Faru Faru Lodge + Sabora Tented Camp, Tanzania

And now, more from the Singita Game Reserves.  This hotel, the Faru Faru Lodge, and the one below, Sabora Tented Camp, are both in Tanzania and both are so ridiculously gorgeous, I don't know what to do with myself.

I once met a Kenyan man who joked about the touristic aftermath of Out of Africa on East Africa.  In the mid-to-late 1980's, if you were to go to the airport in Nairobi or Dar Es Salaam, you'd see packs of Meryl Streep look-alikes in wide-brimmed woven hats and cream-colored linen suits descending from airplanes.

It's very easy to mock these people - individuals caught up in a romantic, idealized vision of Colonial East Africa, totally disconnected from the people and reality of the present-day countries - but when I look at these photos, especially the Sabora Tented Camp, I completely understand, albeit shamefully, the draw of this fantasy. 

 Sabora Tented Camp

 

Singita Boulders Lodge, South Africa

I learned about the Singita Game Reserves from my friend Kellie who went to South Africa for her honeymoon.  What has come to my attention since starting this blog a few months ago is that there are far more jaw-dropping, spectacular hotels in sub-Saharan Africa than I could have ever imagined. 

(It's a bit hard to avoid the fact that the continent with the most extreme rates of poverty, disease, and underdevelopment is also the one with the most excessively priced luxury hotels.  I don't really think it's a coincidence, but this is obviously not the forum to discuss the lingering impact of colonialism on distribution of wealth.  This is an aspirational/inspirational hotel blog, so let's just all agree to acknowledge that only a miniscule percentage of the people who live on this continent, or any continent really, could ever afford to stay here, and then carry on with the indulgence.)    

The Singita Boulders Lodge in the northeast of South Africa is one of the many lodges owned by Singita Game Reserves.  They have a number of hotels in South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe and each one will blow your mind.  Each hotel has a seemingly effortless ability to connect indoor and outdoor space.  Beyond that, the design choices - the animal skin rugs and the natural materials in structure, furniture and art  - all work to create a space that is undeniably local, not at all kitschy, and absolutely dream-like.  Just look closely at the bathroom details in the photo below. 

I might just decide that this is Africa Week at Let's Stay Here so I can post 100 more photos of incredible Singita hotels.

Lamai Serengeti

As wedding-palooza starts to become real, my beyonce and I have begun to consider our honeymoon options. We're getting married in March, and because cold weather is my enemy, this means no to a European vacation or other tempting northern hemisphere destinations like Japan, China or Central Asia.

Luckily we're left with so many exciting alternatives. South America? Southeast Asia? What about sub-Saharan Africa? These incredible photos from the Lamai Serengeti Lodge in Tanzania have certainly put East Africa in the running.