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Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge
Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge
Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge

Reviews of Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge

Wildlife sightings and reviews

23 independent comments and wildlife information from our travellers who have visited Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge and kindly agreed to share their thoughts. They do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa

Wildlife sightings by our travellers
Starting in Aug-2018, 6 of our travellers have recorded their wildlife sightings at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge.
Lion

100% success

Leopard

33% success

Wild dog

0% success

Buffalo

100% success

Elephant

100% success

Spotted Hyena

100% success

Wildebeest

100% success

Zebra

100% success

Hippo

83% success

Black Rhino

80% success

Eland

25% success

Aardvark

0% success

Pangolin

0% success

Striped Hyena

0% success

Showing 11-20 of 23
Duration
Arrival date
Carolita
UK

"An amazing position"

2 nights Arrived 9 Oct 2016
"The Sopa lodge seemed much bigger and busier rhan the Duluti near Arusha. Arriving up on the ridge was exciting in itself and one can not fault the staff. Entertainment in the form of a short Masai dance or similar occurred each evening before dinner which added to the thrill.

The back of the hotel which was like being on a precipice looking over the pool and down into a vast caldera and its squally changing micro climate was fascinating to see giving an air of mystery to the whole crater rim." See all these reviews: 6n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar; 1n in Kenya; 1n in Zimbabwe
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Good
Facilities:
Good
Laura
Spring, Texas

"Convenient to the Crater Entrance"

3 nights Arrived 13 Sep 2015
"Our room at Sopa was spacious and clean. In good weather, the lodge offers a lovely view of the Crater.

The food is fine - nothing special, but we weren't expecting a gourmet experience. The staff was generally good. The very best reason for staying at Sopa is its proximity to the Crater entrance - we were always among the first few cars into the Crater each morning, as the entrance gate is just a few minutes away from the lodge.

One aspect of the Sopa Lodge experience which could be improved upon is their box breakfasts, which included a strange assortment of things: a full sized candy bar, a bag of flavored chips (crisps), peanuts, together with buns and a cold sausage." See all these reviews: 12n in Tanzania
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Good
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Good
Facilities:
Good
Mr Z
California

"Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge review"

2 nights Arrived 22 Jul 2015
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Good
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Average
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr P
Seattle

"Two night stay"

2 nights Arrived 20 Feb 2015
"Much better than we were led to believe by Expert Africa comments. Stunning location, great pool excellent meals, friendly staff, Although it wasn't small, it wasn't as big as we expected and there was plenty of room." See all these reviews: 10n in Tanzania
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Rooms:
Good
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr & Mrs P
Hockley

"Fantastic Lodge, stunning views, large rooms."

2 nights Arrived 21 Jan 2015
"Our driver/guide collected us from Ndutu Camp and we drove to the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge via the Oldupai Gorge., where we had stunning views of the gorge and visited the Museum which was very interesting.

We then continued our drive, climbing higher up the side of the Ngorongoro Crater to the rim. The Lodge was a beautiful building with stunning views of the crater, huge rooms with balconies overlooking the crater. The room had everything we needed for our stay and was quite luxurious.

Our driver organised picnic lunches so we could do a day drive into the crater. It was wonderful and we saw many different animals including 2 black rhino in the distance. There were flamingoes on the lake and pelicans at the picnic spot. The crater is a fascinating place with a diverse range of animals and habitats and well worth visiting." See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 7n in Kenya
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Good
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Good
Ms K & Mr B
USA

"Hard to leave the Lodge its too nice!"

2 nights Arrived 17 Oct 2014
"Beautiful views. Excellent food. Great bedding. Good service.

Top notch except for boxed breakfast packs which were terrible. Chips and a candy bar in a breakfast pack? Really?" See all these reviews: 5n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Average
Facilities:
Good
Mr & Mrs H
Hampton

"Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge review"

2 nights Arrived 28 Aug 2013
"Having read other reviews we did not have very high expectations of Sopa Lodge but we were very pleasantly surprised.

We had chosen to stay there because of its wonderful location right on the crater rim and its closeness to the eastern descent road which meant that we were the first vehicle into the crater on the day we visited.

Although the lodge is busy the staff were very attentive and the food was good. Evening meals alternated between a set menu with choices on one night and a buffet on the next. The choice of food was good though some of the buffet food we chose was luke warm ( a little surprising as we went into dinner shortly after the restaurant opened).

On our first night the restaurant staff brought us an anniversary cake accompanied by singing from the Lodge choir which was a nice touch." See all these reviews: 10n in Tanzania; 1n in Kenya
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Rooms:
Good
Food:
Good
Facilities:
Good
The S family
Lewes

"Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge review"

2 nights Arrived 18 Dec 2012
"Fantastic location with breathtaking views over the crater. The rooms upstairs have a much better view. Despite a request to be given upstairs rooms we were allocated a downstairs room which has the view of the crater obscured by vegetation. The rooms were in a much better condition than Tarangire Sopa.

Food choice and quality was excellent. Again the table service from Joseph was excellent and as our children were very tired he speeded up the service to enable them to quickly go to bed.
We were able to ask for Breakfast boxes so that we could go in to the crater early. The children were even able to request pancakes in their breakfast box, which was done without fuss by the catering staff.

Massai dancers came in and danced in foyer which was interesting. (I caught a 48 hour stomach bug here - I was the only one in the family to get it, but I chose different dishes from the rest of the family, But then equally it could have been the lunch boxes which were in a hot vehicle for 8 hours as we left before breakfast)" See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Rooms:
Good
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Good
Mr & Mrs M
Bracknell

"Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge review"

3 nights Arrived 1 Aug 2012
"Yes, it’s large and ugly, but we found the service good and friendly and if you want to stay on the crater rim it is a perfectly good place to stay without going bankrupt.

If I were to go there again I would stay “off crater” at somewhere like Gibb’s Farm" See all these reviews: 12n in Tanzania; 4n in Zanzibar
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Good
Rooms:
Average
Food:
Good
Facilities:
Good
Dr N
Virginia

"Comfortable lodging on the crater rim"

2 nights Arrived 2 Jun 2012
"A very nice place to stay on the Crater rim. Excellent access to road down into Crater is the biggest plus.

Orientation (facing West) is not ideal, at least in May-June, as crater was socked in by fog and clouds in the morning and the view was overpowered by the glare of the setting sun in the afternoon. Facilities and rooms were very nice. However, there was a tendency to raise expectations as a luxury facility that were not really realized in terms of food and service. But nevertheless a fine site for a Crater rim experience." See all these reviews: 14n in Tanzania
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location:
Good
Service:
Good
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Average
Facilities:
Good
Showing 11-20 of 23
88%
23 reviews of Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge by travellers since August 2007
Overall rating by our travellers
14
4
5
0
0
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