Lodges & Camps in Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Crater is the collapsed caldera of a volcano that geologists estimate once stood as high as Kilimanjaro. What remains is the largest intact, unflooded caldera in the world: walls roughly 600 metres high enclosing a floor of about 260 square kilometres, containing grassland, the soda lake of Magadi, the Lerai fever tree forest and a permanent swamp. That enclosure supports an unusually dense resident population — commonly estimated at around 25,000 large animals — and makes the crater floor one of the more reliable places in Tanzania to see black rhino, alongside lion, elephant, buffalo, hippo and large numbers of flamingo on the lake. Access is by designated descent and ascent roads and is tightly regulated, with vehicles limited to a set number of hours on the floor, so most itineraries treat the crater as a half-day rather than a full-day drive. Most lodges sit on the forested rim above it.