Olduvai Camp

Great place . Staff very friendly and helpful . The walk with the Masais is really something quite special.
However late october may not be the best time to visit ( very windy and dusty)

Great camp in a wonderful location.
Staff were very friendly and the food was very good.
We had 2 separate 1 night stays. Kids loved the local wildlife (genet, porcupine and hyrax). No bigger game but no doubt different in the wet season.
Enjoyed the evening walk and the viewpoint.

We only stayed one night at Olduvai camp but enjoyed it very much. The tents were more spacious than we had anticipated, and the staff and food were great. Meeting the resident genet at dinner time was a plus.

The tents, located at the base of a kopje, are permanently erected, and covered with a thatched roof. For most sides of the tent, the canvas can be unzipped leaving a screened area. However, the toilet, shower, and wash basin areas are not contained within the canvas area, although they are still underneath the thatched roof. This was a little unsettling to me, especially if using the facilities during the night, feeling that I had to look out for spiders, snakes, rodents, or any other crawly thing that might have been lurking.

The bed was clean and comfortable, and the bug spray they provided to spray our tent before dinner was effective - no issues with mosquitoes or tsetse.

All in all, it was an enjoyable stay.

Fabulous tent and great totally outdoor shower

Lodge has a great bar area

Packed lunch was the most disappointing of the ones we had (but not bad!)

The sunset walk was not quite as interactive and insightful as we might have liked but they were happy to answer questions when asked

Complete contrast to Gibbs Farm but a real African experience. Felt a bit uncomfortable on the walk to the museum with the massai guides when we passed heir village to be greeted by women and children, we were quite happy to buy 1 bracelet but felt a bit pressured and had to ask to move on and complete our walk The other staff were great.

Stop over.

I stopped here twice. The camp is ok for a stopover at this time of year. The staff here are very friendly and willing to help in any way. This would be a great camp in the green season, when the wildebeast are here. Follow their advice.

Good for one night stay but we think cold be good also for two night stay as the near available activities.

Beautiful landscape at sunset.

Loved This Camp Setting!

We unfortunately didn't have enough time at this camp arriving near sunset but in time for the sundowner walk to the kopje. It was very dry and parched during this season and also extremely windy which made the walk a little difficult due to the blowing sand. The camp is set high up against a kopje but with open plains all around and judging from other reviewers seems to often be windy. The wind kept my husband awake overnight but I didn't notice it and slept well. The tents all have wonderful views out over the plains and we loved the outdoor showers, hand basin and toilet. The Maasai staff were wonderful and such a pleasure to talk with during our sundowner walk. The views from the diningroom were outstanding and the ambience of the camp fire area just magical! Our dinner was very good and the vegetarian dinner I had was one of the best camp dinners of the trip. We hear this is an amazing camp during the wet season when the wildebeest numbers are meant to be tremendous and the landscape turns to a lovely green. If we were to ever return we would do this camp again in wet season.

Olduvai

Very very basic!! A step above camping!! Not sure worth it as drive was extremely dusty and long but we did see some fun game in the central serengeti but was hard to match all the wonderful game viewing we saw the previous 7 days !! Never got to see the Gorge or the museum! Disappointed!

We would recommend skipping the long drive to and from here in the dirt and dust and rough roads and fly to the crater area! Many would disagree as some we met stayed 2--3 days and did lots of walking with the Masai! Different experience!!

Oldevai camp

What a place - we loved this camp and stayed there with our teenage daughter. The staff were so friendly - a big thanks to Mr Kanywa and his team for making this such a memorable experience- we'd like to go back in the rainy season. Not very many Massai staff around but it was a very quiet time so I assume they don't employ so many Massa then as the website suggests. The tents were lovely - liked the view out onto the plain and it really felt as if we were in the middle of nowwhere which we liked and the scenery with the bright green sisal and mountains in the distance is stunning.The sundowner climb was great and the walk out to the groge was a unique experience- just us three and- Daniel the ranger and Cassani, friendly Massai guide ( sorry if the spelling's wrong)- thanks for teling us so much about Massai culture and some Maa words! The walk is fairly straightforward and interesting to pass through ' Twiga' and herds of Massai sheep and goats and to see the temporary bomas they build. The gorge museum is really interesting . Our driver met us and took us up to the shifting sands- what an amazing phenomeno! well worth a visit.
The food in the camp was generally good and we had many long chats and laughs with Mr Kanwya and his staff in the restaurant and liked sititing round the camp fire at might with staff and other guests- all in all a very laid-back atmosphere. Plenty of 'tame' animal life around the camp- porcupine , genet ( finished off the soup! )and rock hyrax. Easy enough to do a game drive into Serengetti in in a day . Recommend this camp to people who like to truly 'get away from it all' and interact with local people.

