Arusha Coffee Lodge sits inside a working Arabica coffee estate on the western edge of Arusha, five minutes’ drive from the airport that carries most travellers into northern Tanzania’s parks. Cottages and suites stand among rows of coffee bushes at the foot of Mount Meru, and the plantation runs through the whole of the day, from the morning air to the cup poured at breakfast.
The scent of roasting beans carries across the gardens through the day
This is among Tanzania’s oldest coffee plantations, and guests sleep directly among the Arabica. A guided walking tour follows the bean from tree to cup, through planting and harvesting, drying and live roasting, and finishes with a tasting of the estate’s own coffee. The scent of roasting beans carries across the gardens through the day.
The lodge was built in 2001 around an early-1900s landowner’s homestead, and the buildings hold to that colonial plantation character. Red brick and terracotta roofs sit above timber floors, and stone fireplaces are lit against the cool highland evenings. Arusha stands near 1,400 metres, high enough for cold nights and a low-malaria climate that suits a first or final night in Tanzania.
Red brick and terracotta roofs sit above timber floors
Vervet monkeys move through the coffee canopy and tropical birds work the manicured gardens, though this is farmland rather than a game area. Evenings run to a coffee cocktail by the fire before the flight out to the Serengeti. Mornings run to a slow coffee on a private veranda after a long, dusty return from the parks.
Traders Walk gives the lodge the feel of a small village, a cluster of workshops and shops set among the coffee. Kahawa coffee shop pours fresh brews alongside its home baking, the Tanzanite Experience shows off Tanzania’s blue gemstone, and a gift shop stocks the work of local makers. It is the kind of place that fills the hours between a bush flight and check-in, and does it without asking you to leave the estate at all.
Rooms and suites radiate out from the central Plantation House into the bushes, each with a private veranda facing the coffee. The kitchen leans on farm-to-table produce and estate coffee, whether that means a candlelit dinner in the historic house, a wood-fired pizza at the bistro, or a garden buffet lunch under the shade trees. Housekeeping lays fresh flower blossoms across the beds and stone counters, and the estate coffee turns up everywhere, from the in-room percolators to the bath amenities.
There is a playground, build-your-own pizza sessions at the wood-fired oven
The airport five minutes away handles the light aircraft that connect to Tarangire and Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti, which makes the lodge a natural bookend to a northern Tanzania safari. Kilimanjaro International lies around 55 kilometres east, roughly an hour across town. Day drives reach Arusha National Park for its Mount Meru views, the Momella Lakes and black-and-white colobus monkeys, and further afield to the Ngorongoro Crater.
The Peaberries spa handles massages and treatments beside the garden-facing pool, and children are made welcome here. There is a playground, build-your-own pizza sessions at the wood-fired oven, and babysitting on request. For families breaking a long international flight before the parks, or couples wanting a calm, characterful base rather than an airport hotel, the coffee estate answers both.
01
accommodation
Thirty rooms and suites are set among the coffee bushes: eighteen Plantation Rooms and twelve Plantation Suites. Each has a log-burning fireplace, a private veranda facing the plantation, and an en-suite bathroom with bathtub and shower. Split-level suites add a sitting area, canopy bed, minibar and outdoor sun terrace with its own fireplace.
02
activities
The signature bean-to-cup coffee tour walks the estate through cultivation, roasting and tasting. On site: swimming, the Peaberries spa, and Traders Walk shops. Off site, day drives run to Arusha National Park for Mount Meru views and colobus monkeys, and longer trips to the Ngorongoro Crater, under national park regulations.
03
conservation
Shanga, on the estate at Traders Walk, employs Tanzanians with physical and sensory disabilities, who recycle glass and metal into handblown ware, weave fabric and paint. Guests can watch the artisans at work.
Get in touch and let’s start the conversation. An initial consultation helps us understand what you’re looking for, whether that’s specific experiences, luxury touches, or marking a special occasion, and from there we’ll guide you through what’s possible so you can decide if we’re the right fit.
Fly into Kilimanjaro International and the road transfer to the lodge takes between one hour and an hour and a half depending on Arusha's traffic; we arrange it so a driver is waiting when you land. The other airport is the reason the lodge earns its place on an itinerary: Arusha's small airfield, minutes from the estate, is where the safari circuit's light aircraft come and go, with scheduled flights reaching Tarangire in about twenty minutes and the Serengeti in under an hour.
We can also arrange a private charter from there, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, straight onto your first airstrip in the parks. Whichever aircraft you board, the allowance is soft bags of about fifteen kilograms per person including hand luggage, so pack a duffel rather than a hard case.
Treat Arusha as a lower-risk malaria area, not a malaria-free one. The town stands at around 1,400 metres and the nights run cool, which holds mosquito numbers down, but the CDC and the UK's official travel health advice both put the altitude at which Tanzanian risk falls away at 1,800 metres, so antimalarial tablets are usually recommended here just as they are for the parks.
Guidance is reviewed through the year, so have a travel clinic or your doctor confirm the current position before you fly, and be sensible about bites once the light goes, long sleeves in the evening and repellent on.
Usually one at each end of a safari. A first night absorbs the long-haul arrival before the light aircraft leave for the parks from the airfield nearby the next morning, and a final night does the same in reverse, with a proper dinner and a slow morning before the flight home.
Check-in runs from two in the afternoon with check-out at ten, and the lodge also sells day rooms, which cover the awkward stretch between a midday return from the bush and a late-evening international departure. Give us your flight times and we will shape the nights, or a day room, around them.
Bed and breakfast, which is worth knowing because it differs from the safari camps around it, where full board is the norm. The room rate covers the night and breakfast; lunch and dinner are ordered from the menus at the lodge's restaurants, and the coffee tour, spa treatments and any excursions are priced separately.
None of this needs managing on the ground. Tell us how you want the stay to run and we will build the meals and activities into your quote from the start, so the only decision left at the lodge is what to order.
Yes. Wifi is free, in the rooms as well as the main lodge. With the estate minutes from Arusha rather than deep in the bush, this is the sensible place to back up photographs, make calls and clear anything that needs bandwidth, because once you fly into the parks connections thin out quickly and in some camps disappear altogether.
Yes, children of any age can stay, and the rooms bend to families better than most stopover hotels. Both the rooms and the larger suites can take a third bed, cots are provided for babies, and the rate sheet carries its own bands for under-twelves sharing with their parents and for teenagers.
Tell us the ages when we plan and we will set the rooms up to match. The estate is gardens and coffee rows rather than open bush, so it is also the one stop on a northern safari where children can burn off a long flight without a game-drive schedule attached.
rated five stars by our clients
our approach
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
