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The Mto Wa Mbu village, literally translated as the River of Mosquitos, is located along the arid, dusty highway toward Lake Manyara, past the ubiquitous baobab-dotted savannah, herds of grazing cattle patiently watched by Maasai Herdsmen and towards the dramatic backdrop of the lush and fertile Ngorongoro Crater highlands and shimmering Lake Manyara. Its a great place to sample a red banana. In my opinion bananas oughtn’t to be red, so I felt I should try one of these unnatural-looking fruit. I stopped by one of the battered and wonky wooden stalls lining the road, and was initially besieged by women offering me yellow bananas. I pointed to the small bunch of red bananas in a plastic bucket and headed back to my car, intrigued. I can tell you that they taste like banana, with a hint of raspberry and that they are absolutely delicious.

As the camp’s name indicates, the main reason to stay here is to catch the Great Migration, the annual movement of more than one million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of zebra and gazelle making an 1,800-mile circuit through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti National Park, and into the Maasai Mara in Kenya. At the camp, large, tented chalets on stilts have wraparound decks with a 360-degree view of the landscape and its denizens. The lodgings blend into the surroundings on the bank of one of the great migration obstacles: the Grumeti River, with its many crocodiles, hippos, and boulders. Herds pass through the vicinity from August through November, and the Elewana’s northern Serengeti location miles from the main concentration of game lodges gives it a sense of privacy rarely achieved in the far more visited western and southern park corridors. One further advantage: The camp is within driving distance of the other great wildebeest crossing point, the Mara River, on the border region between the Serengeti and Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Park. The atmosphere at the lodge is cheerful and relaxed, and the huge tented suites, which are divided by canvas walls into bedroom and bathing areas, have comfortable queen or twin beds, wood floors, colonial-style leather chairs, African textile accents, and, unlike most mobile migration safaris, hot water and electricity 24/7.

Explore the varied wildlife of Kenya and Tanzania while immersing yourself in the region’s culture.

Gibb’s Farm began life as a coffee plantation in the 1920s. In 1948, British war veteran James Gibb bought the property and decided to plant vegetables alongside the coffee fields. Located near the village of Karatu on the slopes of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the original farmhouse is a beautiful ivy-covered building set among formal English gardens. Guests can stay overnight in a cozy cottage, or just stop in for an alfresco lunch on the patio and a stroll through the fruit and vegetable orchards and the coffee fields. Food at Gibb’s has a real wow factor, and 90 percent of the ingredients are homegrown and organic. Lunch favorites include colorful beet and avocado salad, any of the delicious soups, and stuffed zucchini flowers.

Serengeti National Park is the ideal place to spot the big five: elephants, lions, leopards, Cape buffalo, and rhinos. You can take a road trip from Arusha to the Ngorongoro Crater, a grassy crater outside the park that’s home to a huge concentration of game. This appeared in the November/December 2014 issue.