Chem Chem
This is a place for seasoned safari goers seeking authenticity, as well as first timers drawn to the romance of luxury tented living. Exceptional wildlife viewing is a hallmark here, including the rare chance to see the region’s magnificent Big Tuskers. Guided walking safaris and meaningful cultural encounters with Maasai communities bring a deeper connection to the landscape, creating a stay that feels both grounding and quietly unforgettable.
Location
The 20,000-hectare Chem Chem concession, sustained by tourism levies, ensures your stay directly supports conservation and provides employment for more than 140 local community members. Within this unfenced wilderness, diverse ecosystems flourish, from baobab-dotted savannahs to wetlands alive with birdlife.
Accommodation
It also has a family unit which is a lodge suite with an annex for the children connected by a wooden walkway giving the perfect balance of being together yet with enough privacy. While the lodge offers every comfort, it has been designed to blend with its surroundings making use of rich natural materials ensuring an authentic atmosphere prevails.
If you are feeling active, there is a fully equipped on-site gym, and if you are not, The Amani Spa provides a good selection of treatments using specially selected products to renew and revitalise the weariest of travellers. Take a short stroll past the main lodge to the lodge boutique shop for a little retail therapy.
Experiences
- At Chem Chem, it's called the ‘slow safari’ where activities are not just about action packed 4x4 game drives but embracing your surroundings.
- Dawn brings with it a calm beauty to the surroundings. Join your guide for a sunrise hill climb to get a stunning view of the land we are working to preserve.
- Enjoy a thrilling scenic helicopter ride to explore remote locations high above this magnificent wilderness.
- If the season allows, you can witness the striking swathes of pink flamingos during a sunrise excursion to Lake Manyara.
- Play a spontaneous game of football when you visit one of the schools supported by the Chem Chem Association.
Why We Include Chem Chem in Our Journeys
It’s a place that invites you to pause, breathe and connect more deeply with where you are. This spirit aligns perfectly with our ethos: experiences that are immersive, authentic, personal and quietly intimate, allowing the wild to reveal itself at its own unhurried pace.
Talk to us about designing your safari >
From the Team
“Why rush? Come to Chem Chem and experience a safari as it should be – and by that, I mean unhurried, natural and in the spirit of true exploration. There’s no plan here. Just see what happens when you let things unfold. It’s a lesson in life.”
Why Plan Your Safari with Journeysmiths
Every journey we design begins with listening. Whether you’re travelling as a family, a couple, or across generations, we take time to understand how you want your safari to feel – not just where you want to go. From there, we carefully weave together exceptional places, trusted guides, and seamless logistics to create journeys that flow naturally and feel entirely your own.Every journey we design begins with listening. Whether you’re travelling as a family, a couple, or across generations, we take time to understand how you want your safari to feel – not just where you want to go. From there, we carefully weave together exceptional places, trusted guides, and seamless logistics to create journeys that flow naturally and feel entirely your own.
We prioritise working with properties that collaborate with local communities and address location-specific needs from education to anti-poaching. We assess our partners to ensure the people we work with share our values of ensuring our trips continue to act as a force for good. Here we share some of the positive impacts your stay here contributes to.We prioritise working with properties that collaborate with local communities and address location-specific needs from education to anti-poaching. We assess our partners to ensure the people we work with share our values of ensuring our trips continue to act as a force for good. Here we share some of the positive impacts your stay here contributes to.
Great Places to Combine with Chem Chem
Chem Chem works beautifully as part of a wider Tanzania journey. We often pair it with contrasting environments to create a sense of flow and variety.Chem Chem works beautifully as part of a wider Tanzania journey. We often pair it with contrasting environments to create a sense of flow and variety.
An intimate luxury beachfront idyll, Zawadi Hotel is the perfect place to conclude a safari adventure – or is a destination in its own right. Set above a secluded beach on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, it offers a haven of total relaxation.
Set between lush forests and the sand shores of an immense freshwater lake, Greystoke Mahale is a place for legendary chimpanzee treks and true Robinson Crusoe remoteness.
Luxurious and quiet, Laba Grumeti Art Lodge offers small‑scale exclusivity in a peaceful area of the Serengeti, with private tented villas immersed in tranquil surroundings. It’s perfect for intimate, tailor‑made safari adventures.
A place that feels like a complete immersion in the true spirit of safari, this elegant and authentic camp’s remote setting provides the perfect stage for absorbing and unhurried wildlife encounters.
A luxury tented camp that’s always at the heart of the safari action because it moves to where the animals are to be found, Olakira Migration Camp also offers signature stargazing sleepout annexes to its tents.
The Whole Trip Went Perfectly Smoothly
"As a 'newbie' to the safari experience I found the preliminary information extremely useful even though I was travelling with someone who had done many similar trips before. The whole trip went perfectly smoothly with someone to greet us at every stage - it was just so relaxing."
A 12–14 day journey linking the Western Serengeti, Chem Chem and either Mahale or Zanzibar, this three-centre trip is a classic African safari experience in places where you’ll have an intimate, personal and slow-paced encounter with the essence of Tanzania.
Spanning a huge array of diverse environments, Tanzania offers an unmatched range of African safari experiences. It’s renowned for the Great Migration of the Serengeti, but that’s just the start of the unforgettable possibilities. Whether you are planning a family safari, seeking seclusion and exclusivity as a couple, or options suited to an individual, Tanzania has locations and seasons perfect for everyone. Luxury safaris in Tanzania, with guaranteed amazing spectacles for all, are more than just feasible: they are a reality.
The best time to visit Tanzania will depend on the activities you are interested in and the wildlife you'd like to spot. Read our month-by-month seasonal guide, and responses to your most popular Tanzania safari questions
At Journeysmiths we take you out into the wilds to enjoy all kinds of activities with expert, personable guides. Read our top ten Tanzania family safari experiences.
We’ve collated a list of our ten favourite Tanzanian experiences to show you what’s possible in this incredible country.
The Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater are truly spectacular settings filled with great herds and big cats. We take you far from the crowds and minibuses with your own private guide, staying in exclusive accommodation. Families with older teenagers will love the wildly remote Selous, Ruaha and Mahale, where you can walk, canoe and even track chimpanzees. Round it off on exotic Zanzibar.
Create memories of a lifetime together on an epic family safari in Tanzania. Witness the endless, game-filled plains of the Serengeti, explore the natural wonder of the Ngorongoro Crater and experience the magnificent wildlife in Tarangire.