Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge

After our first 1-night stop-over in Arusha on our 8-day Serengeti wildebeest migration safari, our second stop-over was at Lake Manyara Serena Safari lodge situated on the edge of the Mto Wa Mbu escarpment, also for just 1-night. Our traditional “rondavel” cottage with a comfortable king size bed, and an additional spare bed, was spacious and clean, with an en-suite bathroom and shower. Our room also had its own private balcony with lovely views of the property and the valley below. The property is extremely neat and well maintained with spectacular views of the Great Rift Valley and the large Manyara lake. The authentic African-styled lodge has appealing facilities with a Maasai culture decor, including a lounge, bar, dining, and outside terrace area. There is also an impressive rim-flow swimming pool with a pool deck and bar. The staff were very friendly and efficient, ensuring that we were well looked after at all times. The food was superb, and our specific dietary needs were well catered for. The delicious food was complemented with the local beers including Kilimanjaro, Safari, and Serengeti, all of which were very good. Overall, it was a fantastic 1-night stop-over.

This is a beautiful place with great food but most importantly the staff are incredible. Our son wasn’t well when we arrived and got worse not long after. The manager, chef and all waiters were so keen to help, I couldn’t be more grateful and would highly recommend. Special mention for our “Ranger Safaris” guide Udo ( hope I have spelt that right) - great guide , but really helped us at every point.

This was the last of four Serena hotels on our Tanzanian safari with them. It was nice being on paved roads again! The hotel is beautiful, as all the others are, with a nice view of Lake Manyara. We stayed two nights and visited the parks in the area. It was pretty hot, and animal sightings were fairly limited, with lots of jeeps chasing after a few. We did get to see the famous climbing lions! Lots of monkeys and birding was good. The hotel was quiet while we there, and service was fantastic. Food was good, similar to the other hotels, but we did have table service because of the small guests numbers. Internet was outstanding!

Watch out for the bedbugs! This hotel is nicely located overlooking the lake, and the pool is amazing. But our stay was ruined by nasty bed bugs, and generally low level of cleanliness. We arrived for lunch and immediately noted that the table cloth on our table was dirty. The family at the table next to us asked to be moved because their table cloth was also dirty. When we went to bed we noted a plethora of bugs in the bed, despite the mosquito netting. We thought of bedbugs but did not think these were bedbugs. Unfortunately we were wrong and suffered for the following several days with typical bed bug bites on arms and neck. We emailed the hotel immediately so they could take action and avoid a similar outcome for the next guests in unit #19. They ignored our email. We let our tour operator know and they notified the hotel. The hotel responded that it was our fault for leaving door/window open - which was nonsense. We did not have either open other than entering and exiting the unit.