Singita Sasakwa Lodge

Singita Sasakwa Lodge is considered by many to be their "crown jewel" in East Africa. I can definitely see that after spending a few nights!

After spending a couple nights at Faru Faru, my guide drove me over to Sasakwa around midday (he similarly continued as my guide while staying there, too).

Sasakwa is truly jaw-droping, it's a sprawling, 11 cottage estate built up on a big hill. The landscape views are incredible - each time I looked out over the Serengeti, I couldn't believe I was there.

Check-in was incredibly easy. Upon arrival at Sasakwa, I was greated by one of the managers along with my personal "butler" (basically my single point of contact for anything throughout my stay). After a tour of the main lodge(s), I was brought to my cottage for a tour. No papers to sign and, naturally, everyone knew who I was. Similarly, only thing I had to sign throughout my stay was the credit card receipt for a few things from the gift shop.

The cottage was incredible (I'm running out of adjectives to describe things). I was in a one-bedroom cottage. At the entryway was a well-stocked minibar (all complimentary) and a guest bathroom with toilet and vanity. That leads into the living area with a couch, a few chairs, coffee table, writing desk, and fire place. Moving into the bedroom was another writing desk and the king-size bed. After that was the dressing/closet area. And lastly the oversized bathroom with dual vanity, free-standing tub, shower, and watercloset.

Additionally, the outdoor patio had two separate seating areas and two lounge chairs around the heated plunge pool.

The room (and Sasakwa as a whole) is designed as a "Edwardian Manor House" as such, the room featured several chandeliers, dark woods, African artifacts, etc. The room looked and felt quite nice (to me). It did show a bit of wear, but nothing that detracted from the experience (mainly scuffed wood floors and a scratch on one of the mirrors).

As with Faru Faru, service was fantastic. I never had to wait for anything and my personal "butler" was super nice and got to know my preferences - for example, coffee and water preferences were remembered right away and food preferences were acknowledge from the start. The F&B manager/somellier was also ever-present and did a killer job serving wine each day. I had one impromptu wine tasting and one schedule wine tasting and they were both fantastic. As with Faru Faru, they had wines printed on the dinner menu, but the somellier would be like "I'm happy to pour you what's on the menu, but I selected a few other bottles that I want you to try" and they were all exceptional and tailored to my taste.

Additionally, I requested some local food one night and they put together a tasting menu of eight(!) dishes for me to try at dinner. It seems they were all super excited at that request and even my guide was getting involved in letting people know what to make! I also had some laundry done during my stay, and requested it done same-day (requested around noon) and I had it back less that two hours later.

Throughout the stay at Sasakwa (and Faru Faru) everything was entirely up to me - I got to choose when to go out and come back on my game drives, meal times were completely flexible, etc.

Overall, the food was good. The highlights being pastries at breakfast (Paris-quality croissants in the middle of the Serengeti was impressive), a couple different sandwiches I had at tea-time (not sure if they were actually on the menu or not, my "butler" just suggested them). And, of course, the local Swahili dinner.

Pre-morning drive was always continental breakfast with granola, fruit, yogurt, etc. After the morning drive, they offered full breakfast, then full lunch, and tea time prior to the afternoon drive, and naturally dinner after that.

Even I wasn't able to do breakfast, lunch, and tea all within about four hours, so did breakfast and tea time, skipping lunch.

As I mentioned previously, Sasakwa is a ways up on a hill. Not much in the way of game viewing directly from the compound (except for plenty of monkeys, baboons, and some stray giraffe and zebra). But only a few minutes away and you're back on the plains of the private reserve with incredible viewing.

Sasakwa was mind-blowing. I though Faru Faru was incredible, but Sasakwa blew it away. I'm not sure that Sasakwa is for everyone, it is clearly more formal (in style) than Faru Faru (and Sabora) but they certainly didn't make me feel weird our out of place. Similar to Faru Faru, the service felt very comfortable and never stuffy. It was nice to get to know people on a personal level.

IMO, there's a lot of charm to the place - I loved coming back each night to the main lodge with a roaring fire and nice glass of wine. It reminded me a lot of a wilderness resort I would visit as a kid that features a huge log cabin as the main lodge - slightly creaky wood floors (in a good way) and the crackling fire brough me right back to those memories.

In addition to the fantastic hard product, the service continued to shine. I would have no issues returning and completely understand why it's such a magical place.