We were incredibly blessed to stay in some spectacular places on our African safari honeymoon to Kenya and Tanzania. It was a once-in-a-lifetime sort of trip, so we aimed to stay in once-in-a-lifetime sort of places. Nimali Serengeti camp was, both my husband and I agreed, our favorite—in an extremely competitive line-up of luxury bush camps and lodges.
This post could not be less incentivized, and we paid full price for our wonderful 3-night sstay. I’m genuinely just writing this glowing review to sing Nimali’s many praises because I’m so grateful we stayed here on our honeymoon, and I hope others do, too.
Note: Because we were with an overland tour company taking us from camp to camp, we didn’t use Nimali’s in-house guides or vehicles for game drives. If their guides were as wonderful as their staff, I’m sure they were great, and the vehicles looked new and comfortable. If we went back to the Serengeti, I think we’d just go straight to Nimali, and book our game drives and activities (e.g. sunrise balloon ride) directly through them.
Table of Contents
Common Areas
At Nimali Serengeti, there is a main tent with the check-in lounge area, dining areas, and pool patio. There is also a long shared pathway that leaves from here, leading out to the tents. I’m not sure how many people were staying here with us, but it’s a very small camp and spaced out in such a way that makes it feel quiet and private. So it really feels like an exclusive luxury stay.
Main House & Dining Area
There is a big “main” tent at Nimali. It’s the first one you enter when you walk down the small hill from the parking area to the property to be checked in. Immediately, the view upon entering makes you realize your every safari fantasy will come true here.
There’s a central lounge area where you can sit, take in the panoramic views, and have a delicious welcome juice. The main covered dining room is just off to the right, with a large open patio stretching off to your left leading to the infinity pool.
The space is warm, comfortable and welcoming—while still being very much open to the elements. I’m pretty sure they had binoculars available here, but we always just had our own on us. You can see all sorts of wildlife in the expansive land stretching out in front of you. We even brought our binoculars to breakfast, which I highly recommend. We always loved watching the wildebeest and gazelles frolicking around, warming up for the day.
My phone camera wasn’t good enough to do it justice, but dinner in the main dining room was also always magical. Dimly lit with warm candlelight, perfect for a romantic honeymoon vibe. The service was great and the staff very friendly. One night, there was a downpour in the middle of dinner, which was actually kind of awesome as we were safe and dry in the cozy tent.
The food itself at Nimali was very good. In general, even though we stayed at quite upscale lodgings, it was pretty clear to me these bush camps aren’t exactly foodie destinations (I’m also a picky eater). Over the course of the trip, we had some disappointing meals, and some above-average meals. All of the meals at Nimali, if not mind-blowing, were definitely in the above-average category! Some of the best we had on safari.
The Grounds
There are around a dozen tented suites at Nimali, all (from what we could tell) along a single walkway built into a hill. They were spaced far enough apart to feel like you had privacy, and we couldn’t see others from out balcony/patio (thank goodness, since we really enjoyed the outdoor shower)!
The walk to our tent from the main dining area wasn’t too bad at all—a few minutes, perhaps. And the paved path was in good condition. Like with most safari lodges, you will need a staff escort to move to or from your tent when it’s dark out! This place is fully open to the wilderness, and we saw a massive elephant in the brush just off the path on multiple nighttime walks back from dinner!
Pool
When I imagined where we’d stay in the Serengeti on our honeymoon, I’ll admit I pictured the pool… a lot. Specifically, I pictured an infinity pool, from which I could watch herds of zebra, grazing giraffes, and more.
Happy to say, Nimali Serengeti’s pool scratched that exact itch. I’d had a hunch it would be from my (extensive) research before settling on this place, but it was even better in person.
The infinity pool was so picture-perfect, I wish we’d had a chance to spend more time there. We found time in between game drives and dinner, but not long enough to truly lounge around and get into a good book. Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly glad we had such extensive game drives—it’s why you go all the way to the Serengeti after all—but lounging around by this pool would be an excellent way to spend an afternoon. That’s why I say I could go back to Africa and just stay at Nimali the entire time!
The poolside service was also excellent—we never wanted for a cold beer. I don’t remember if you could order food to the pool or not, as we never did. But the staff here are so amazing, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they would accommodate such a request.
Luxury Safari Tents
Bedroom
The tented suites at Nimali Serengeti camp are, in the best sense of the world, absolutely ridiculous. From the moment we walked in (and saw the adorable towel in the shape of a heart covered in flowers on our bed) I loved it.
I believe Nimali has a couple of family suites which I can’t speak to, but I have only good things to say about the standard tented suite. Something that was quite important to me in picking safari accommodations for our honeymoon, was that it still felt like a tent. Yes, I wanted a luxurious honeymoon experience, but I didn’t want anything resembling a “normal” hotel room.