Olduvai was windy and dusty.

Perhaps is was the full day of outstanding gamewatching in the Ngorongoro Crater that caused us to arrive after sunset. Perhaps it was the dry dust kicked up by the strong gusting winds. Maybe is was Jo's first experience in a field tent (her prior tent camps were the Oberoi at Raj Villas in Jaipur, India) but this camp did not appeal to Jo. I think the shower took some getting used to. By our last day she was an enthusiast. I thought the Olduvai Tented Camp was fine, but the rating is our combination of opinions.

I suspect that our opinion would be higher in the wet season. The area around Olduvai was extremely parched when we were there.

After breakfast we were able to select the contents of our picnic lunch before leaving for our morning game drive. A big plus for this camp is the location near the Olduvai Gorge the "Birthplace of Mankind" site of the palaeotological digs by Louis and Mary Leakey. A stop at the small museum at the Gorge is highly recommended.

Olduvai

Olduvai Camp was nice although very windy because of the location. The sunset hike with the Maasai guide was lovely, and good to stretch out legs after being in the Landcruiser all day.

The food was good and the staff very nice. We did get a real sense of the distances that the Maasai walk going from place to place and tending their herds.

amazing place to stay

For our honeymoon, my husband and I planned a short, 3-night safari before spending a week on the beach at Zanzibar. We stayed at the Olduvai Camp on the last night of our safari and we did not want to leave!! It was quite possibly the best night sleep I've had- ever- and the staff and members of the Masai tribe were very nice and welcoming hosts.

The camp is run well and they have a system that works. When travelers arrive after a day on safari, they are escorted by Masai to view an unbelievable sunset along with the other guests. While at the sunset, the staff arrange the hot water for each tent so guests can shower before dinner. The tent itself was divided into 3 sections. The beds are in one section, then a small changing area, then a section with the toilet and shower. The shower and toilet section has a thatched roof so there were a few bugs in that area but with the double zippered tent in the section with our beds, there were no bugs or ants anywhere.

Dinner was good, with guests sitting at big tables making conversation with other travelers easy. There were lots of little details that made the experience so nice and comfortable (tissues, bottles of water, a nice fire pit, etc)

The setting of this camp is absolutely magnificent. We both honestly feel lucky to have stayed at a place with such significance in history- being so close to the Olduvai Gorge ("the Birthplace of Mankind"). It was so beautiful and peaceful. An experience that could literally not be matched by any other place in the world!

We definitely recommend staying at Olduvai Camp!

Olduvai Camp

We next spent 2 nights at Olduvai Camp in the southern Serengeti. The local area was quite parched, but our 2 days of safari were terrific. We rarely saw another vehicle, the drivers could go off-road the whole time (not a national park), and we had lots of good animal sightings including cheetah.

Olduvai Camp is built into a kopje, it has resident genets and hyrax, its observation deck on top is great and the staff are very nice. The tents and food are pretty good, especially for the price. I would bet during the wet season this would be an incredible value with big herds nearby. We were very glad we stayed here.

Olduvai Camp : JUN09

On our Safari, we were so lucky to have the best driverguide of Africa! Thanks to Edward Wenga of Mount Kilimanjaro Safari Club, we had a lot of unforgettable moments with Africa's animals. We stayed at the following places ......

Olduvai Camp - an unforgettable Serengeti-atmosphere

Olduvai Camp

Also a marvelous place, however winds are strong and quite noisy throughout the night, not much they can do about that. The walk to the ridge to watch the sunset was lovely, as was the sunset, and dinner was excellent, although not on par with Gibbs Farm. That night we hung around the campfire, stargazing and conversing with a local Masai herdsman who had attended a Missionary School and was very articulate and educated.
Speaking to him gave us a sense of how helpful and essential education can be to helping people improve their lives. On the way out toward the Serengeti, we stopped at Olduvai Gorge and visited the archeology museum and ruins, which was quite informative and worthwhile.