Serengeti Bushtops Luxury Camp — Hotel in Mbalibali

We stayed at the Bushtops Camp Serengeti in Late September 2025 for 3 nights as part of our 2 week stay in Africa. There were 6 people in our group – 2 people in their 60s and 4 people between the ages of 28 – 33 - 3 men and 3 women. We arrived in the late afternoon of the first night’s stay. In addition to the game drives, we did a hot air balloon ride during our stay. ||Upon arrival at the airstrip/airport, we were greeted by Deco and Amos, of the Serengeti Bushtops camp, they would be our guide and spotter for the next three days. They greeted us with Swahili snacks (including samosas, which I enjoyed then and several other times throughout the trip) and drinks — and cool damp towels, which was a staple throughout our trip as we disembarked ground transportation at our destinations. This was a wonderful “first touch” from Bushtops and we really appreciated it. Throughout our stay, Deco and Amos were great! We would recommend them as a team of guide/driver/spotter to everyone! Amos saw things from a moving vehicle that we had difficulty seeing even after the vehicular had stopped and he pointed to it! Deco was very knowledgeable. He also took into account the fact that a few if us were prone to motion sickness when driving and checked on how we were feeling frequently. Our group tended to ask A LOT of questions and Deco took the time to answer them all. ||Our arrival at the Bushtops Camp arrival was after dark. We were greeted at the camp by the manager and several staff members, including our “butler.” In the main tent/building, which was the gathering area, the bar, and the dining area. There, we reviewed our itinerary for the rest of our with Deco and Joseph, the camp manager. Both were terrific and took care to make us comfortable and that we had a great experience.|| |There was a camp overview — such as no one was allowed to walk about the camp without escort. The camp was not fenced. There are essentially no fences inside the Serengeti. Animals may move through the camp. To go from the tents to dinner, for instance, we called for an escort. (This also was true when we lodged at the rim of the Crater later in our trip). The Bushtops guards were armed, but not with guns. They had bows and arrows and machetes. We felt very safe. It was nice to think animals might come through camp, but that they and we would be safe if that happened.| |Our lodgings were elaborate tents on elevated wooden foundations (perhaps three feet off the ground). They had electricity, running hot and cold water, a flushing toilet, a shower, and a sleeping area. Each had a western facing covered veranda with a tub, enabling watching sunsets. Each tent was separated from the others, and the sounds of the night were heard in the tents — not much different in that respect from being in a camping tent. The canvass “walls” and roof of the tent were heavy canvas with screened “windows” and “doors” that could be closed by zipping the canvas over them. It was still, at base, a tent. One couple in our group had a friendly visit one night from a small field mouse. We were staying in the wild in a tent after all! That said, we were all very comfortable really enjoyed our stay. | |We were the only ones — literally the only guests — at Bushtops during our stay. They were full the day before we arrived and would be again the day we left. We got lucky. There were perhaps 12 guest tents and our family was using 3 of them. There was a “reception” tent, the main gathering/dining tent, a restroom tent, a kitchen tent, and though we didn’t see it, there was staff housing, too. The camp itself was perhaps as isolated a place as we have ever stayed (with the possible exception of a camp inside Denali National Park in Alaska). We had dinner and breakfast in the dining tent and our lunches were out and about — including a picnic lunch one day at the side of a Land Cruiser under an acacia tree on the savannna. The food and drink were fairly sophisticated — beef, chicken, pasta, seafood, soups, grains/salads, and desserts. Our group put a dent in their Diet Coke (actually Coke Zero) supply. We enjoyed some good South African wine. They celebrated one couple’s “honeymoon”/first anniversary, one person’s birthday, and our anniversary; with bed decorations and also cakes and songs at dinner.||Our first evening ended with a delightful “sundowner” — apparently a modern African practice for visiting guests. Deco and Amos took us to a large boulder about ten minutes from camp, where the camp had built a ladder up the side of the rock to a flat top, where we had snacks and drinks and watched the sun go down over the savanna. After dark, we could see beyond a very distant ridge to see the lights of a village, which is notable because we saw no other sign of human life from the Bushtops Camp.||On our first full day in the Serengeti, we took a hot air balloon ride coordinated through Bushtops Camp. We had a great time on the ride, but leaving the camp at 4:30 a.m. was no fun. The fast 1.5 hour drive in the dark to the balloons was not pleasant for those in our group who get motion sick. (The driver was from the hot air balloon company, not Bushtops Camp.). ||We recommend Bushtops Camps to others. We had a very great stay. People should note what kind of stay this is — a very, very remote and isolated place with structures being semi-permanent/permanent tents. The staff was very good, particularly the guide team (Deco and Amos) and the wait staff at dinner; not a place for a more game drives for us for us — being in the Serengeti was physically demanding on our group with the motion sickness from the safari rides, the dust, the sun and some heat. We could have stayed longer at this location only if we wanted to spend more time in camp relaxing. We did not get to enjoy all the features of our very nice tent because we were gone all day on game drives. The number of game drives we had was perfect for us, but between those and the hot air balloon ride we did not leave time for relaxation in camp. It would be good to encourage people to arrive earlier on their arrival day or to leave later on their departure day if they want time to...