When we hear the lions roar from a disconcertingly close proximity in the middle of the night, I want to feel like a tiny bit nervous there’s no solid wall between us and them.
Nimali definitely satisfied that mix of luxury and authenticity I wanted in a safari bush camp! On our last night, we heard a huge crash from just outside our window. Jarrod walked out to peek between the drawn curtains—and I just heard, “holy [redacted], it’s an elephant”! A bull elephant was so close to our patio we were genuinely nervous to go outside, so we watched it fully knock a tree down, feet away, from our bedroom window!
I could have lived in this bedroom forever. It felt simultaneously cozy and open, a balance Nimali Serengeti camp strikes perfectly in all their spaces. As I’ve alluded to, despite being a luxury camp, it didn’t feel at all sterile or inauthentic. The tent was adorned with African touches everywhere, which worked in perfect tandem with the dreamy, flowy curtains, bed canopies, and massive windows letting in natural light.
Also, every night when we returned from dinner, the staff had performed a lovely turndown service on the room. They left little touches like a decanter of wine here, a bottle of champagne there—unsure if that’s standard or because we were on our honeymoon, but it made the stay even more special.
Bathroom
There are no words to describe how fabulous the bathtub is here. A particular highlight of our stay—actually, the whole honeymoon—was one night while we were at dinner the staff had drawn a hot bubble bath for us and left some champagne. It genuinely brings a tear to my eye remembering that moment: Watching the sunset over the Serengeti, champagne in hand, just a couple of newlyweds having the honeymoon of our wildest dreams.
I wish I got more (read: any?!) photos of the rest of the bathroom… clearly, I was so enamored with the bathtub I just felt it sufficient to photograph that in every possible lighting and call it a day. I took a full room tour video though, so I’ll share that on TikTok/YouTube and try to remember to link it here when I do.
Patio & Outdoor Shower
A long patio (or is it a balcony?) stretches the entire far length of the tent. There’s a cute sitting area on the patio just off the bedroom, and a little farther towards the other end is the outdoor shower.
I wasn’t sure if I should include the outdoor shower in the bathroom section, or the patio section of this post. The tent is so large you can’t even really see it from the bathroom, though, so I decided it’s more of a patio feature. My absolute favorite patio feature, in fact.
One thing about me: I do not mess around about an outdoor shower. An outdoor shower in the African bush? Listening to lions roar? Feet away from where you saw an elephant knock a tree over hours earlier?! Forget. About. It. In addition to having the best bath of my life at Nimali Serengeti, I had the coolest outdoor shower experience of my life.
I really loved the touch of the privacy wall—while still having a window to look out while you shower. You can see the outdoor shower from inside the tent if the curtains are open, but just from a hallway window. We were on our honeymoon, anyway, so that wasn’t too much of an issue for us.
The patio itself was also fabulous. This is another place I could’ve spent hours relaxing, if we’d had a whole week here. Still, we made many memories sitting on our little balcony, marveling in the nature around us. Every morning we watched a little family of adorable dik-diks bop around just beneath us, getting ready for the day just as we were!
I appreciated exactly how far above the ground the balcony was. It wasn’t so high you felt at all apart from the surroundings, but just high enough we were comfortable sitting there after dark listening to the bush coming to life around us. Again, an example of Nimali striking the perfect balance between comfortable and rugged.
Nimali Serengeti Camp: Bottom Line Review
As much as I want to visit other countries to experience safaris elsewhere, a part of me wants to fly back to Tanzania, hop on a bush plane to the Seregenti, and check back in to Nimali for a week. Or two.
My only complaint about our entire stay, was the fact that we had a couple of wannabe influencers in the tent next to us playing rave music. Even relatively quiet music carried through the trees and tent walls. It’s absolutely beyond me why they would want to listen to that instead of the perfect silence of the bush interspersed with the awesome sounds of wildlife. I’m not sure what the Nimali staff really could’ve done about that, or if they noticed. We were just a little unlucky, and our neighbors were a little rude. Thankfully, they only came on our last night, so we didn’t have to deal with them for long.
But anyway, such a minor annoyance could hardly dent what was otherwise a perfect experience. You wouldn’t think quiet hours would be necessary in a place like this, but perhaps some could be implemented in the future.
Nimali Serengeti was as close to perfect as I can imagine a luxury tented camp being—it was everything we imagined for our African safari honeymoon. I know there are even fancier (read: more expensive) options in the Serengeti, but I truly can’t imagine having a better experience than we had at Nimali.
If you’re considering this place for your honeymoon (or any African safari), hopefully this review was helpful! As for us, we’d happily go back in a heartbeat.
Please leave a comment if I’ve left anything out or you have any questions I didn’t address and I will do my best to answer and update this post accordingly!
