For more than ten years this sector of the eastern Serengeti was closed to the public while researchers studied big cat behaviour without an audience of vehicles. Serengeti Plains Camp opened here in June 2023, east of the busier Seronera valley, its eight tents at the edge of acacia woodland, looking across short grass.
Cheetah numbers here are among the highest recorded in Tanzania.
Traffic thins with every kilometre east, and this pocket sees far fewer vehicles than the central circuits. Cheetah numbers here are among the highest recorded in Tanzania. Lions and leopards work the granite kopjes, and the Ngare Nanyukie River, permanent water in a dry landscape, holds zebra, gazelle and eland within a short drive. A melanistic serval has been recorded in the wider area.
The ground was chosen by guides who had come to know this sector through years of working it. Eight tents sit on raised wooden platforms, each with a bedroom, an indoor sitting area, a private veranda and a bathroom with flushing toilet and solar-heated water. The furniture is handmade wood, the rugs woven, and the camp rests lightly on the grassland beneath.
Lions call close enough to register through canvas.
Open vehicles go out at sunrise and again in the late afternoon, working the plains, the kopjes and the river valley for cheetah, lions and leopards. Regulations keep drives on established tracks and back in camp before dark. Lions call close enough to register through canvas. Sundowners are set out on the kopjes, breakfast on the plains, dinner in the mess tent or out on the grass.
The eastern plains were kept off the public game-viewing map for more than a decade so researchers could watch big cats without an audience of vehicles. Cheetah numbers held, lion prides kept their territories, and behaviour was recorded rather than interrupted. What remains is a predator population less habituated to traffic than in the busier parts of the Serengeti, in a sector where a single sighting can hold a vehicle’s attention for an hour with nothing else arriving. Serengeti Plains Camp is one of a small number of camps working this ground.
Three habitats lie within a short radius of the tents. Open short grass gives cheetah the sight lines they need to hunt. The granite kopjes give lions shade and a vantage point and leopards their cover, and the Ngare Nanyukie valley, whose water is permanent, draws herbivores in through the dry months. Because the productive ground sits close to camp, a morning can be given over to one pride rather than spent driving between distant blocks. Off-road driving is not permitted inside the national park, so the tracks, the kopjes and the river valley carry the game viewing.
Dinner is usually one table, guides included, and the day gets talked back through in detail
The Great Migration moves through the wider Serengeti ecosystem on its annual circuit between the southern plains and the Mara, and wildebeest and zebra in their millions pass through the region at different points in the year. The eastern plains take their share of that movement, alongside resident plains game that never leaves. Nights carry their own sound: hyenas out in the dark, insects and night birds filling the gaps between. Mornings begin with coffee on the deck, francolins moving through the grass, giraffe and antelope crossing in the first light.
Guides who had worked this sector long before there was a camp here opened it in June 2023 under Topguides Bush Camps, a Tanzanian operator. The brief, by the evidence of the finished camp, was simplicity: canvas and timber, solar power, and eight tents designed to leave little trace on the grassland when the season ends. Dinner is usually one table, guides included, and the day gets talked back through in detail. Guests fly into Seronera airstrip and drive east past the kopjes to reach camp.
accommodation
Eight canvas tents stand on raised timber decks along the woodland edge, each with king or twin beds, an indoor sitting area and a private veranda over the grass. The bathroom behind is en-suite, with a flushing toilet and solar-heated running water. Handmade wooden furniture, woven rugs, earth tones throughout.
activities
Game drives at sunrise and in the late afternoon in open vehicles, working the plains, the kopjes and the Ngare Nanyukie valley for cheetah, lions and leopards. Sundowners on the granite kopjes, breakfasts and dinners set out on the plains. Drives stay on established park tracks; off-road driving is not permitted inside Serengeti National Park.
conservation
This corner of the eastern Serengeti was closed to general tourism for years while it was used for predator research, and the lions and cheetahs seen from camp are less habituated to vehicles as a result. The camp is Tanzanian-owned and deliberately small: seven tents on raised wooden decks rather than permanent foundations, opened in June 2023. Guiding comes from Victor Nyakiriga's own operation, so the people reading the grassland each morning are the same people who built the camp's reputation.
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You fly to Seronera airstrip and drive, and the drive is a long one: more than two hours out to the eastern plains. The camp is deliberately placed well away from the busy central Seronera area, and the distance is the reason it feels empty out there.
We would rather you knew that before you booked. The transfer is a game drive in its own right, but it is not a fifteen minute hop, and it is worth allowing for on arrival and departure days.
The official sources say yes. Both TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, and the CDC class the Serengeti as a malaria risk area and recommend antimalarial tablets alongside covering up and using repellent.
We are travel planners, not medical professionals, so take it to a travel clinic or your doctor four to six weeks before you fly. The tents are netted, and dusk on the plains is when it matters.
From about five upwards for the game drives, and twelve for walking safaris, though the exact position varies with the activity and how the camp is arranged for your dates.
The long transfer from Seronera is the thing to weigh with a young family: more than two hours each way at the start and end of a stay is a lot to ask of a small child. Tell us the ages and we will be honest about whether it suits.
No. There is no wifi at the camp.
That is a deliberate part of how it operates out on the eastern plains, and worth knowing if anyone in the party needs to stay in touch during the stay. If that is a real constraint we will suggest a camp that can offer it.
The eastern plains are cheetah and lion country in every month, and because the camp sits away from the central circuit the sightings are rarely shared with other vehicles. That resident big cat game is the year-round argument.
The migration reaches this side of the park at particular times rather than continuously, so if the herds are what you want we will place the dates deliberately. Otherwise the dry months from June to October give the easiest conditions and the cleanest tracking.
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