The Insider: The Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti

You make a reservation, but you don’t know what a hotel is really like until you stay there. There are hundreds of thousands of hotels worldwide, and with new ones opening every day, it’s impossible to know what you’re going to get. Yahoo Travel takes the guessing out of your reservation by going inside some of the world’s most popular hotels.

The hotel: The Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti

Location: Central Serengeti, Serengeti National Park, Arusha, Tanzania

First impressions: I should have locked the door. Everyone working at the lodge had told me to keep the door locked. I didn’t listen to them. So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when I woke to find a medium-sized baboon sitting on my dresser, watching me sleep, and eating the sugar from my coffee tray.

I threw up my arms in fright. He did the same. Two thoughts went through my mind. Would he attack me? And then, I should be taking a video — this could go viral.

My new friend invited his buddies to the party, and as the train of monkeys marched through the door as though they owned the place, I made a command decision. Knowing little about what makes baboons tick, I used an old trick a camp counselor once taught me about what to do if you encounter a bear in the woods. I stood on the bed and made myself as large as possible and emitted a noise — half-roar, half-bellow — that showed I was not going to be held hostage by a gang of monkeys in my luxury hotel room. They looked at me with rightful skepticism. One of them picked up a bag of artisanal, small-batch coffee that I had bought near Mount Kilimanjaro, tucked it under his arm, and sauntered back into the Serengeti.

I tell this story not as an example of lax monkey security at the Four Seasons Serengeti Lodge (I was told to lock the door, after all), but rather, to refute some of my friends who said staying in this lodge just isn’t rustic enough for the Serengeti. A baboon broke into my room. It doesn’t get more real than that.

Yes, the Four Seasons Serengeti Lodge is the epitome of luxury. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t right in the middle of the kind of action you want to experience when you visit one of the world’s premier game reserves.

The property: The 77 guest rooms, suites, and villas feature contemporary African décor along with mosquito netting-draped four-poster beds, air conditioning, and high-speed Internet access. Many of the rooms contain a private, open-air sun deck and a plunge pool overlooking the plains and a watering hole that receives frequent visits from elephants, zebra, giraffe, and lions.

To give some indication of the level of luxury offered here, this is the property where the Tanzanian president, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, stays when he is on vacation.

Your view of the plains when you wake up in the morning (Photo: Four Seasons Safari Lodge)

When I arrived in my room, I was greeted by a plate of macarons with white and dark chocolate renditions of lions, rhinos, and hippos. Each room has a television (many have two) and all of the requisite international cable channels, but what is truly entrancing and kept me up at all hours was channel 24 — a constant live feed of the local watering hole, lit at night with an infrared lens, so that you know exactly what is lurking outside your room.

Chocolate Big Five with delicious macarons (Photo: Jo Piazza/Yahoo Travel)

Each night, I would fall asleep to channel 24, my door locked to keep the baboons from making another unexpected visit. Still, I could see them out there, loping about in pairs and threesomes, plotting their next caper.

What I loved: It was the experiences that elevated my stay beyond my expectations. Photographer-in-residence Rick Collins joined me on a game drive and taught me how to take the perfect safari photo.

Related: Never Ever Take a Lame Safari Photo Again

Chef Simba (that’s really his name) prepared a four-course dinner for us out on the plains (protected by game rangers, of course). Our meal was lit by hurricane lanterns in a nearby acacia tree, and lions roared in the distance. They didn’t sound at all like the imperial MGM lion at the start of the studio’s movies, but rather, like a low-grunting Wookie.

Sunset dinner in the bush (Photo: Four Seasons Safari Lodge)

Our driver, Frances, could spot a leopard in the pitch-black of 4 a.m. poking its head above the tall grass. Each member of the staff here is warm, inviting, and determined to make your stay as wonderful as possible. That includes a cadre of Maasai warriors, who work at the lodge in all sorts of capacities, including security. Who do you think I called when that baboon made its way into my room? They were always a welcoming presence late in the evening, with their warm “Jambo!” as they walked me along the boardwalk to my suite.

Related: Add This to Your Bucket List—Serengeti Hot Air Balloon Safari

I loved the room-key technology, which included RFID-enabled chips sewn into Maasai beaded necklaces that could easily be worn around your neck to help ensure that keys are never lost. It was such a simple touch, but for someone who is constantly misplacing room keys, it was a nice one.

What I didn’t love: There’s no way around it. The Serengeti is far away. It isn’t fair to make this a black mark on the vacation, but it is worth noting that you need to budget a significant amount of time to travel here. I took a flight from New York City to Istanbul to Kilimanjaro. From there, I drove about an hour to Arusha, where I stayed overnight at the Arusha Coffee Lodge before taking a small plane to the Seronera airstrip, which landed smack in the middle of the Serengeti. From there, it was an hourlong game drive to the resort. Was it worth it? Yes. But it was time-consuming and a possible consideration for parents traveling with children. Load up those iPads before you go.

Who should go: I don’t always say this, and I don’t say it lightly, but almost everyone will appreciate spending time at this property. The one group I may exclude are new parents with very young children. A 4-year-old is probably the youngest child I would bring along for this adventure. But the Kids Club and the Discovery Centre at this property help make it unique.

Discovery Centre Manager Oli Dreike on a bush walk (Photo: Four Seasons Safari Lodge)

A safari vacation can be a wonderland for young children, imprinting memories in their brain that can spawn a lifelong interest in science, biology, animals, and travel. On the flip side, it can be very dull and adult-centric. The kids club, which is called Kijana Klub, makes sure that the experience is captivating, and that is due largely to Oli Dreike, who plans frequent bush walks, interactive activities, and special game drives for kids. He even helps the children set their very own camera traps, which are used to capture photographs of animals out in the wild. Sometimes he even lets the grownups play along.

Related: The Cutest Baby Animals You Will See on Safari

Why did the baby elephant cross the road? (Photo: Jo Piazza/Yahoo Travel)

One night I set out on foot with Dreike and a pair of gun-toting game rangers a couple of hours before sunset. We placed two camera traps, no small feat, and in the morning we had pictures of the hyenas and dik-diks that came along that night.

The spa: You’ve heard of hot-stone massages. I’ve always found them overrated. The Spa at the Serengeti Lodge takes hot stone one step further by kneading your wearied muscles with a Maasai baton.

While at the spa, I was introduced to a new kind of super fruit that blew acai out of the water. Meet the baobub, a fruit that comes from the tree of life and promotes antiaging, gives you energy, and tastes delicious.

All of the massage rooms have spa doors that open out onto the plains, where zebras roam. Recently, the hotel launched a new fitness initiative, with experiences like the Sunset Kopje Nature Walk and Meditation and the Moonlight Meditation, a 75-minute Sunset Kopje Nature Walk that begins with a short uphill hike, led by a Maasai warrior, to reach the spectacular sunset viewpoint across the Serengeti plains, before a guided meditation session with the lodge’s yogi. It's the perfect way to conclude the perfect trip. 

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