My Dream Honeymoon Safari with SINGITA

You know that feeling when you’re finally able to check something so huge off your bucket list? You’ve been dreaming about this moment for so long. You’ve now been traveling so long, and you finally arrive to your final destination, take a deep breath, and have to pinch yourself to make sure you’re not hallucinating this surreal moment? Is this really happening? Could I be so blessed? YEP. That pretty much sums up my experience taking a luxury safari with Singita in the Serengeti National Park for my honeymoon.

Ever since I was a child, I have been a huge animal lover. Wanting to take in stray cats, dogs, birds – you name it. For over a year, I volunteered at PAWS as a dog-walker for an amazing 92 year old blind and deaf woman who had a support animal. All culminating to the point of me running a half-marathon and hosting a fundraiser in honor of PETA. Needless to say, I am completely against the use of animals in zoos and circuses. It had become my dream to visit animals in their natural habitat where I was the one locked up in a car, by my own accord, to see where these animals really call home. I knew that in order to do this to its full extent I would need to go to Africa on a safari, and was hoping one day I would be lucky enough to visit the Serengeti National Park.

I was lucky enough to marry the man of my dreams who had the same passion in mind and granted my wish of going to Tanzania on our honeymoon!

I did soo much research on which safari lodge to stay with, and let me tell you, there are wayyy too many to choose from. However, it didn’t take me long to realize what the best choice was, SINGITA.

Singita is the pinnacle of luxury African safari. If you are lucky enough to visit Singita one day, you can rest assured that you are having a world class experience. They have been recognized globally with awards in numerous travel publications. At last count, Singita had taken “Top Hotel in the World” awards an astonishing 16 times!

Their range of properties have been visited by countless celebrities to the likes of Oprah, George Bush, Justin Timberlake, and George Clooney, just to name a few.

THE SINGITA EXPERIENCE

At Singita, their allure is tri-fold: unmatched access to animals with top-of-the-line guides in Tanzania; decadently luxurious service and lodges, with michelin quality meals served pretty much on the hour; most importantly, a chance to witness and aid in one of the greatest conservation efforts taking place in Africa today. (Keep reading below to find out more about Singita’s immense conservation efforts.)

Moving onward…

Singita vehicles are able to get up close and personal with wildlife, in their own private reserve, with – oh let’s say, 300,000 acres of property? No big thing. All the while, other safari companies have fully enclosed vehicles that aren’t allowed off road, charge extra for game drives in the very crowded national park, where tens of trucks are crowded around a single pride of lions; not only disturbing the animal in the environment, but also not allowing you to truly experience the Serengeti wildlife in their comfort zone.

At Singita, more times than not, it’s just your party and the assigned guide out on the plains. There’s something out of this world about being the only vehicle alongside a cheetah as she stalks her prey.

Now onto the decadent luxury…

Each person has his or her own butler who manages to be simultaneously ever-present yet always unobtrusive. I always felt like I was in a scene of the Mr. Deeds movie. I would barely lift my head up, and our amazing butler would instantly show up asking if I needed anything at all. Mention to your spouse over lunch that you’d love to have cigar at dinner. You’ll be greeted with a box of cubans upon sitting at your private dinner table. Like lemon with your water? No one will ever forget to bring you a slice. Living in this lap of luxury did take me a few days to get used to, but eventually this amazing human being became like family to us. Exchanging jokes, teaching us about the park, even giving us newlyweds some marital advice.

The staff goes above and beyond at all times to make sure each guest’s stay is perfectly dreamy.

“They’ll set up an impromptu South African wine tasting with the safari’s impressive sommelier at an hour’s notice; a private dinner on your lantern-strewn balcony as giraffes graze nearby; a bubble bath somehow perfectly drawn to coincide with your arrival home after a long day in the bush. If you want to go for a run, a security detail will follow you to make sure you’re not trampled by elephants. A walking safari strikes your fancy? You’ll get your own band of Indiana Joneses to traipse through the savanna with you.” – NY Post

Guests have two game drives a day: one in the morning at sunrise and one in the late afternoon at sunset. Our drives ranged anywhere between 2-4 hours per drive, which allowed us the ability to clock some massive hours out in the park, while leaving plenty of time during the day to catch a spa treatment or swim by the pool with some yummy cocktails.

THE FOOD

When you’re not chasing a cheetah or watching hyenas and vultures fight over a lion’s scraps, expect to be eating. There’s the early morning pre-drive breakfast, a post-drive big breakfast, a three-course lunch, a high tea, cocktails, and, of course, dinner. Did I mention all food and wine is included? Yes, it keeps getting better.

