Singita Serengeti House

A flight to Singita's own airstrip, Sasakwa, then a short drive to the foot of the hill. Grumeti Air, the airline Singita runs for the reserve, flies in every day from Arusha with a call at Kilimanjaro on the way, in a twelve-seat Cessna Grand Caravan or an eight-seat Beechcraft King Air 350, and Singita's travel notes for the house quote about an hour in the air from Arusha and an hour and a quarter from Kilimanjaro when the flight is direct, so a party off an overnight flight from London can board at Kilimanjaro without the drive into town. For anyone already on safari, Air Excel's scheduled morning flight leaves Arusha at eight, collects at Kuro in Tarangire, Manyara and Ndutu, and is on the ground at Sasakwa at about twenty-five past ten; the same aircraft leaves again at half past ten for Seronera, Kilimanjaro, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, so a Tarangire start or a Zanzibar finish joins on without a night in Arusha. For a party of eight who would rather choose the hour, we arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, from Arusha or Kilimanjaro straight to Sasakwa.

From the strip, the two agents' timings we hold put the drive to the house at about ten minutes, and Singita quotes the same for Milele higher up the hill; Singita gives no figure for the house itself, so we confirm it when we book, and the transfer both ways is part of the rate. Two things we check on every ticket. The scheduled aircraft take soft bags only, fifteen kilograms checked and five in the cabin on Grumeti Air, so a hard case stays in Arusha or travels by charter. And Sasakwa is not the only strip in the western corridor: Grumeti airstrip serves the national park beyond the reserve boundary, so we book the leg ourselves and read the strip name back before anything is paid.

Yes, and Singita says so itself: its guest notes for the house describe Singita Grumeti as a malaria-risk area and ask every guest to consult a medical practitioner about it before travelling. The two official sources we work from agree. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, classes all of Tanzania below 1,800 metres as high risk for malaria and lists antimalarial tablets among its recommendations for those areas, and the CDC in the United States draws the same line at 1,800 metres and recommends prescription medicine together with bite prevention for anyone going below it. Both stress that the mosquitoes carrying the disease feed mainly between dusk and dawn.

We do not make medical recommendations. We are travel planners, not doctors. Which tablets are right for you, whether they suit your own health or anyone else's in the party, and what is appropriate for a child, is a conversation between you and your doctor or a travel clinic. The practical side we can speak to is not medical: cover arms and legs from late afternoon and keep repellent to hand.

Yes, at any age. Singita's guest notes for the house say children of all ages are welcome, that childminding can be arranged, and that whether a child joins a game drive or a walk is for the field guide to decide on the day, with one fixed line: the guided bush walks are for those of sixteen and over. For the hours between drives Singita runs its Mini Rangers Course, which it shapes around each family and which takes in animal tracking, astronomy and bush survival skills, and it lists cooking sessions with the chef, stargazing, board games, arts and crafts, films and swimming. The court comes with rackets and balls, so a family match needs nothing packed.

The shape of the house suits three generations particularly well. We would put the parents and small children in the two suites that open onto the living room, a few steps from the kitchen, and give the garden suites to the grandparents or the teenagers, who get a door they can close and a quiet of their own. One vehicle and one guide come with the house for up to eight, so the whole party drives together; if the early risers and the late sleepers would rather go separate ways, tell us and we will price a second vehicle with Singita. Give us the ages when you enquire and we will say how the rooms should fall before anything is held.

Yes, within reason. Singita's guest notes for the house say the wifi is complimentary and that, because of the remote position, the connection can be slow and intermittent, and its 2026 rate sheet lists wifi as included where it is available, so plan on messages and photographs going out between drives rather than a video call at a fixed hour. Mobile signal is described as dependent on network coverage, so any bars are a bonus, and the two garden suites stand away from the main house, so what works in the living room may not work in bed.

The practical side is simple. Power is 220 volts, Singita keeps converters at the house and puts a hair dryer in each suite, so British chargers need nothing more than an adaptor. Check-in is at two in the afternoon and check-out at eleven. If someone in the party has a call that cannot slip, tell us before we confirm and we will ask Singita what the house can hold that week rather than promise on its behalf.

Warm days, cold early mornings, and a calendar set by rain rather than temperature. Singita's guest notes for the house divide the year into short rains from November to March, long rains through April and May and a dry season from June to October, and the house stays open through the rains. Climate records for the reserve put afternoons at around twenty-nine degrees in July, the coolest month, and thirty-one in October, with nights in the mid to high teens, and the Serengeti's climate records add that an occasional cold front in the dry months can take the first hour of a morning drive close to freezing. Singita's packing advice follows that: summer clothing with a warm jersey from October to April, lightweight clothing with a very warm jacket or windbreaker from May to September, in neutral colours, with a hat, sunglasses, strong sun cream, repellent and binoculars. Add swimwear for the pool, trainers for the court and shoes with grip for anyone over sixteen who wants to walk, and pack it all in soft bags at fifteen kilograms a person for the scheduled aircraft.

The herds pass close, and for a few weeks only. Singita says its Grumeti guests can typically see the migration between May and July as it moves north-north-west towards its properties, and its own field reports from the reserve give the shape of it: in 2025 the wildebeest arrived early, on the third of June, filled the plains for the rest of the month with the noise of the rut as the bulls competed for the cows, and had swept past towards the Mara River by the end of the first week of July, leaving the resident herds and the predators behind. The same reports name the ground around the house: through June and July 2025 the guides logged buffalo herds moving between the Kombre drainage, Serengeti House and the Sasakwa airstrip, and elephant gathering at the Sasakwa dam in the afternoons to drink. So for the herds themselves, ask for June and hold the dates a year out; for the residents, the pool and the quiet, the months either side of the rains are the ones we suggest.

The house is taken as a whole and priced per night for the party, and Singita's 2026 rate sheet steps that rate in two bands, one for up to four guests and one for five to eight, so a couple or two couples do not pay for the full house; eight is the maximum. Inside the rate, on Singita's own sheet: the four suites, every meal and drink, the private guide, host, chef, butler and housekeeping team, private game drives in an open vehicle, one vehicle for up to eight, tennis, the road transfers to and from the Sasakwa airstrip, laundry and wifi where it works. Added on top: the reserve's wildlife fee, the tourism development levy, Singita's carbon offset levy, treatments in the wellness pavilion, purchases from the boutique and gallery, any activity not on the standard list, the balloon flight among them, the flights in and out, and a day-use rate if you arrive before check-in or leave after check-out. The carbon levy is Singita's own scheme, on every bill since August 2021, worked out from the footprint of each guest's night and spent on verified credits in the country of the stay; in Tanzania that is Carbon Tanzania's forest project in the Yaeda Valley, where three village communities earn healthcare, schooling, food security and work for keeping their forest standing.

Singita publishes no minimum stay for the house, and one of its 2026 offers rewards a longer one: three nights at Singita Explore, its private-use tented camp on the same reserve, followed by two nights at Serengeti House earn a free night at Explore, for stays between early January and mid December. We build the fees, the levy, the flights and any offer into one quote, so the figure you see is the figure you pay, and we would plan four nights or more at the house itself: the herds keep no timetable and the point of the place is not to rush. Rates and inclusions change, so we confirm every line with Singita before you commit.