One of my favorite places to go on safari is Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, a vast grassland punctuated by occasional acacias and sausage trees. It offers the sweeping, iconic views famously hosts the Great Migration. Several million wildebeests, zebras and gazelles circle around the park throughout the year, dipping into southwestern Kenya’s Maasai Mara in August and September. Predators follow.

This time, I ignored conventional wisdom and visited the northern, western and southern Serengeti during the short January-February dry season, even though the migration was only in the south. As with the stock market, bucking the trend can pay dividends.

One Nature Mara River

Don’t begin a safari at this seven-villa lodge in the northern Serengeti. It sets far too high a standard. The newer of One Nature’s two properties, this hideaway stands near where the Great Migration crosses the Mara River between July and August, an epic spectacle.

We didn’t see any dramatic river crossings, but nor did we see many other vehicles. I recall two. The landscape certainly wasn’t empty of animals, however. On our first game drive, we encountered a large pride of female lions and cubs, a sighting we shared with no one else. We saw herds of zebras and various species of antelope, plus hyenas, warthogs, more lions and even a wary leopard. An array of beautiful birds gathered by palm-fringed streams and ponds speckled with water lilies.

Despite the splendid animal sightings, I always looked forward to returning to the extravagant lodge, driven there in a safari vehicle with Italian leather seats. Opened in 2024, One Nature Mara River stretches along a hillside surveying a vast swath of the Serengeti.

I immediately loved our maximalist stand-alone villa, which combined canvas, colorful wallpaper and geometric wood marquetry. Lamps with porcupine-quill shades flanked a king bed protected by embroidered mosquito netting. After unpacking, I used the antique-style brass candlestick phone to summon our butler, who drew a bubble bath in the freestanding copper tub on our panoramic terrace. I then took a dip in our heated plunge pool and had a rinse in our walk-in shower, which was clad unexpectedly in corrugated oak.

Boardwalks connect the villas with the hilltop gym and the main building, which has a lounge, cocktail bar and dining room. After sundowners by a fire cauldron, we delayed dinner, heading instead to the lodge’s alfresco movie theater, where we sipped a second round of gin and tonics and watched the beginning of Out of Africa. For sundowners the next evening, our guide drove us a short way to a stylish portable bar our butler had set up on a hill above the river.

EDITOR PHOTOS (slideshow below)

At lunches and dinners, short à la carte menus usually offered a local dish or two, plus French- or Italian-inspired options. I particularly liked the tender Tanzanian beef pilau, barbecue pork ribs with mixed vegetables and jollof spaghetti with eggplant. But the silky, deeply flavored soups — like carrot-cumin or creamy mushroom with biltong — were consistent standouts. “Yes, soup is our specialty,” our waiter informed us.

For our last breakfast, we ordered room service, which was delivered by a cavalcade of staff. Working in impressive concert, they opened the windows, uncovered the furniture in our open-air living room and set up an elegant spread. We sipped strong coffee and ate omelets, pastries and fruit as the rising sun glowed golden on the Serengeti stretching endlessly below.

&Beyond Grumeti Serengeti River Lodge

We took a short scheduled flight to the Kirawira-Grumeti airstrip in the western section of the Serengeti, which sees the Great Migration around mid-June. Singita has three Harper-recommended properties on a 350,000-acre private concession in this region, adjacent to the national park. Though &Beyond’s lodge is less expensive and is inside the (public) national park, the brand rarely disappoints. I had high expectations.

It didn’t take long for those expectations to be fulfilled, since &Beyond Grumeti Serengeti River Lodge is about five minutes from the airstrip. True to its name, this lavish 10-key property extends along a tributary of the Grumeti. From the lounge spaces on the broad deck of the open-air main building, we could watch a pod of hippos in the water maybe 50 yards away. Ceilings embellished by hundreds of dried banana leaves and furnishings with Maasai-patterned upholsteries provided ample sense of place.

