Retima Hippo Pool, Serengeti: The On-Foot Hippo Guide

Summary: The Retima Hippo Pool is one of the very few places in the Serengeti where you can leave the vehicle and stand on foot above roughly 200 hippos packed into a river bend. It sits where the Seronera and Orangi rivers meet in the central park, permanent water that pulls in crocodiles, elephants and a lot of birdlife alongside the hippos. For a 6-day private multi-park route with the permits and a fly-back included, peak-season rates run from about USD 4,850 to USD 13,950 per person sharing.

Jump to Section

Standing at the Pool
How Hippos Actually Work
Beyond the Hippos
The Picnic Site
Getting There, and the Clay
National Park Entry Fees
What a Trip Costs
Common Questions

You don’t often get out of the vehicle in the Serengeti. Retima is one of the few places you can, and that’s most of the reason people come. It sits where the Seronera and Orangi rivers meet, about 8 km north of the Seronera airstrip, a deep, permanent bend fed by underground springs that holds somewhere around 200 hippos, and you stand on an unrailed bank maybe ten feet above them. You’ll see it written “Retina” about as often as “Retima”, and both point to the same pool.

Standing at the Pool

The first thing that gets you is the smell. Two hundred hippos packed into one stretch of water put out a heavy ammonia reek, and there’s no getting used to it in the ten minutes you’re there. Then the noise: a constant chorus of deep grunt-wheezes, snorts and splashing, and every so often a dominant bull cranks his jaws open in a huge gape, not a yawn but a warning, showing the younger bulls the canines he’d use on them.

Look across to the far bank and you’ll usually find Nile crocodiles laid out on the dry clay. They’re shy, oddly enough, and a noisy group on the near bank will send them sliding into the water. There are no rails and no fence on your side, just the bank, and standing there you can feel the low rumble of the pod coming up through your feet, which tells you plenty about how wild this spot still is with a guide beside you.

Sight / Sound	Hippo Behavior	Pro Guide Tip
Heavy Ammonia Smell	200 hippos packed in pool	Fades quickly; stay on upper bank
Jaw Gape Display	Dominant bull threat warning	Watch for exposed canine teeth
Ground Vibrations	Low rumbles through earth	Stand 10ft above with your guide

How Hippos Actually Work

The huddle isn’t sociability, it’s sunburn. Hippo skin can’t take the equatorial sun, so they crowd into the water through the day, and their skin secretes a pinkish, faintly antimicrobial fluid, the “blood sweat” old guides talk about, that works as a natural sunscreen. It’s also why they look like they’re blushing at midday.

They don’t really swim, either. A hippo is a bottom-walker, gliding and bounding along the riverbed and pushing up to the surface to breathe every three to five minutes, often without properly waking. The action comes at night: once it cools, the pod hauls out and grazes miles across the grass in the dark, and despite the shape they’ll outrun a person easily, which is the whole reason you keep the deep water at their back and never get between a hippo and it. Watch long enough and you may see a bull spin his tail like a propeller as he dungs, flinging it across the rocks to mark territory. Charming animals.

Beyond the Hippos

Wildlife / Species	Key Location	Best Field Strategy
Waterbirds & Eagles	Seronera river banks	Scan trees for African Fish Eagles
Elephant Families	Western river path (300ft)	Watch for late afternoon drinking
Great Migration	Surrounding acacia corridor	Visit in June/July or Oct/Nov

The pool is the draw, but the green belt it feeds is a dry-season lifeline for a lot more. With your guide you can walk a short path, about 300 feet west of the main terrace, to a quieter stretch of the Seronera river where far fewer hippos sit and elephants come down to drink in the open. The birds along here are worth the stop on their own: grey crowned cranes, saddle-billed storks, African fish eagles, kingfishers and herons all work the water, with lilac-breasted rollers on the scrub behind.

That same green ribbon pulls in topi, impala and giraffe through the dry months, and where the plains game gathers the Seronera prides and hyenas aren’t far behind the perimeter thickets. The prominent hill on the northern skyline is Banagi Hill, a useful landmark if you’re following your route on a map. And twice a year, in June and July and again in October and November, the migration itself pushes through this corridor, so the hippo chaos gets a backdrop of wildebeest streaming through the acacia.

The Picnic Site

There’s a small parking area and a shaded picnic spot set back from the bend, with basic restrooms and a few benches. A few things worth knowing before you unpack lunch:

Don’t eat at the water’s edge. The smell of food brings wasps down onto your juice within seconds.
Shut the cruiser up properly. The baboons here have learned to open unlatched doors, and a big male will climb in and shred a day-pack for a sandwich.
The restroom is basic, and in the dry months the pumps often run dry, so carry your own loo roll and wet wipes rather than banking on hand sanitiser.
Bring a long lens for the calves, polarised sunglasses for the glare off the water, and boots you don’t mind getting muddy on the path down.

