Ngorongoro Lodge by Melia

The lodge offers thirteen room and suite categories spanning from a single Rim Room to a four bedroom Ngorongoro Suite and a standalone Ngorongoro House for private buyouts.

Year round. Three pricing seasons run across the calendar: Peak (July to September, late December to early January), High (January to February, June, October), and Shoulder (March to May, November to mid December).

By light aircraft to Lake Manyara airstrip (around 50 minutes from Arusha) plus a 1.5 to 2 hour transfer up to the Crater rim. Road from Arusha takes around 6 hours via Karatu.

Yes. Children under 4 stay free. Children 4 to 11.99 sharing with 2 adults pay 50 percent of the adult rate. Children 12 and over pay the adult rate. The Family Room, Two Bedroom Suites, and Ngorongoro House are built for families.

Full board dining, selected soft drinks with meals, daily housekeeping, 18 percent VAT, and 5 percent service charge. NCAA fees, concession, TDL, transfers, game drive vehicle hire, and soft drinks are not included.

Yes. A $30 per person per night Easter supplement applies over the Easter window. A $40 per person per night Christmas and New Year supplement applies on 24, 25, 26 December and 31 December plus 1 January. These are charged when a stay covers the dated windows.

Year round. The Crater is one of the most consistent Big Five sites in Tanzania regardless of season. Dry months (Jun to Oct) and post rain green season (Feb to Mar) are particularly good.

WiFi reaches the rooms and the public areas and handles messages, email and light browsing. Mobile signal on the Crater rim is reasonable on the main networks and falls away once you drop to the Crater floor. Bandwidth is shared across the lodge, so a video call goes better early in the morning than in the evening.

The lodge runs 24 hour electricity with generator backup, so cameras and phones charge overnight in the room. Sockets are the British style three pin type, so bring an adapter if your plugs are two pin. The rim sits at about 2,300 metres and the nights are genuinely cold, so warm layers matter more here than anywhere else on the northern circuit.

Staff are trained in first aid and the lodge keeps a kit on site. Karatu, roughly two hours down from the rim, has a hospital and pharmacies used to treating travellers, and anything serious is flown out from Lake Manyara airstrip. We ask every guest to travel with medical evacuation cover.

March to May and November bring mist on the rim in the mornings and afternoon rain that usually clears. The Crater floor holds its resident wildlife all year, so a descent in those months is as productive as one in August and meets far fewer vehicles. Pack a waterproof layer for the early descent whatever month you travel.

Yes. From 1 October 2026 visitors entering mainland Tanzania must hold the government inbound travel insurance, 44 USD per adult and valid for up to 92 days, covering emergency medical care, evacuation, repatriation and lost luggage. Children aged 3 to 17 pay half and infants under 3 are free. It is bought online before you fly or on arrival, and residents of Tanzania and of East African and SADC countries are exempt. If you land in Zanzibar first, the Zanzibar policy covers you instead. It is paid by you directly and is not part of your trip price.