The Highlands

Each of the Guest Tents at The Highlands offers incredible views over the lush green landscape, treetops and the Gola Mountains. Guests can choose between a king-size bed or two twins, and triple options are also available. The bedrooms also feature a wood-burning fireplace to keep you warm at the high altitude, indoor seating and a wardrobe for storing personal items. The rooms lead out to your private balcony, where you will be able to enjoy elevated views of the Ngorongoro ecosystem. The en-suite bathrooms consist of twin basins, double showers and a flush toilet. Each tent is filled with rugs, cosy blankets and hot water bottles so that guests can wrap up and keep warm during the cooler evenings.

The Family Tent is very similar to the standard guest tents, but with an additional bedroom that connects to the outdoor balcony. The master bedroom features a king-size bed, and the additional room consists of two twins with an independent en-suite bathroom. The master bedroom is large and has additional furnishings such as the wood-burning fireplace to keep you warm at the high altitude, indoor seating and a wardrobe for storing personal items.

Both rooms provide instant access to your private balcony, with a safety rail to keep guests from harm. The en-suite bathroom joined to the master room consists of twin basins, double showers and a flush toilet, whereas the second bedroom is slightly smaller with just one basin and shower. Each tent is filled with rugs, cosy blankets and hot water bottles so that guests can wrap up and keep warm during the cooler evenings.

As with the other tented accommodations at The Highlands, the Honeymoon Tent offers stunning views over the surrounding treetops of the lush green landscape and Gola Mountains. Guests can sprawl out on the plush king-size bed and enjoy the scenery visible from the large windows that look out onto your private balcony. The Honeymoon Tent also features a large elevated deck with a hot tub and panoramic views of your breathtaking surroundings.

The bedrooms feature a wood-burning fireplace to keep you warm at the high altitude, indoor seating and a wardrobe for storing personal items. The en-suite bathrooms consist of twin basins, double showers and a flush toilet. Each tent is filled with rugs, cosy blankets and hot water bottles so that guests can wrap up and keep warm during the cooler evenings. Enjoy a private romantic getaway in the heart of the wilderness.

Guests can look forward to three delicious meals each day, starting with a breakfast buffet of cereals, fresh bread, dried fruit, and mixed cheeses and meats. You can also order a hot breakfast from the kitchen, cooked to your preferences. Lunch is usually enjoyed out on the crater floor. Enjoy a packed meal on a break from an exciting game drive, and admire the stunning natural beauty as you dine. In the evenings, guests can enjoy a 3-4 course meal at the camp’s communal dining area. This allows guests to connect and swap safari stories.

Embark on an exciting game drive along the floor of the world’s largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic crater. The Ngorongoro Crater, which was formed when a volcano collapsed in on itself over 2 million years ago, is 2,000 feet deep and it is estimated that the original volcano would have been between 15 thousand and 19 thousand feet high. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area which surrounds the caldera is home to an abundance of birdlife and wildlife, with a resident population of approximately 25,000 large mammals, including the Ngorongoro Lions who live within this natural enclosure.

Learn about these incredible creatures from an experienced guide as you watch them interact in their natural habitat. Guests visiting during January and February will also be able to witness the wildebeest calving season, where 8,000 new calves are introduced to the world each day. The 7-seat safari vehicles feature power points for keeping camera batteries topped up, and mini-fridges filled with refreshing beverages.

Enjoy a leisurely climb up the edge of the Olmoti Crater and be rewarded with breathtaking mountain views. A Maasai guide will lead you along an ancient Maasai cattle trail, passing mountain forest, grasslands and rocky outcrops. The top of the crater reaches 2,500 metres high, and while the walk is not strenuous, you may find yourself out of breath more easily at this altitude. Enjoy the incredible birding opportunities and look out for the beautiful golden-winged sunbird, as well as a variety of delicate yet stunning butterflies. On reaching the top, you will be able to gaze down at the crater below and admire this lush and green landscape that was once the site of a raging volcano.

Travel down to the floor of the Empakaai Crater, a 300-metre tall volcanic crater, and explore the caldera. The Empakaai Crater is largely occupied by an 85-metre deep alkaline lake, and is home to a range of wildlife including flamingos, bearded vultures, augur buzzards, bushbucks, waterbucks, buffalos and blue monkeys. The Highlands proximity to the crater allows guests the exclusive opportunity to take a half-day excursion to Empaakai, along with an NCA ranger who will be able to teach you about the wildlife and keep you safe. From the Empakaai Crater’s rim, you will be able to see incredible sights including Mount Kilimanjaro and the Great Rift Valley. Guests will also be able to take in stunning views of Mount Lengai, the most active volcano in Tanzania.

Visit a Maasai Village and discover a completely different style of living as you learn about the culture and heritage of the Maasai people. Learn to make a traditional campfire, and visit local homes and the Maasai school where younger children receive an education. This activity allows guests to understand what living in Tanzania is really like, and how people have survived alongside wildlife for generations.

