Lemala Kuria Hills Lodge — Hotel in Mbalibali

At Lemala Kuria Hills they say you “come as guests but leave as family” and this is exactly how we felt. From the moment we arrived, we were met with amazing hospitality, a positive outlook and endless amounts of fantastic food & drinks. The lodge overlooks the Serengeti which is beyond breathtaking. Each room has its own deck and plunge pool which is nice for after a morning game drive. We also want to give a special shoutout to the manager Seth as he was constantly making sure everything was ok. Jacqueline, our waitress, who provided great service and always had a smile on her face. George, our butler, who kept our room pristine and setup our room during the morning and night. Lastly, we want to thank Godwill, the bartender, who created amazing cocktails and was super friendly. We will greatly miss all of these people who now feel like family. My wife literally cried several times before we left as this place was truly a magical experience.

Now onto the game drives, our primary tour guide, named Living, was very experienced, knowledgeable and a pleasure to spend 4 days with. He continually organized things that made us feel special and elevated our experience in the Serengeti. We were also lucky enough to have a “guide in training” named Isaya. He also was very knowledgeable and even spotted a male leapord on our last day which is rare to find. We have already told our family and friends if they come to the Serengeti they need to request these guys as guides.

One quick thing to point out with Lemala properties: during our game drives we continually were stopped by other company jeeps asking our guide for tips where to find animals as they spent the whole day and didn’t see anything notable. Lemala doesn’t have this problem because all their guides work together and talk to one another when something special is seen. There were several occasions where we were “alone” with lions and leopards with only other Lemala cars with us. Although the guides can’t guarantee what you will be seeing, the teamwork at Lemala significantly increased the odds of seeing animals. Thank you again to the Lemala staff for making this an amazing experience we will never forget !!...

An absolutely wonderful place to celebrate a golden wedding anniversary. All expectations were exceeded for location, accommodation, food, guide and our 4 day safari experience. All the staff were friendly, fun and attentive. Our guide, Hassan, was a delightful, informative guide who treated us to the most amazing safari experiences day after day. Our early morning starts at 5.50 treated us to infinitely variable sunrises, and returns to camp in the evening were also beautiful in the Serengeti sunsets. With the exception of our last morning, we enjoyed the delights of 3 bush breakfasts, and heartily recommend this routine rather than staying in camp for the more traditional breakfast experience. There is nothing like sitting down to breakfast in the shade of a lone acacia tree on the Serengeti savannah. Choice of food was excellent and timing around 8am perfect, after two hours of exciting, stimulation game drive. Equally, the quality of our lunches and dinners in camp was superb, and attention from our excellent butler, Juma, was excellent and great fun. We were too late for the main migration, but the advantage of that is the absence of dozens of 4WDs at the nearby Mara River. We were treated to the sight of a herd of Zebra gathering on the north bank. The alpha female wanted to make a move, but her foal had other ideas. As usual, half the fun is in the expectation. We did see two zebra crossing back from the south bank, but too slow to get photos, 5 crocs were waiting patiently on the river banks, and innumerable hippos spotted in the beautiful river Mara. The cheetah gods smiled on us, and a group of 3 returned to the area for or game drive number 4. We returned to camp earlier than usual on our penultimate evening to find sundowners organised for us on a small kopje with beautiful views over to a Serengeti sunset, looked after by Hassan, Josephat and Maurice. Just a fabulous experience for the whole 4-day stay. Apologies to unnamed staff members who also made our stay at Kuria Hills...

We booked our very first safari for an 8-day adventure in Tanzani with Gosheni Safaris in September 2023. The itinerary included the Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and the Tarangire National Park. We chose to stay three nights at the Lemala Kuria Hills lodge for our northern Serengeti adventure.

When we arrived, we were warmly greeted by Dennis, Katherine and Rebecca. We were given an orientation of the property and we were amazed. We were escorted to our room, #14, by Isiah. Because the property is located amongst wildlife, we were instructed to use escorts to and from the main lodge by the staffed Masai warriors.

Wow…all I can say is WOW! The lodge is spectacular! Our room was over to the top, with a glass fronted tent, private plunge pool, outdoor and indoor shower and totally private. What a special place this is!

All meals are included as well as alcohol (not premium spirits or champagne) and even laundry service. We were assigned to Damian as our server for our stay. He was very special and hospitable. We looked forward to greeting him at each meal. We also enjoyed the liquid chef hospitality from Josephat! He is quite the personality and thoroughly enjoyed his company.

The meals were absolutely delicious. Each dinner had a varied multicourse meal and we were seated at our own table. Lemala Kuria Hills also provided hot lunches for our game drives each day and were delivered to our guide.

Each night, our room was setup for the evening by our room attendant, Isiah. During the night, we actually heard a lion as well as buffalo. There were lots of buffalo outside our room at night and the early morning.

The laundry service included was superb! Every item accounted for, cleaned and folded. Incredible for a camp!

What a beautiful lodge to begin our safari adventure and we so treasured our three-night stay! We highly recommend you stay here for your northern...