Like a 2nd honeymoon! HUGE comfortable room. great pool and bar area, romantic and yummy diner, wonderful view of Lake Manyara, and fabulous, personalized service.
Lodge Overall: New, clean with interesting decorations and nicely paved paths to the rooms with pretty landscaping. The outside pool and bar area are AWESOME. The pool temp was cool, but refreshing for the hot day. The bar had plenty of comfortable chairs and tables and a nice wine list. The internet service (only accessible at the bar/pool area) was up and down, but workable. Staff include Maasai in local dress with flashlights to escort guest to/from the rooms in the dark (I assume to ensure wildlife don’t scare us away). Only downside: The dirt path/road getting to the property is a dirty-scrub-mini-safari that does not set a good initial impression.
Rooms: HUGE, comfortable room with a great view of the lake. King sized bed, good mosquito netting, big bathroom with a double sink/running water, good shower with plenty of hot water, plenty of amenities (bottled water for drinking and brushing teeth, soap, shampoo, and conditioner). They even provided bug spray for walking to pool/diner. LOVED the outside porch (but did not have time to enjoy it). Solar-powered lighting. This SAYS it’s “tented” and if you look up, you will note the roof is indeed a tent, but it is not at ALL obvious. Walls and floor are solid, windows are clear. This is a stand-alone bungalow. The path to our room was not fully finished. The path itself ended and we followed a dirt path to the room entrance, but I suspect that is temporary and the path is just not yet completed.
Food:
-- Hanging out by the pool in the afternoon, we were served YUMMY chicken wings as a little snack. I RAVED about them to the waiter saying I could eat those wings morning, noon, and night!
-- Dinner: we were escorted to a private little covered gazebo overlooking the lake with a candle-lit private table for two. So amazingly romantic! We were seated and served a green banana soup that was out of this world! The beef entrée was good, though not quite tender enough to rave about. I skipped dessert but my husband enjoyed it – something with berries. Though totally outside, we had no issue with bugs or crawly things we might have expected being surrounded by foliage and plants. The service was perfect, the setting was ideal, and the evening was magic.
-- Breakfast: Again, a private table set for two this time next to the pool. Another fabulous view of the lake. Part of the breakfast was buffet: cereal, several different yummy breads, fruits, juices. Then eggs with bacon to order. The beef bacon that is a little scary, everything else was GREAT. BUT for MY breakfast, the server arrived with an additional covered plate of…. Those YUMMY CHICKEN WINGS from the afternoon before! He must have told the chef how I had raved about them and the staff arranged for more in the morning. I almost fell over laughing! It was the nicest, sweetest moment of our whole trip! I could not finish them, so they were boxed up for me later. UNBELIEVEABLE.
Service/Staff: Did you read about the chicken wings? WOW! Also, I was having a problem booking a room for our return to Dar and the front desk woman was amazing. We had to play with a combination of internet sites, my credit cards, and erratic internet connectivity but we were FINALLY able to book at a great rate. She also called the hotel that morning to confirm airport pickup and room availability which was a good thing because that confirmation corrected a mistake that would have been much MORE difficult to resolve when our flight arrived after midnight…
Love this place!
