Sanctuary Kichakani Serengeti Camp (Northern Serengeti)

An elegant contemporary take on the classic safari aesthetic, Sanctuary Kichakani Serengeti Camp offers under canvas accommodation with 10 new five-star tented suites, all of which have been furnished with distinction. The interiors include comfy double beds or twin beds, bedside tables and lighting, overhead lighting, a bedside explorer’s chest, a standing fan, elaborate African themed wall art, and spectacular Serengeti vistas. The en-suite facilities comprise a flush toilet, washbasin, and bucket shower with heated water on request. Each tent is elevated above the ground on raised timber decks, extending beyond the opening and into the bedroom to provide a private veranda.

Amenities Include:

• En-suite bathroom
• Bucket shower
• Balcony/deck
• Veranda
• Double or twin beds
• Mosquito nets
• Electrical outlets
• Fan
• Hairdryer
• Safe

Sanctuary Kichakani Serengeti Camp features a grand central canopied area where the main tent flows into lounges, dining wings and a bar. Featuring atmospheric panoramas, the tents sides can be retracted to reveal the soul-stirring bushland landscape. This pioneering fixture serves as the camps central hub, offering relaxed and laidback quarters to dine and socialise with other guests, featuring numerous facilities that elevate the heights of luxury bush lodgings.

Three meals are served daily, comprising a continental bush breakfast, midday picnic lunch (served between activities), sundowners, and a lavish three course meal served in the evening. With the options of both open air and under cover dining, there are options to suit all guest preferences, including both communal and private tables for the option of romantic bush dining. Offering the finest in bush cuisine, you can savour international flavours such as kachumbari (traditional Tanzanian salsa), coconut beans, paprika, cinnamon and chilli from nearby Zanzibar, as well as classic western crowd pleasers for those who favour convention, all masterfully prepared by the camps dedicated team of chefs and catering staff.

All standard drinks and beverages are covered in the initial fee. With fully inclusive rates, you’re free to indulge in a mouth-watering range of alcoholic and none-alcoholic beverages at your own discretion. Premium and imported products are charged at additional fees.

Set off on daily game drives amid the sprawling, fertile plains of the Serengeti. Experienced guides, familiar with the lay of the land and the abundance of wildlife that roams it will lead you safely through the lush landscape in search of the many staple safari creatures that depart on mass during the cycle of the Great Migration, featuring particularly high concentrations of wildebeest and other migrating plains game. Exotic Big 5 game viewing awaits your gaze, with regular sightings of all the big cats and predator and prey alike as you survey the landscape in open 4×4 safari vehicles.

Guided bush walks will allow you to soak up the intricacies of nature while traversing the land at a more intimate and insightful pace than conventional safari game drives. Knowledgeable guides will discuss with you the features of the land while pointing out local flora and fauna. Watch birds, walk in the footsteps of a lion herd or wildebeest, stalk the movements of the Great Migration, unravel the stories behind animal tracks or simply enjoy the vistas.

The Serengeti-Mara ecosystem is one of Africa’s Endemic Bird Areas, featuring over 500 exotic species waiting for you to discover. Bird watching in the Serengeti is phenomenal year-round, but at its absolute best during November through April. Not only is this when European and North African migratory birds are present, but it is also nesting time for resident species. Keep your eyes peeled for the likes of the black-headed gonolek, Fischer’s lovebird and Verreaux’s eagle.

Take in the atmosphere of the tantalising Serengeti night sky while gathered around a cosy campfire in the company of friends and family. Untarnished by light pollution, the remote areas of the Serengeti bush provide the perfect arena for a picturesque star-gazing experience. Marvel at the infinite sky, which features the Big Dipper in the northern hemisphere and the Southern Cross and Pointers in the south.

There are few better ways to conclude the eve of a riveting day’s safari adventure than a refreshing beverage while savouring the spectacular Serengeti sunset. Join your guide around the campfire as the lights begin to dim and exchange stories under stary skies, listen to tales of wildlife encounters and enjoy the atmosphere in good company.

Since the opening of their first camp in Kenya in 1999, Sanctuary Retreats have been committed to responsible tourism and conservation. They aim to create long-lasting relationships with local communities throughout the African continent and select projects based on this potential. Working closely with communities to improve their well-being they identify “long-term, viable and self-sustaining projects that will have the support of our staff and visitors.”

