Songa Camp

By light aircraft to Kogatende airstrip, and the camp's vehicle does the forty-five minutes up the hill from there. Coastal Aviation's timetable, valid to the end of May 2027, has two departures a day from Arusha, at a quarter to eight landing at five past ten and at a quarter to eleven landing at a quarter to one, both calling at Lake Manyara on the way. From Kilimanjaro there is a quarter past eleven departure routed through Arusha and Manyara that lands at a quarter to one, and a quarter to four departure via Manyara that lands at a quarter to six. Auric Air and Regional Air fly into Kogatende as well. The scheduled aircraft allow fifteen kilograms a person in soft bags, hand luggage included, and Coastal sells a larger seat class with a thirty kilogram allowance that we book ahead for anyone carrying camera equipment. We can arrange a private charter instead, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, direct from Arusha or Kilimanjaro at a time of your choosing, which takes out the Manyara stop and suits anyone off an overnight flight who wants to be on the hillside for lunch. We favour the morning arrivals, which leave the drive up to camp in full daylight.

The Maasai Mara lies just across the border to the north, but there is no road crossing open to visitors between the two parks, so the link is by air. Coastal flies from Kogatende to Tarime, a twenty minute hop leaving at five past ten, a road transfer takes you through the Isebania border posts to Migori airstrip on the Kenyan side, and Safarilink connects from there into the Mara. The road leg is in Coastal's fare, the flight needs at least two passengers booked, and it runs in both directions, so a trip can open in the Mara and finish at Songa. Two things we check early. TravelHealthPro and the CDC both record a risk of yellow fever in parts of Kenya, and TravelHealthPro notes that Tanzania asks travellers arriving from a country with that risk for a vaccination certificate, which is a question for a travel clinic rather than for us, since we are travel planners and not medical people. And the same-day connection depends on Safarilink's Mara timings, so we confirm it for your dates rather than assume it.

Yes, and both official sources agree. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, puts the whole of Tanzania below 1,800 metres at high risk of malaria and says there is no risk above that height, and the CDC draws the same line at 1,800 metres, or 5,900 feet. Aviation databases list Kogatende airstrip at roughly 1,400 to 1,500 metres, and the hills around the camp are not high enough to change the answer, so the northern Serengeti sits on the risk side on both readings. For that reason TravelHealthPro's advice for the area is antimalarial tablets together with bite avoidance, and the CDC's is prescription medicine to prevent malaria, alongside repellent, long sleeves and sleeping under a net.

That is what the two sources say, not a recommendation from us: we plan safaris and are not medical people, and whether to take tablets, and which, is a decision for you and your doctor or a travel clinic, best raised a month or more before you fly so there is time to act on it. What we can add is camp detail. The hour that matters is dusk, when the vehicle comes back up the hill and drinks move to the fire, so long sleeves, long trousers and repellent on any skin that shows, and the same again for anyone sitting out at the front of the tent after dark.

Yes, from the age of four, and the sharing rules are published clearly enough to plan on. A child under fifteen shares a tent with an adult; each tent takes up to three people, with a single bed for a child of fifteen or under arranged in advance and subject to availability, so two adults and one child fit in one tent; and anyone of sixteen or over is treated as an adult and has a tent of their own. The family unit is the answer for two children: it is a larger cottage with its own bathrooms, and independent listings describe two en-suite bedrooms off a shared lounge. Whether a child joins a given activity is left to the parents and the guides, so there is no published minimum age for the drives, and because every booking has its own vehicle and guide a family sets its own hours, back for lunch and a rest through the heat of the day, out again at four.

The layout helps as well. The camp is arranged as two separate halves facing different ways, six tents on one side and two tents plus the family unit on the other, each half with its own lounge, dining tent and fire, and the smaller side can be taken as a private camp by one family or a group of friends travelling together. The camp is unfenced inside the national park, so guests are walked between the tents and the dining area after dark by camp staff, and children need an adult with them at all times. Tell us the ages when you enquire and we will confirm the tent arrangement with the camp before anything is held.

Wifi, yes, and at no charge: the camp provides it in the main areas and in every tent, and says openly on its own page that the connection speed varies, which in a canvas camp on a hillside a long way from any town means messages, email and photographs rather than a video call you can rely on. Download anything you want to read or watch before you fly. On mobile signal the camp publishes nothing at all, and we have no verified answer for the Kogatende hills, so plan on the wifi rather than a phone signal from the tent. Each tent has a standing fan for the warm afternoons, and there is power in camp for charging cameras and phones, with a spare battery still worth packing for the long days out at the river.

If you need to be contactable at a set time, for work or for family at home, tell us before you travel and we will ask the camp what is true for your dates rather than rely on a listing, and pass on the best way for people to get hold of you while you are there.

The season runs from 15 June to 10 January, so the camp is closed from mid-January to mid-June, which takes in the long rains of March to May. Within that window the camp's own rate calendar treats mid-June to early October as its peak, and that matches the herds: they reach the north from late June or July, the crossings run through August and September into October, and by late October or November most have turned south again, leaving a much quieter park. Until now the camp packed up in the autumn and rebuilt itself on the southern calving grounds each December; that southern site opens as a permanent camp called Mwiba Plains on 15 December 2026, and Songa is now described at Kogatende alone, so a stay between October and January is a river and resident-game stay rather than a migration one. We confirm the dates with the camp for anything after early October.

The weather is dry and warm by day and cool at night for most of the season: afternoons in the mid twenties, nights around fourteen degrees, and between June and September the odd cold front can take the first hour of an open-vehicle drive close to freezing. The north is greener and wetter than the rest of the park, with rainfall rising steeply from south to north across the Serengeti, and the short rains arrive in November and December, unpredictable and rarely long enough to stop a drive. Pack in layers: a fleece and a windproof jacket for dawn and for sundowners on the hill, neutral-coloured long-sleeved shirts, a wide-brimmed hat, high-factor sun cream, repellent, closed shoes with grip, a small torch for the path between the tents, and a light waterproof from November onwards. Soft bags only, fifteen kilograms a person on the scheduled aircraft with hand luggage counted in; laundry is done daily and included, so pack for four days and let the camp wash the rest.

Three nights as the floor and four between July and October, because a crossing cannot be booked for a particular morning: the herds can stand on the bank for days and go in the hour you are at lunch, and with a private vehicle the extra day is what turns a good chance into a likely one. The first afternoon is largely the transfer and the last morning the drive back to the airstrip, so a Coastal arrival at five past ten and the mid-afternoon departure keep both travel days useful. A dawn balloon flight fits inside that stay: the balloon company's northern launch site is at Kogatende, flying through the crossing season from July, leaving at six in the morning for fifty to seventy minutes in the air and landing to a bush breakfast. It gets booked out early in the crossing months, so it goes into the plan at the start rather than on arrival.

The camp's own list of what the rate covers is all meals and drinks including house wines, beers, local spirits, soft drinks, tea, coffee and water; a private vehicle and guide for each booking; unlimited game drives with picnic meals; select cultural visits; daily laundry; the wifi; and the transfers to and from Kogatende airstrip. Charged on top, on the same list, are the Serengeti park fees, which run per person per night, premium wines, champagne and spirits, and tips. The balloon flight is not on the inclusive list, so we price it separately, and the flights we build in from the start. Our quote carries the park fees and the flights, so nothing is waiting on a separate bill at the end.