Asilia understands that nature and humans are inseparable partners. They endeavour to support local areas, projects and communities through revenue and awareness created through tourism. Every year Asilia releases a report on the Positive Impact projects to show how these efforts have come to fruition and made real changes. Over 2018 and 2019, Positive Impact made contributions to:

• Offsetting 1,505 tonnes of CO2
• 44 scholarships
• Chimpanzee Habitation protection
• Community and Conservation projects
• Training local staff
• Developing economies

Asilia’s Twende Porini programme welcomes children from local communities so they can get a taste of what a safari is all about and learn the importance of conserving natural environments and wildlife. Most of the children live near conservation areas but don’t fully understand why tourists travel from all over the world to see the animals that they see practically daily. Safari favourites such as lions, buffalo and elephants can actually be very serious threats to local villages. By taking children on safari they get to see the animals in their natural state and can learn the importance of each animal in the ecosystem.

In 2010, the Serengeti Lion Project (SLP) expanded from the south-eastern Serengeti to work on lion conservation in the parts of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) inhabited by Maasai people. Coexistence has often been difficult as lions will disturb and attack Maasai herds, and the Maasai will retaliate by killing lions. Growth in human populations has also created a barrier for the lions in the area, meaning that they have become isolated and increasingly inbred. The NCA hopes to foster coexistence between lion and human populations and to help enable this they have launched a large water project. Competition over water sources is often what brings herds and wild animals into close contact and creates conflict. By removing this competition, therefore, the human-wildlife conflict will be reduced.

The grasslands of the Maasai Steppe’s Simanjiro Plains, on the outskirts of the Tarangire National Park, are crucial grazing areas for both wildlife and for the cattle herds belonging to the local Maasai. Factors such as hunting, farming and human population growth have infringed on the balance of grassland available for both pastoral herds and wildlife. In 2004, a group of tourist operators with concerns for the integrity of the ecosystem enlisted the help of the Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) to help them engage with Simanjiro villages. The easements resulted from several agreements to keep large parts of land unfarmed so that there are areas where wildlife can graze safely and undisturbed.

The Honeyguide Foundation is committed to empowering local communities so they can shape their futures and runs ‘community-based conservation initiatives across nearly 1.2 million acres of wilderness in Tanzania’. These initiatives have 5 key areas – enterprise development, management and governance, communications, human-wildlife conflict mitigation, and wildlife and habitat protection. Asilia supports 2 of their projects, the K9 Unit and the Chimpanzee Habituation Project.

Honeyguide established the K9 Unit in October 2011 to provide operational assistance to anti-poaching teams and in every area where dogs were used elephant poaching decreased dramatically. A K9 Unit was allocated to the Kilimanjaro region and within 2 years, all elephant poaching ceased. The Chimpanzee Habituation Project was first created by Professor Bernhard Grzimek of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, who released rescued chimpanzees onto Rubondo Island. The project hopes to introduce the chimpanzees to a human presence in a non-threatening way as they are fully habituated into the area.

Each year, Asilia identifies students who have incredible potential but whose families would not be able to afford to support them through higher education and provides them with funding for a scholarship. Assistance is given for courses that fall under tourism and teacher training, and job opportunities are provided on completion of study.

The population of lions in Africa has decreased by around 50% in the last 25 years as a result of factors like human-lion conflict, bushmeat poaching, and habitat loss. The Lionscape Coalition was formed in 2019 by the Lion Recovery Fund (LRF) for the benefit of lion populations and local businesses. Through the initiative, Africa’s top tourism operators can take a more active role ‘to support on-the-ground conservation work and encourage clients to support the future of lions’. The goal of the Lionscape Coalition is not only to protect lion populations but to also raise awareness of the role lions play in ecosystems and the suffering they’ve experienced as a species.

Due to the loss of natural habitats and other factors, lion populations have been declining and remain under threat. The Tarangire Lion Project (TLP) has been working to monitor lion prides, mitigate human-wildlife conflict, and educate and raise awareness about lion conservation among local communities. Asilia supports the TLP, helping to provide equipment for tracking and monitoring lions, staff operations and training. By keeping track of the lion prides the TLP can implement the most effective conservation strategies, especially in the long term. They are also working with local communities to set up predator-proof bomas so that livestock herds are protected and there is much less retaliation against lion populations.

The Southern Tanzania Elephant Project (STEP) is an elephant conservation programme that aims to conserve elephant populations and habitats, and to enhance human-elephant coexistence. Their 3 main initiatives are:

• Monitoring and research – mapping elephant distributions and trends, expanding elephant databases and evaluating effects of poaching to inform management and policy decisions
• Protection – defending elephants against ivory poaching through aerial surveillance, ranger patrols and law enforcement
• Human-elephant coexistence – working with farmers/landowners to reduce the damage done by elephants, helping to diversify livelihoods not dependent on farming, working with local authorities to show what drives human-elephant conflict and help resolve it, and helping facilitate safe elephant migration routes

Established over 30 years ago by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), this project monitors ant changes in the birth and survival rates of cheetahs. With approximately 210 cheetahs in the ecosystem, the research done ‘provides invaluable insight into the challenges facing cheetah’ populations and makes huge contributions to planning out conservation strategies that will benefit them. Pictures of cheetahs taken by guests staying at one of Asilia’s camps can directly help the project because it helps them keep track of cheetahs in the area.