Escarpment Luxury Lodge Manyara

Lovely Room, great staff and excellent food. We were having a meal and the staff came out in a conga line singing and carrying a cake, it went on all through the dining rooms with the staff laughing and singing and eventually stopping at a couple that were celebrating a wedding anniversary - it was just so beautiful and lovey and so much joy - wow those staff shared joy everyone in the dining, what a lovely evening.

This was our second visit to this beautiful Escarpment Luxury Lodge. The rooms are as stunning as the photos show and bed very comfortable. The pool area has magnificent views of Lake Manyara. It was rather a shame that none of the staff that we met 18 months ago were not working there anymore. We were also disappointed that the chef had changed too.

We stayed at this accommodation for one night in our 10 day safari trip and it was the worst night by far. To start with, the place looked tired and the staff most certainly did not look happy to be there. The mosquito nets don't even cover the bed which defeats the purpose of having them. However, two other incidents during our stay their was really problematic: i) My parents and I unfortunately found this lodge to be rather racist. When we arrived we were informed there would be a cultural and acrobatic show, which could be watched from the dining room patio. We left our bags in our room and went to the dining room where it was still empty. We were advised by a waitress that we could not sit at any of the tables overlooking the show, and that “our” table was at the very back corner where the show was not visible. We thought maybe tables were assigned by room and didn’t think much of it and proceeded to go down to the field to watch the show – braving the mosquitoes and waiting to have dinner later after the show. However, as we were walking down and from the field, we noticed guests who arrived later, were being offered all the tables at the patio overlooking the field where the show was, and that there was in fact no assigned seating. We finished the show and came back up to the patio to sit at our table, and found that another family was seated at our table. We asked the waitress, and she said along the lines of “oops I forgot you guys were there but it’s your problem – you didn’t leave any of your personal belongings there”. Initially she asked us to come back later to for dinner (it was already 8:15pm), and then eventually with us being upset, they put together a makeshift table that was incredibly wobbly, in the middle of dining buffet traffic. We couldn’t help but notice, we were the only non-white guests there, and the treatment towards us was incredibly different from the other guests. They walked the other guests through the buffet explaining the different foods and menus, offering drinks, etc. They completely ignored and avoided us. In addition, every single accommodation we stayed at, it was assumed that our guide would join us for dinner. When we first told the waitress there would be 4 of us, as our guide would be joining us, she was very rude and was adamant that our guide wasn’t allowed to join us, that they have their own food. If we wanted him to join, we had pay for him. Her tone and behaviour aside, I found this policy in general puzzling – first, our guide was part of our group and second, that implicated the quality of food available to the guides were very different. ii) We originally planned to stay two nights but shortened our stay before arriving as we made other plans. I wasn’t sure who to reach out to, so I did try to reach the lodge to inquire about their cancellation policy by social media and email, but never received a response. I tried to speak with a manager on the premises, and she was quite unhelpful overa