 week old zebra that struggled with the water and the onslaught of animals. Her mother was amazing, fighting off the horde of Wildebeest, kicking, and biting to create space for the youngster.|Unfortunately, in the process of fighting the obvious threat, the mother lost track of the hidden danger of a crocodile. The young zebra became separated by about 4 feet from its mother. We saw then a crocodile emerge and quickly end the life of the young zebra. The mother and the other 5 adults in her group searched fruitlessly for 40 minutes, crossing back and forth across the river. It was heartbreaking. They could not find the baby because it had been towed onto a sandbar downstream by the crocodile. |As if all of that was not enough, the next day Mishi spotted at a distance that no human should see a leopard in a tree finishing off its catch from earlier in the week. We spend a mesmerizing hour watching it carefully exact all of the meat that it could from the carcass, while watching at the same time the catfish in the pool below the tree eat the scraps that dropped. We then returned that evening to check in on the leopard. He (Mishi said the leopard was about 8 years old and a male) staled a young wildebeest. We did not see him pounce, but watched him end the animals life. Life is good for the predator on the Serengeti.|We also spent a morning hanging out with the hundreds of thousands of Wildebeest on the Savannah, watching lions find water, and generally marvelling at everything.|Singita Mara River is an amazing place to see the most amazing things. Cannot...

Our family recently returned from a trip to the beautiful Serengeti, and as our children put it, "it's the best trip we've ever taken." We stayed at Singita Mara River for four amazing nights and were blown away by the comfortable and beautiful accommodations, delicious meals, wealth of wildlife, and most importantly the truly amazing people who work at this camp - they touched our hearts. They were so welcoming and kind, thinking of every way to make our stay more pleasant without ever being asked. They made kid friendly meals for our boys, delivered our favorite drinks to the mini fridge, brought hot coffee, hot cocoa, and homemade muffins each morning to our tent for our wake up, and made the most delicious Swahili meal for us on our last night. We loved how the entire team would greet us after our game drives as well as their send offs in the early mornings with fleece ponchos and blankets and “bush babies” (hot water bottles to keep us cozy in the vehicles). Honestly, they thought of everything and really went above and beyond to make us feel welcome (and never want to leave the camp!). ||||We had Charles as our guide, and he has to be hands down the best guide in the entire Serengeti! Because of his educational background as well as his experience in the bush, he literally knew everything there was to know about each animal (birds, lions, you name it!) AND the landscape, trees, etc. He was so friendly and energetic and also so patient with our children and their many questions. My son recently commented about how Charles got so excited to see the animals even though he had probably seen them thousands of times. He also took safety extremely seriously so we never felt unsafe. We saw every animal we had hoped to see, and many of them, up close so that we got beautiful photos. While there were so many amazing animal encounters, a few that are at the top of the list include: watching a lioness stalk a line of wildebeest, standing in the middle of a herd of over a half of a million wildebeest, watching a herd of several thousand wildebeest cross the Mara River, admiring a leopard in a tree and then watching her begin to stalk three warthogs and a gazelle, seeing lion cubs pop up in the grasslands right around our vehicle, watching a family of elephants come to the river bank for a drink, just to name a few. Additionally, the landscape was so diverse around the camp. There are so many areas to explore each with unique features and animals from the river banks to the hippo pool to the endless plains near the Kenyan border where the cats tend to hide. If we had left Tanzania after our visit only to Singita Mara River, we would have been so happy because we felt like we had seen everything there was to see! ||||We had amazing bush meals, and of course, the meals at the camp were as delicious as an award winning restaurant. The tents were so comfortable and beautifully decorated, with very nice bathrooms, and an outdoor bathtub and shower with stunning views of the river. We even saw a small herd of wildebeest cross the Mara right in front of our tent.||||Overall, this was a once in a lifetime trip that was magical in every way. And even though the landscape was stunning and the animals were brilliant in their natural habitat (especially seeing the iconic wildebeest crossing!), our favorite memories are of the people we met. We are so very grateful for the sacrifice these people make away from their families to show tourists like us this piece of paradise in the Serengeti.||||We hope to go back to Tanzania, and when we do, Singita will be at the top of our...

There are 3 words to describe Singita Mara River Tented Camp- genuine, authentic and amazing. We visited them during the Christmas time. I'd say that we had a once in lifetime experience at this property. From the moment we arrived at Lamai airstrip to the time we departed from the same airstrip, the Singita crew took care of us with astute personal attention. We were very fortunate and grateful to have Musa as our guide, Juma as our food concierge and Samson as our room concierge. Musa is a biologist and knows animal behavior and local area extremely well. If you ever get Juma as your food concierge, you should ask him about his experience with earthquake in Zanzibar (his home town)- :) :). Rest of the staff were also very friendly and courteous. We enjoyed our conversations with Tina, Jackie, Dan and Kim. Massages from Ana were very relaxing as well. It was obvious that they all loved their jobs and knew how to take care of customers.||||We thoroughly enjoyed all the 6 game drives with Musa. We were able to see wildlife up and close. It was truly a magical experience. While we saw the regular sights that most travelers would see, the highlights for us were the following slights:||1. Hyenas, Vultures and Jackals feeding on a buffalo curcas.||2. Elephants crossing the Mara river||3. Close encounter with a bull elephant (we were scared but Musa was not since he knew the animal behavior).||4. Hippos in the Mara River (we could see them and hear them from our camp too).||||We had booked a family tent, which worked out great for us. The tents were well appointed with 4 post bed, lots of storage space and decorated with contemporary African art. There is an inside as well as outside bathroom/shower. The bath amenities are of to notch quality. We never had trouble with getting hot water in the tap or shower. Our room was well-maintained and attended to by Samson. He just knew what we wanted and when we wanted- for example, he took care of our laundry twice in a day since he knew we were leaving the next day. He also washed our shoes prior to leaving the camp since the shoes had muck and mud all over. One night he had set up a oil diffuser that emitted earthen scent of Africa- so peaceful to sleep!||||Food was just heavenly! It was so fresh and tasty! They made vegetarian food without mushrooms (allergies) for all of us for all the meals and presented the food in an attractive and appetizing way! Wines that accompanied the food were the best as well.||||Weather was actually very good during our visit. It was cold in the morning and evening but it got to 80-82oF in the afternoon. It did rain in the afternoons and some time overnight. However, the rain didn't interfere with our game drives.||||While in the camp, I read about Singita's conservation efforts, which are very impressive and laudable. This whole camp is off the grid too. It does seam like Singita Mara River Tented Camp is very popular during annual migration (July-Sep) since you can see the migration right from the camp itself. We are looking forward to...