We took most meals at shady tables behind the deck’s sunken fire pit. If we didn’t have a picnic breakfast on a game drive, an extensive personal buffet tray came to us. I had mostly Italian lunches, opting for a thin-crust pizza from the pizza oven or homemade pasta, like pappardelle with hearty lamb ragout. I went lighter in the evening: perhaps a pickled beet salad with green apple, goat cheese and roasted pistachio, followed by delectable grilled tiger prawns with Thai green curry and baby zucchini. The exception was the dinner in a lantern-lit boma, a traditional enclosure of tree-trunk posts, at which the buffet of local and Mediterranean cuisine proved all too tempting. Negronis based on Tanzanian gin aided digestion admirably.

To reach our room, we walked past the circular main pool, flanked by day beds and loungers, and the path to the gym, which reportedly also overlooks the river. Accommodations here used to be relatively simple tents, but now, after a total reconstruction in 2022, the lodge offers plush open-plan “suites” the size of small houses. I loved the high ceilings and earthy, contemporary-African décor. A long curtain could separate the airy bath area from the rest of the suite, useful at night for confining the air conditioning to the bedroom. On our terrace, a hefty sofa and (unheated) plunge pool afforded views of the river. We requested a coffee delivery early each morning and watched the hippos, which periodically wrestled one another with their massive maws.

EDITOR PHOTOS (slideshow below)

On game drives, we had stupendous wildlife sightings despite the absence of the Great Migration. One day, we saw no fewer than 34 lions, plus an epic herd of topi antelopes, four elephant bulls, two Verreaux’s eagle-owls and one leopard tortoise, among many other animals.

Here, too, I regretted having to check out. Singita has long monopolized this corner of the Serengeti, but no longer.

Wilderness Usawa Serengeti

We’d waited long enough to witness the Great Migration itself. The six-tent Wilderness Usawa Serengeti mobile camp does follow the herd, setting up in five different locations around the national park, depending on the time of year. From December to April, the period when we stayed, the camp stands in the untouristy southern plains. This isn’t the place to see a dangerous river crossing, but rather mother wildebeests with their calves. In fact, most fellow guests at the camp observed wildebeests giving birth. 

The iconic herds of grazers are awe-inspiring to see, marching in determined fashion toward the horizon across the vast expanse of grass. We also had fantastic luck with carnivorous species. Memorable sightings included a mature male lion stretched out on a granite kopje, licking blood off its paws; a pair of cheetah brothers atop a termite mound; and a leopard in a tree, feasting on the carcass of a wildebeest calf.

Unveiled in 2023, this solar-powered camp may be portable, but it’s hardly spartan. In the capacious main tent, linen-upholstered loungers and sofas, asymmetric wood coffee tables and brass accents give the space a stylishly natural feel. Our tent had a more pared-back campaign-inspired design, with a small folding desk and chair, a coffee bar in a trunk and a leather-backed king bed. A screen wall afforded grassland views from one side of the tent, and on the other, canvas shielded the WC, a vanity with running water and a bucket shower.

The term “bucket shower” does not inspire confidence. In practice, what it means is that a staff member manually pours hot water into a receptacle that connects to a rainfall showerhead in our bath. One fill provided enough water for both my companion and me. I should also note that the tents lack air conditioning, but nights were so deliciously cool, housekeeping put hot-water bottles beneath our down duvet while we were at dinner.

Meals, not incidentally, were of a startlingly high quality considering the remoteness of the camp, which receives supplies just once a week. Often the chef drew inspiration from multicultural Zanzibar, as in our first dinner of delectably chewy chapati with beef skewers and onion-tomato salad followed by flaky Nile perch in coconut sauce and mustard-coated sweet-potato cubes. Breakfasts were also a treat; I became addicted to the Zanzibar pizza, a chapati stuffed with egg, cheese and slaw, wrapped in foil and cooked in the fire we sat beside.

EDITOR PHOTOS (slideshow below)

The last morning, I awoke before dawn, made coffee in our French press and sat in a lounger on our covered outdoor space. As the sun rose over the deceptively tranquil Serengeti plain, I tried to count the number of safaris I’ve been on. Unable to do so with certainty, I gave up. Instead, I started planning my next one.