Tarangire: Kikoti or Tar. Safari Lodge
 

Assuming both are available around Aug 1st, which would you choose and why? Both get positive reviews. Kikoti sounds like it's more upscale but several Fodorites rave about the view from Safari Lodge. I know that Kikoti is outside the park so night game drives are possible.

I have only been to Tarangire Safari lodge so I cannot speak about Kikoti, but the view at Tarangire Safari lodge was well worth the visit. All of the tents/lodges face onto the gorge and when we arrived, the gorge was teeming with animals (elephants, zebra, wildebeest, warthogs) moving towards the river to drink. When I sat on the deck of our tent reading a book one afternoon, a family of baboons and then a family of warthogs ended up coming up over the edge of the gorge right out in front of our tent! We also had very close animal encounters in the evenings with a pride of lions milling about the outside of our tent at night and a family of elephants just a few feet from our tent on the second evening of our stay - we could see them through our mesh windows!

The food isn't great at the lodge, however, given the view and the close animal encounters, I would highly recommend this lodge.

Admittedly, the view at Tarangire Safari Lodge is great, but the tents are small and each right next to the other.

If going as a family, though they do have stone cottages at the far end of the tents, to accommodate extra child/children. These are nicer and certainly larger.

Kikoti tents are nicer and larger and a bit more private. Animals do walk thru this camp, maybe their camp ostrich will still be around :) Frisky fellow, if I must say.

Tarangire River Camp is nice, also with views as they're sited on a ridge overlooking a bend of the river where game frolic below, especially elephants. Nice tents, lovely raised public space.

A few miles down the road, but outside of Tarangire is Maramboi Camp, with large tents, ample for triple or quads, large deck, views of Lake Manyara.

Tarangire Safari Lodge is also the largest of these four camps.

If you haven't decided yet, we loved Kikoti. Just went last month and our entrance there and how we were greeted with warm washcloths and juice in lovely sugar-rimmed glasses on to the fabulous tents--was a wonderful start to our safari. I would definitely go back there.

Tarangire river camp was very nice, one of our favorite places of our trip!

My comments may be somewhat of limited value as have not experienced stay at Kikoti. But, stayed at Tarangire Safari Lodge one nite in early June. We really enjoyed the view and our tent (#22 I think) was furthest from the lodge. As such we had giraffe at the front door in evening and again during the nite. Maybe we are too easy to please when it comes to eats but we thought quality of food was more than average. Given the opportunity to visit northern Tanzania again we for sure want to spend at least two nites at Tarangire Safari Lodge.

Thanks everyone, for your replies. They were exactly what I was looking for.
There's just two of us traveling, so the tents will give us enough room. Good to know about the stone cottages, though.
We think Tarangire Safari Lodge will suit us just fine. I did have some concerns about the food, but we're not there for the food, and if it's adequate, we'll be satisfied.
Kikoti looks terrific, but as we're planning to stay in Migration Camp and Sayari (pending availability),that should satisfy our desire for some luxury.