Now, everything is BEYOND delicious. You will gain weight. Just embrace it. It was too late for my husband, he already said I do.

If you really are some sort of sadist, they do have fully functioning gym’s at all properties.

THE PROPERTIES

Singita Grumeti has five different lodges, and guests can bounce from one to another during their stays. These properties range anywhere from $1,500.00/night per person to $70,000.00/week for a private house (read: castle).

We decided to split our time between two lodges: Faru Faru Lodge and Sabora Tented Camp.

Faru Faru is surely one of Singita’s most popular lodges. Faru Faru has an award-winning eco-friendly design, boasting with sandy spots that bring you straight to the beaches of Zanzibar. The property houses a perfect mix of contemporary, organic style and the quirky practicality of a traditional botanist’s camp. Their mezze fare lunch platter alone is worth checking out. The entire lodge is perched upon a hillside, giving you incredible panoramic views, including a natural watering hole right outside. Each of Faru Faru’s suites have one wall completely made of glass and it’s possible, at a touch of a button, to slide these windows open giving you an unparalleled view of the Serengeti right from the comfort of your bed, or deep soaking bathtub. There is an indoor and outdoor shower in each room fully air-conditioned room.

Then there’s the Sabora Tented Camp, where you step right out of this world and surprisingly into an intimate 1920s-style explorer’s camp, overflowing with antiques and Persian rugs, an opulence that is delightfully out-of-place, leaving you with the feeling that you’re on a movie set. The property sits right in the middle of the plains with absolutely no barrier between the lodge and the park. We had wildebeest, lions, zebra, and wild hogs right outside our tent. See my pictures below of the lioness we found grazing on her prey right on someone’s porch! While staying in one of Sabora’s nine lavish tents, you’ll have the excitement of knowing that there isn’t much separating the comfort inside from the elements outside, besides the highly trained, armed guards walking around at all hours of the day and night to ensure your safety.

The lion right outside the tent!

HOW TO GET TO SINGITA GRUMETI RESERVE

There are no direct flights to Tanzania from most major airports. You’ll have to fly into either Amsterdam, London, or Dubai and hop on a plane to Kilimanjaro from there. Most international flights land late at night to Kilimanjaro, but don’t fret, Singita will gladly set you up with incredible lodging in Arusha right at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro to rest up before your early morning flight. The next morning after your first decadent breakfast, it’s a quick 10-minute drive to the Arusha airport, where you’ll fly straight into to the Serengeti to Singita’s private airstrip.

THE REAL REASON YOU SHOULD CHOOSE SINGITA

This sounds good and all, but I’m sure you’re asking why anyone would opt to spend such a hefty sum of money for a vacation?

Sure, Singita is a brand known for its luxurious escapes; but, not everyone knows about Singita’s 100 Year Purpose: To preserve and protect large areas of African wilderness for future generations. Luxury and conservation… What’s not to love?

The word Singita in Swahili translates to “Place of Miracles”, and I know this seems like lot to live up to, but Singita has been doing just that for over 20+ year now, and their results are nothing short of miraculous.

Below is just a small list of feats Singita has been able to accomplish by relentlessly going above and beyond through the hard-work and dedication they have kept to their land, animals, and community:

Reduced plastic water bottle usage by 64% & slashed generator reliance by 75% in their properties.
Enormous reduction in illegal hunting – Singita has arrested 5,214 poachers since 2003, and converted 120 former poachers into environmentally-minded gamekeepers through reeducation.
4x increase in elephant population in Grumeti despite Africa-wide poaching pandemic
3x increase in giraffe and topi population (since 2003)
1000% increase in buffalo population since 2003)
Release of over 100 African wild dogs which are nearly extinct
8 critically endangered African Black Rhino translocated to Serengeti Grumeti
Provides environmental sustainability education to approximately 1,400 students and 240 teachers since the establishment of the Environmental Educational Centre.
The Teaching and Technology program (sponsored by the European Space Agency) equips 19 local schools with state-of-the-art e-learning tools such as tablets and laptops.
Singita School of Cooking has produced 50 professional chefs from the local community in 7 years of operation.

So, sure, the price tag may be high for a stay at any of the the famous Singita lodges, but rest assured that a good portion of every dollar spent does go toward their massive conservation efforts to save this incredible planet we call home, and Singita is more than up to the challenge. Saving the world, one vacation at a time – Doesn’t get better than that.