Tanzania with WanderingThru's Tristan Dicks

Koroi Forest Camp lies hidden in the heart of a thick forest at the base of Mount Meru, Tanzania’s second-highest peak.

Named after the Maasai word for the black-and-white colobus monkeys that call the area home, Koroi celebrates the forest. With eight forest chalets and a unique tree house suite, the camp is nestled among ancient trees. Five chalets overlook an open glade that draws wildlife; another three sit quietly near a seasonal stream while the unique tree room is immersed in the dense forest.

The main area offers peaceful views of the glade, surrounded by the sounds and stillness of the forest. As dawn breaks, the calls of colobus monkeys, turacos, and hornbills echo through the trees. Wildlife often wanders along the forest paths and into the glade—duikers, bushbuck, giraffes, buffalos, and elephants are just a few of the visitors.

At night, wood owls, nightjars, and even the distant growl of a leopard add a different rhythm to the forest. As the darkness deepens, nocturnal creatures like African civets, Bushy-tailed mongooses, bushpigs, and buffalos come to forage in the glade under the stars.

Olkeri takes its name from the Maasai word for leopard, a fitting nod to the wild, unfenced landscape it occupies just outside Tarangire National Park.

Set within the community-managed Randilen Wildlife Management Area, the camp overlooks a seasonal watercourse and a natural waterhole that draws elephant, buffalo and giraffe throughout the day, with big cats regularly moving through the surrounding woodland and rocky hills.

Eight tented suites sit on raised wooden platforms beneath old-growth baobab and acacia trees, each with a private verandah, en-suite bathroom and views over the bush. Two interconnecting tents form a family suite, making Olkeri a good fit for travellers with children.

Esirai is a mobile camp built to move with the Great Migration, following the wildebeest and zebra as they walk their 600-kilometre route from the southern plains to the Mara River crossing in the north.

Twice a year the entire camp, eight eco-luxe tents, mess tent, library and all, is packed into a single truckload and re-erected over the course of a week, keeping its footprint on the landscape as light as its position in the migration is close.

Powered entirely by solar, Esirai trades a few modern comforts for a deeper sense of place: bush bathrooms with hot bucket showers, a mess tent and library tent anchoring the camp's heart, and an outdoor fire pit for evenings under an unfiltered sky. The setup and eco-credentials also make it one of the few camps permitted to run walking safaris within the Serengeti, at its southern location.

Days here move with the herds, on game drives that track the wildebeest and zebra across the plains, guided walks, fly camping, sundowners and bush dining, with hot air balloon flights available over the migration itself. It's a camp for travellers who want to feel part of the migration's rhythm rather than simply observe it, off the grid, close to the action, and unmistakably in the wild.

Set among coffee estates on the edge of Arusha, Katambuga House offers a calm first or last stop on a Tanzania safari.

The lush garden setting, filled with birdsong and framed by views of Mount Meru, makes it easy to unwind before or after time in the bush, just ten minutes from Arusha's domestic airport.

The main house holds four king-bedded bedrooms, with additional rooms in the garden built as interconnecting cottages, well suited to families. A swimming pool and wide lawns give guests space to relax between flights and transfers, while Tanzania's exceptional birdlife, with roughly 1,150 recorded species, makes the grounds a draw in their own right for keen birders.

Katambuga House works well as a bookend to a longer circuit through the Serengeti, Tarangire, Ngorongoro Crater and Arusha National Park, offering a quiet, garden-set base to land, settle in, and begin the journey north.