Tanzania pre-safari hotels: Weru Weru and Ngare Sero

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To celebrate our (planned) conquer of Mt Kilimanjaro, I had planned a "luxury" safari trip for three days - also to celebrate her PhD and new job. Despite my abandoned attempt, my friend A did conquer it! It was miserable apparently - ice crystals blowing sideways up the slope, no views above or below of anything but grey cloud, a frozen sign as it was -20C, and many of them throwing up a few times. Out of our group of 8, 6 summited, so she did amazing! Though yeah, I would most likely not have made it, and even if I did, it would have been miserable. So, I was happy with my decision.

I was initially taken to the Brubru hotel for one night then onto the Weru Weru River Lodge for the next few nights. Initially, we were all supposed to meet back up at Aishi Macheme and I was looking forward to seeing the team and guides to congratulate them on a well-earned summit. However, it seems the Altezza hotel was going through some emergency renovations (I cynically and somewhat realistically assumed it had to do with the heavy rainfall - especially coming back hearing that southern Kenya and northern Tanzania had experienced some very heavy, deadly rainfalls).

Weru Weru River Lodge

So, Weru Weru River Lodge was actually nice, though much more rustic. I loved the main reception lodge where it had the grand entrance with the tall ceilings. I also really loved the local artwork that decorated many of the walls - I would have loved to buy one! Each building had four rooms, two upstairs, two downstairs. I was downstairs and had a nice balcony, huge bathroom and dressing area, sitting area, and a twin bed set up with mosquito nets at the entrance and window. First thing I did was unpack my entire duffel bag and layout everything wherever I could find space. On the balcony, dressing room, over the shower stall, dangling from my headboard. Thankfully most of it dried out by the end of the day. The food was pretty good and included breakfast, but had to pay for other stuff. So, I typically just had a big breakfast and then dinner. It was nice to have a beer though, finally! The pool was nice, but I mostly kept myself busy by reading books - I think I ready 2 or 3 while I was there. It did seem to be a popular place though and it looked like a big wedding and wedding rehearsal were going to take up a couple of days - everyone looked so nice. I got a nicer than expected massage. And just relaxed until A joined me after returning from Kili. She just had to stay one night and we enjoyed some wine and were picked up the next day.

Ngare Sero Mountain Lodge

We were taken from Moshi area to a lovely hotel near Arusha, the Ngare Sero Mountain Lodge, located at the base of Mount Meru. There seemed to be a traffic accident on the way, so our driver took us on the back roads; I did not mind as it was so nice to see the countryside. We arrived about 90 minutes later to this gorgeous property surrounded by rainforest. We checked in and were taken to our nice room. Oh yeah, definitely luxury now! Open seating area, twin beds with mosquito nets, and a large bathroom and dressing area extending across the entire back wall, plus a huge terrace in front. Lovely and peaceful. Of course, it started to pour down rain. We were starving at this point so walked down to the main building for lunch. The lunch was so delicious. I was ready for like a sandwich, but they had a planned menu, starting with bread with various toppings. Then we had small clay dishes of different types of food, including salad, kebabs, potatoes, eggplant and beans.

The rain stopped after lunch so we walked around the luscious grounds which included a lake with a wooden bridge. Then we walked along a trail below the lake and along a creek, passing a water mill and fish farm. We saw the horse stables and gardens. Then we walked by the beautiful pool, located in a rainforest setting with the loungers set back into little alcoves in the trees. We decided to swim! On the way back to the room, we saw giant snails, larger than our hands! They were so cool!

Everyone else at the hotel (maybe about 8 others) soon joined us at the pool, and though we wanted to desperately swim, the water was a bit too cold, I think because of the constant rain and lack of sun. So we just laid out a bit and read our books for awhile before going back to the room.

When dinner rolled around, we made our way to the main building and were directed to another balcony table seating. Here we looked out into the gardens and had another delicious meal, also with the pre-selected small dishes, soup and bread. So yum, this time with a bit of wine!

Sleep did not come well to either of us that night, but we woke early for a quick breakfast before our guide, Abdul, picked us up for the safari. We were unsure how to pack and he said we could leave the big bags and just take what we needed over the next three days, two nights. Much easier!

And then we were off to enjoy our luxury safari!!

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Comments

[Ake Och Emma]

Nice place
Looks like you found a very nice place to stay at. When we were in Arusha we had the honours of being the last guests staying at the hotel where were at. They closed down the business the day we left and I think we were the only guests the last night as well. /Ake