Mara Mara Tented Lodge
Permanent tented lodge · Kogatende, near the Mara River, northern Serengeti · Tanganyika Wilderness Camps
Mid-range
Inside the park
Safari company
Mara Mara is a permanent tented lodge run by Tanganyika Wilderness Camps, "located in North Serengeti close to the river Mara in the Kogatende Area"; TANAPA's register lists it as a camp in the northern Serengeti. It has 20 tents and 4 bungalows and is open all year, which many northern camps are not. That makes it a mid-range base for the river crossings from July to October, the period most northern camps price at their peak. TWC publishes no rates, so ask an operator. Choose it for the crossings without top-end prices; skip it if you want a small, quiet camp.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Close to the Mara River in the Kogatende area
- Open all year
- Children welcome
- Likely cheaper than the northern luxury camps
Cons
- No published rates or email
- 24 units: bigger than the northern tented camps
- No child age policy published
What's here
- En-suite bathrooms
Arranged from the lodge:
- Game drives
Read from Mara Mara Tented Lodge's own website in July 2026. Anything not listed we could not confirm, which is not the same as it being absent.
What the park charges on top
The rate above buys you a bed. Serengeti National Park charges its own entry fee for every day you are inside. Here is what that adds up to.
- Park entry$70 plus 18% VAT, so $82.60, per 24 hours from 16 May to 14 March; $70.80 from 15 March to 15 May.
- $83per person, per day
- Vehicle$40 plus VAT, so $47.20, for a foreign-registered vehicle up to 2,000 kg; a Tanzanian-registered safari vehicle pays TSh 20,000, about $8 at TANAPA's TSh 2,555 to the dollar.
- $47per vehicle, per day
Three nights means three days inside, so two adults sharing one vehicle pay $639 in park fees before anyone pays for a bed.
A lodge or camp inside the park adds TANAPA's concession fee on top: $70.80 per adult per night from July to September and $59 from October to June, VAT included. Arriving by road from Arusha adds the Ngorongoro permit of $70.80 per adult each way.
The full fee schedule for Serengeti National ParkRates at Mara Mara Tented Lodge
Rates on request. Tanganyika Wilderness Camps publishes no rates. TANAPA fees come on top: $82.60 conservation per adult per 24 hours (16 May to 14 March) and $70.80 (July to September) or $59.00 (October to June) concession per adult per night, VAT included. Whether VAT is in the lodge's own rate is not stated.
What the rate covers is not confirmed. We do not know yet whether meals, drinks and activities are included, so read this as the bed only.
Every figure on this page is in US dollars.
Rates checked on 6 October 2026 against each operator's own website or rate sheet, in US dollars per person per night sharing unless the entry says otherwise. Two figures are per room, not per person: Serengeti Serena's $728 and Serengeti Explorer's $750 (a January 2025 opening offer). One figure is a reseller's, not the owner's: Africa Safari Serengeti Ikoma's $154 a night on Priceline (6 Oct 2026, basis not stated). Ndutu Safari Lodge's figures come from a rate sheet that ran to 15 December 2025, the newest on its site. Unless the entry says otherwise, TANAPA fees come on top of every rate inside the park: the conservation fee of $70 plus 18% VAT ($82.60) per adult per 24 hours from 16 May to 14 March, $70.80 from 15 March to 15 May, and the hotel concession fee of $70.80 per adult per night from July to September or $59.00 from October to June, VAT included. Camps at Ndutu and Lake Masek pay the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority instead: $70.80 entry per 24 hours and $59.00 concession per adult per night. Wilderness Usawa is the one rate we found that includes park fees.
Questions about Mara Mara Tented Lodge
Is Mara Mara Tented Lodge near the river crossings?
TWC places it close to the Mara River in the Kogatende area of the northern Serengeti. It publishes no distance to specific crossing points.
Is Mara Mara open all year?
Yes, TWC's page says open all year.
Does Mara Mara take children?
TWC says children are welcome but publishes no ages or child rates.