On our last stop of our Tanzania Safari, we stayed at the Migration Camp. The setting at Grumeti River, with a breathtaking sunset atmosphere, is just wonderful and fulfils the image of a luxury lodge in Africa. The attentive and friendly staff is making the visitors fill very well. Amazing are the sounds in the evening and at night – especially the Hippos from near river are unique. The chef and his team make every meal a moment to look for. Ideal place to discover the rich wildlife of the area.

We spent 3 great nights there and it was just wonderful. The location was perfect from seeing Giraffes while having coffee in the morning on our porch and seeing a family of baboons sitting on our deck. Seeing the hippos down by the river and listening to them. The tents as they call them were amazing!!! Super showers and bath and decorated to the nines. The main lodge was just beautiful and the staff could not be better or warmer. The food was excellent and everyone could not have been more helpful.

We stayed for three days enjoying this gorgeous setting. Warthogs, monkeys, baboons and giraffe all wandered around our tent. We saw hippos walking down to the river from our room. Rooms were beautifully clean, spacious and very comfortable with lovely beds. The food was excellent. The staff were very helpful and attentive. Our teenage girls were made very welcome. Our guide, Maji was lovely and helped us explore the Serengeti with his excellent knowledge. The Serengeti is amazing, so wonderful to experience and we would love to go back. Highly recommended.

We spent the last 2 nights of our honeymoon safari here and to say it was an adventure is putting it mildly!

The place itself is lovely; the main lodge where you can have drinks and meals is beautiful, the grounds very pretty and the big canvas tents you stay in are really brilliant; they don't feel as 'perfectly finished' as other places we stayed but you wouldn't expect that of a tent; they were very very nice and the view from our french doors was stunning in the evening.

There is a sundeck which we sat on both nights to watch the sun go down; it really gives a fantastic view of the serengeti and sipping drinks whilst watching that is very romantic. The owners were always around to chat to you but weren't intrusive and the rest of the staff were very helpful and friendly.

Food is lovely but as it was the end of our trip we were so full from all the lovely meals that we had been eating the past week we had to keep turning courses down (lunch is 3 courses and dinner 4 courses) which the staff didn't really understand; it wasn't a big deal but we had to keep explaining that it wasn't that we didn't enjoy the food, we really were uncomfortably full!

There are reasons for only giving four stars to this place as it really was an amazing place to stay and the staff and service were second to none. But for us we just couldn't rate this place as highly as we rated the other places we stayed for two reasons:

Firstly, when we left we were directed to a staff tip box. We would never not tip, the problem was we had been tipping all the staff individually throughout our stay and really didn't have any money left as it was our last place before we left. We felt extremely awkward having to say no to putting in a tip although we did explain that we had tipped individuals. But as we hadn't experienced this at the other lodges we just felt a bit uncomfortable with all the staff looking at us as we said no to putting in a tip.

Secondly, and the biggest reason for giving 4 stars, was the terrible sleeps we had. Not because the bed was uncomfortable, but because of the animals that were grazing beside the tent overnight. We were told when we first got here that buffalo tended to come beside the tents overnight to graze and that if we felt they were too close we should blow a whistle we were given and they would leave.
Each night we were escorted back to our tent by a member of staff as it was dark and the animals were out. On the first night he shined a light between two tents and we saw a hippo eating on the bank. He told us there was a river with about 70 hippos 50m from our tent and that they would come up to eat. We hadn't been told what to do if a hippo got too close to the tent but thought we probably wouldn't need to know otherwise we would have been told.
We had to be up at 2.30am the next morning for a balloon flight so desperately wanted to sleep but the noise from the hippos was so loud and eerie that we just couldn't drop off. And then about 12am we heard an almightly crack just outside our tent and we really freaked out thinking it had broken the balcony. I blew the whistle but nothing happened, whatever ever it was just stayed there. We were so scared because whatever it was sounded so huge and the whistle hadn't scared it away that we just couldn't sleep. The next morning we were shattered and when we got back from our balloon ride we went for a nap. We then realised it was just a tree branch the animal had broken beside our tent.
We considered asking to be moved to a tent higher up the bank but decided as we didn't have to be up so early the next morning one more night wouldn't hurt. The next night we slept fine until 4am when again we heard something either side of our tent. We thought it was hippos as they were calling and sounded so close and at one point they were bashing against the balcony (probably just scratching themselves but in the dead of night your imagination runs a bit wild). We were terrified and I blew the whistle again but all we heard was a snort and then it carried on. Once again we didn't sleep any more.

For us it was an adventure too far. Some people might live for that sort of thrill knowing there are hippos and buffalo with just a bit of canvas seperating you, but it was too much for us, and we were a bit upset that we hadn't been told what to do about hippos; we didn't know if blowing the whistle was the right thing to do, should we put a light on or will that attract attention?!

Anyway, for that reason we probably wouldn't stay here again, but that isn't to say that whilst we were there during the day we had a wonderful time!