Ngorongoro's Rim Lodges Put the Big Five Below Your Window

Most safari camps put you among the animals; Ngorongoro's rim lodges put you above them. The crater itself, formed some two to three million years ago when a large volcano erupted and collapsed in on itself, is generally reckoned to be the world's largest intact, unfilled volcanic caldera, its floor sitting roughly 600 metres below a rim that runs some 300 metres almost the entire eight-kilometre width of the enclosed 260-square-kilometre bowl.

A closed ecosystem, and an unusually reliable one

Because the crater walls largely fence its resident wildlife in year-round, sightings here don't depend on a seasonal migration the way many East African safaris do. Ngorongoro is one of the few places anywhere that a single day's game drive can realistically turn up all of the so-called Big Five, lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and both black and white rhino, within the same enclosed landscape, alongside dense populations of wildebeest, zebra and flamingo-lined soda lakes.

Sleeping on the edge of it

The lodges built along the crater rim, several of them designed with floor-to-ceiling views over the bowl, let guests take in that same landscape from a terrace or a freestanding bathtub before a single vehicle sets off. Mornings typically start with an early descent down the crater's single access road while the light is still low and the grassland cool, before climbing back out to the rim's cooler air for the rest of the day.

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Part of a larger, older story

Ngorongoro Crater sits within the wider Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 recognised for both its wildlife and its archaeology, including the nearby Olduvai Gorge, where fossil finds have contributed significantly to understanding early human origins. The Maasai, who were resettled from the neighbouring Serengeti in the 1950s, still graze cattle within the conservation area under agreements that make this one of the rare protected landscapes where people and wildlife formally coexist.

Traveller tips

• The nearest airstrips are served from Arusha, roughly a three to four hour drive, or by light aircraft charter for a shorter transfer.
• Only a limited number of vehicles are permitted onto the crater floor at any time, and visits are capped at six hours, so lodges typically schedule an early descent.
• The rim sits at altitude and can be considerably colder, especially at night, than the crater floor itself; warm layers are worth packing regardless of season.
• Entry and conservation fees are payable per person per day and are usually built into a lodge's rates rather than settled separately.