East Africa Camps runs its own camps in Tanzania and Kenya, on sites you do not share with twenty minibuses. Voyages Synergia and Voyages AquaTerra are their exclusive supplier in Canada: every safari package we sell goes through them, which means the advisor building your file talks directly to the people who will welcome you on site.
Four camps, four ecosystems
Pakulala Safari Camp, above the Ngorongoro Crater
Eleven tents pitched on the caldera rim, in a spot where almost nobody sleeps. The fit-out echoes nineteenth-century expeditions: twin queen beds, bucket shower, eco toilets, locally made basins and rugs hand-woven by the women of Mbulu. Lighting is solar, there is no wall socket, and hot water bottles go into the beds because nights at that altitude are cold and windy. Wildlife passes near camp after dark: staff walk guests back to their tents.
Pumzika Luxury Safari Camp, Seronera area of the Serengeti
Six tents only, two of which convert into family tents for four, set away from the park’s main tracks. Same philosophy: solar lighting, bucket shower, cotton percale sheets and mohair blankets, a chef on site and a dining tent. Game drives are by 4x4, and the balloon lifts off from the area.
Olengoti Eco Safari Camp & Cottages, Masai Mara
Eleven tents and six cottages built from adobe and sustainably sourced timber, along the banks of the Talek River at the entrance to the reserve. The cottages have their own lounge, terrace and a direct view of the river. All the site’s energy is solar. It is the best-placed camp for the Great Migration when the herds are in the Mara.
Speke Bay Lodge, southeastern shore of Lake Victoria
Thatched cottages on a two-hundred-acre estate returned to savannah, fifteen kilometres from the Ndabaka gate of the Serengeti and a hundred and twenty-five kilometres north of Mwanza. This is the stop that changes pace: sunrise and sunset boat trips, guided birding walks, cycling, hippos and crocodiles from the terrace. Unlike the bush camps, it has wifi and laundry service.
What you do on site
- 4x4 game drives, morning and late afternoon, when the animals move
- Balloon flights over the Masai Mara and the Serengeti at first light
- Guided walks, which change the scale of the landscape entirely
- A Maasai village visit, arranged by the camp
- At Speke Bay, boats, birds and bicycles, to breathe between two parks
Comfort, without pretending to be a hotel
These camps are luxurious in the sense that the bed is excellent and the cooking careful, not in the sense that everything works like it does in town. Power comes from the sun, the shower is a bucket shower filled with hot water on request, and the toilets are eco toilets. Bring a power bank and a headlamp. That is exactly what makes the silence possible: no generator runs at night.
When to go
The herds move in a loop between Tanzania and Kenya, following the rains. Calving concentrates in the southern Serengeti from January to March. The herds then move northwest in spring, and cross into the Mara, on the Kenyan side, generally between July and October. These dates shift every year: they depend on rain, not on the calendar. An advisor adjusts the itinerary according to what the camps are seeing on the ground at the time you book.
Reaching the camps
Road transfers are possible, but distances are measured in hours of track. Most itineraries combine both: the bush flight between parks, then the camp’s 4x4 on the ground.
Booking from Quebec
Talk to an advisor or write to us through the contact page. Voyages AquaTerra holds Quebec permit 702703.