Sanctuary Retreats supports the Bwindi Women’s Bicycle Enterprise. This initiative employs six local women from communities around Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda. Women are trained to be mechanics and given business skills – so donated bikes can be sold to members of the community who need to travel, such as health care workers and students. Donated bikes have been collected from the US, UK and Australia. This enterprise empowers these local women and provides them the opportunity to earn an income whilst helping their community. Similar enterprises such as this bike shop are supported in Botswana, Tanzania and Zambia.

Sanctuary Retreats “strives to improve the lives of the local communities in which they operate.” In Uganda, Sanctuary Gorilla Forest Camp works in partnership with the Uganda Nursing School Bwindi, helping to invest in and provide scholarships for students who will be the area’s future nurses and health care workers at Bwindi Community Hospital. Facing a shortage of nurses year after year, the Nursing School has helped train new nurses and has allowed the centre to be able to provide health care “for 40,000 patients annually.”

As well as sending teams of nurses into more remote areas, to provide healthcare for these remote communities. The Nursing School trains nurses who are “from the region, speak the local language and understand local customs.”

Pregnancy still carries inherent life-threatening complications for some women, especially women who live in remote areas and do not have access to a close hospital. Sanctuary Retreats and the guests of Sanctuary Forest Gorilla Camp have been “working toward eliminating these problems among Batwa women” who live near the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. The Waiting Mothers’ Hostel was created to provide vital support for expectant mothers by giving them a safe space to stay in the later stages of their pregnancy. The home has recently been expanded and a new wing added to include more beds so additional numbers of women can be looked after before birth.

In a remote corner of South-Western Uganda sits Bwindi Ebenezer Primary School. Running and maintaining a school which is this remote is a challenge, and that is where Sanctuary Retreats have stepped in to help. Currently serving around 124 pupils, the school is still relatively new, meaning it doesn’t receive government funding yet. Sanctuary Retreats is working at the school to “build sufficient infrastructure to satisfy Government registration requirements.” They are also helping teachers to establish salaries, buying textbooks and furniture and building proper toilets and classrooms. Sanctuary Retreats believes that by improving the education and safety of children the whole community will be able to feel the benefits.

Sanctuary Retreats work closely with Maasai communities in Kenya to help positively impact education, by building classrooms and sponsoring student school fees, developing community enterprise and encouraging conservation. They also have an initiative to introduce sustainable means to acquire clean water for local school students, with a similar initiative in Zambia and Tanzania too. Sanctuary Retreats have partnered with local schools in Tanzania, close to Tarangire National Park to provide “education and support for the next generation of conservationists.” Another school that is being supported here is Ilboru School for children with special needs.

Local businesses have been supported in Zambia with eight local female artisans working in Sishemo Bead Studio in Nakatindi. Through this, these women have a chance to improve not just their own lives but also their families. Sanctuary Retreats works more widely within the village of Nakatindi in Zambia, supporting their primary school by providing school lunches, refurbishing classrooms and building a medical clinic in 2013. Sanctuary Retreats have partnered with the rural village of Sin Kyun in Myanmar. Working alongside the Chief of the village they have built a Middle School, a house for teachers, and provided emergency assistance during severe flooding.

Sanctuary Kichakani Serengeti Camp follows the movements of the Great Migration seasonally throughout the Serengeti. As such, logistical capacity must be streamlined and consciously oriented towards the integrity and vitality of the land on which it operates. No fixtures, be it the tented accommodation, indoor dining locations or in-camp facilities are permanent and are meticulously transported with little to no degradation to the land. These location conscious practices ensure that the land on which Sanctuary operates can naturally restore in a matter of months and is left predominantly untarnished, thereby posing no threats or disturbances to surrounding wildlife and ecosystems.

Rhinos are still under huge threat from poaching due to the persistent belief that powdered rhino horn can be used as a medicine, so “Sanctuary Retreats has partnered with Rhino Conservation Botswana Defence Forces and others to translocate 20 rhino, both black and white, from South Africa to Botswana where they will be safer from poachers.”

This project focuses on educating the local Botswana youth on the elephant’s importance in the ecosystems to help curb the ongoing struggle between humans and elephants. Sanctuary Camp guests and local school children can interact with the elephants during excursions meant to introduce the local children to the animals. “With a new understanding and appreciation for the elephants and their place in the local ecosystem, the children feel inspired to protect their future.”