Nile Safari Lodge

Nile Safari Lodge has an enviable spot on the southern bank of the Victoria Nile, deep inside Murchison Falls National Park. Banda views look straight across the water to grazing elephants, if you're lucky, and the occasional crocodile sliding off the bank. There are only eight bandas here, raised on stilts and built from stone and eucalyptus wood. Each has an indoor monsoon shower plus an open-air one for washing off the dust of a game drive under open sky, and a freestanding bathtub angled at the river. The Exclusive Banda goes further still, with its own plunge pool and a star bed set on the riverbank for sleeping out beneath the equator's night sky. Murchison Falls are only 2km away from the lodge, with the option to disembark and hike to the top for the view back down the gorge. Further afield, track chimpanzee in Budongo Forest or rhino on foot at Ziwa Sanctuary, while daily game drives turn up lion, buffalo and giraffe closer to camp. Evenings wind down with sundowners by the infinity pool, then dinner under canvas with the Nile running past in the dark.