Our family trip to Serengeti Bushtops was like no other for me, my wife and our two kids. As soon as we arrived at the airstrip we were met by Godlisten our driver/guide and Barakka our spotter. We were served some welcoming drinks and snacks and then the 4 day adventure started immediately as we were taken on our first game drive which lead back to camp. The ride to the camp was done at a pace that allowed us to enjoy seeing the wildlife and ask loads of questions about our 4 day trip. We saw the first of the big five on this drive as well as a few of the other animals. On arrival at the camp we are greeted by the management and we escorted to the lounge bar dinning open air room with views out onto the Serengeti (Paradise}we are introduced to all of the staff and then our butler (Naomi). I had requested the two family tents (Giraffe & Hippo). Our accommodation was out of this world! The tent luxury was of a very high standard. |Every morning we got a wake up call at 5.30am and we then had breakfast - the restaurant team always ready (they would take our breakfast order the night before at dinner). We then met Godlisten and Barraka for our day long drive. Over the four days we built a very strong bond with them and there were a few tears when they dropped us off at the airport on our last day. |When we would return from our day safaris, the camp team were always there to greet us with hot refreshing towels. At the start of our morning drives, the small touches of blankets, hot water bottles and snack boxes was appreciated. In the evening our beds were left with hot water bottles that was another nice touch. The gifts of caps, water bottles and small soft toys were again small touches that blew us away. |Godlisten and Barraka were amazing. There was no agenda and we decided how long we would like the safari to be each day and what we wanted to see. On the first day when we met them at the airport, we were asked what we would like to see during our stay and we then agreed on the structure. However all of this went out of the window as we just wanted to stay out in the reserve as long as we could on all of our days at Bushtops. Over our four days we managed to see everything on our list as well as the magical river crossing by the wilder beast. |During our stay we had massages, Bush breakfast booked and because we were enjoying our day long drives so much, we asked for these to be cancelled. The management did this without any hesitation and with no cancellation fees. They wanted you to have the best experience possible and that was their priority. We also had Klipspringer dinner and Simba rock booked - both were absolutely amazing. The view on Simba's rock is breath-taking!|This trip was supposed to be a "one off" to say that we had done a safari. However it was probably the best holiday we have had and we are already planning our return to Bushtops again. I will complete my review with "if you are thinking of safari then Serengeti Bushtops cannot be beaten". Thank you to all at...

We have done quite a bit of research, consulting with several safari camps and travel agents. In the end we have chosen Serengeti Bushtops and we are so happy that we made this choice!||Everything from the tent, the food and drinks, the game drives to the staff is top notch!||The camp site blends in nicely with the savannah. We could see extensively across the plains and the gorgeous sunset from our tent. On our last day, two little zebras visited us at the front of our tent. We were also told that the buffaloes and elephants visited the camp during our stay. Too bad we were not around to see them. ||The managers Philip and Elias, our ranger and spotter Big and William, our butler Paul, our server Noel and everyone on the team were very warm and genuine and made every effort to make sure we had a perfect stay. Big and William were very knowledgeable about the Serengeti. No shortage of interesting stories about the animals, birds and plants from them and we saw the Big Four (saving the rhino for the next visit), cheetahs, zebras, giraffes, impala, water buck, topi, Thomson’s gazelle, eland, dik dik, baboons, black-faced velvet monkeys, warthogs, hippos, crocodiles, vultures, marabou stork, Egyptian geese, “go away” birds, hyena, ostrich, agama lizards…... Big and William were able to track the move of the wildebeests strategically and got us the best position to witness a massive river crossing of thousands of wildebeests! They were able to anticipate the path of the animals so that we could watch the cheetahs, elephants and lions head-on! And the ride to the border of Tanzania and Kenya was unbelievable – we had the whole grassland to ourselves (so calm and peaceful) and we felt that even the zebras and wildebeests envied us as we enjoyed our bush lunch :) Paul was immaculate in his care of us and the tent, including getting packing materials for some sizeable souvenirs that we had bought elsewhere. Noel made perfect recommendations for our meals and asked the kitchen to prepare chicken consomme (which was not on the menu) for my husband when he had a bit of jet lag and lost his appetite. We wished we were able to stay longer so that we could try all the items from the 5-star menu. ||We are still very excited about the trip and have been reliving the memory every day. We will certainly ...