Nkungwe Beach Lodge
Simple tented rooms on wooden platforms · Lake Tanganyika shore, Mahale Mountains National Park · Independent, sold mainly through agents
A drawing, because nobody has sent us a photograph of Nkungwe Beach Lodge yet. Send five and this page changes the same week.
Mid-range
Inside the park
Owner/independent
The near-identical name is a genuine trap: Nkungwe Beach Lodge is a separate, cheaper, independent property, not the renamed Kungwe Beach Lodge. What you give up in cushions you do not give up in chimpanzees, because every camp on this shore treks to the same habituated community. For most travellers this is the sensible mid-range answer to Mahale.
Why you'd pick it
- Tracks the same M group chimpanzees as Greystoke for a fraction of the price
- Honest, well-kept tented rooms rather than luxury, with fresh local food
- Do not confuse it with Mbali Mbali Mahale, the former Kungwe Beach Lodge
What's here
- En-suite bathrooms
Read from Nkungwe Beach Lodge's own website in July 2026. Anything not listed we could not confirm, which is not the same as it being absent.
What the park charges on top
The rate above buys you a bed. Mahale Mountains National Park charges its own entry fee for every day you are inside. Here is what that adds up to.
- Park entry$80 plus 18% VAT per 24 hours, and that fee is the chimpanzee trekking cost.
- $94.4per person, per day
Three nights means three days inside, so two adults pay $566.4 in park fees before anyone pays for a bed.
No vehicles here.
The full fee schedule for Mahale Mountains National ParkRates
From about $520 pppn. Roughly a quarter of Greystoke's peak rate, which makes it the best value serviced bed in the park. Arranges its own charter flights from Arusha (Tuesdays and Thursdays) or from Ruaha, plus the mandatory boat transfer.
What the rate covers is not confirmed. We do not know yet whether meals, drinks and activities are included, so read this as the bed only.
Every figure on this page is in US dollars.
Indicative 2026/27 rates from operators' published rate sheets, gathered July 2026. Always confirm with the lodge. One thing to watch when comparing: Greystoke's packaged rates include park fees, while at the TANAPA bandas and campsites the $80 daily conservation fee and $20 group guide fee come on top of the bed price.