Getting There, and the Clay

The pool is a 30-to-45-minute drive from the central Seronera hub, and the access tracks off the main northern road are black-cotton clay. One afternoon shower turns them greasy, and pulling off the track to skirt a slow vehicle is how a cruiser ends up sunk to its axles, so this is a spot where you want a driver who knows the ground and stays on it. Permits also run on a rolling 24-hour clock from the time you enter, which I keep an eye on so an afternoon here doesn’t tip you into a whole extra day’s fees at the gate.

National Park Entry Fees

The daily permits are set by the MNRT and collected by TANAPA, with the NCAA running Ngorongoro. They’re charged per adult for every 24-hour stretch you’re inside a park, cashless at the gate now:

The Serengeti itself is $82.60 a day, which is the $70 fee plus 18% VAT.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area comes in at $70.80 a day.
There’s a $60-per-night concession fee for sleeping inside the park.
And a flat $295 per vehicle if you drop into the crater.

The full fee breakdown has the rest.

What a Trip Costs

This 6-Day/5-Night route is built for two travelling together: single nights near Tarangire and the Ngorongoro Crater rim on the way in, then three nights in the central Serengeti with Retima on the itinerary. Non-resident USD per person, valid across 2026/2027.

A 6-day trip, two people sharing

Option	6-day rate (per person)	Camps: Tarangire / Crater / Serengeti
Budget Comfort	USD 4,850	Sangaiwe Tented Lodge / Karatu Simba / Osinon Camp
Mid-Range Classic	USD 5,920	Maramboi Tented Camp / Rhino Lodge / Nyikani Migration Camp
Luxury Signature	USD 8,450	Lemala Mpingo Ridge / Ngorongoro Serena / Melia Serengeti
Ultra-Luxury	USD 13,950	Sanctuary Swala Camp / andBeyond Crater Lodge / Four Seasons

To shift the camps or build the route around a central-Serengeti base, tell me your dates and I’ll put it together.

What the price covers

All the park permits and conservation taxes.
The private 4×4, pop-up roof, high clearance, fridge in the back.
Fuel, and my time as your guide.
Every night’s concession fee inside the park.
Meals, drinking water, and your double-occupancy lodging.
The one-way flight from the Seronera airstrip back to Arusha on a carrier like Coastal Aviation, bags and taxes in.

And the things it doesn’t:

Your international flights and visa ($100 on a US passport).
Tips for me and the camp teams.
The personal bits, laundry, drinks at the bar, and your travel insurance.

Common Questions

Can we walk right down to the water’s edge?

No. You stay up on the elevated bank with your guide. Hippos kill more people in Africa than any other large animal, and they’re fiercely territorial; get between one and the deep water and it will charge. The bank keeps that water at their back, which is the whole point of it.

When’s the best time to visit?

The pool’s busy all year, but the dry season, roughly June to October, is easiest, with lower water crowding the animals in tighter. Midday you’ll see the biggest huddle, packed in out of the sun, though they’re mostly resting then. For the yawns and squabbles, and for the light, come mid-to-late afternoon, when the pod starts to stir before heading out to graze at dusk.

Are there really crocodiles in the same pool?

Yes, big Nile crocodiles share it, on an uneasy truce. They keep clear of the protective mothers and calves and mostly wait to scavenge whatever drifts down the channel.

How do hippos stay under so long?

Their nostrils and ears seal shut when they submerge, and they’re bottom-walkers rather than swimmers, so they simply push up to breathe every three to five minutes, often without fully waking.

What about the smell?

It’s strong, no way around it, but the breeze moving across the elevated bank keeps the air shifting, and most people stop noticing after a few minutes. If you’ve a delicate stomach, a dab of vapour rub under the nose takes the edge off.

Plan Your Visit

Retima works best as one stop on a central-Serengeti loop, an hour out of a morning to stand on the bank, walk the western path for the elephants, and get back to the game drive. If you’re building a trip around the central river country, it’s worth settling how many days you have, which part of the park you’d base in, and roughly where you’d like to stay and what it’ll cost, with a camp on Banagi Hill like Hippo Trails putting you within a short drive.

When you’ve got rough dates and a group size, the quote page is the place to start, and we’ll shape the route from there.

Editorial & Fact Check Validation Written by Moses C. – Veteran Wildlife Safari Guide & Operations Manager at BookSerengeti.com.