Siringit Villa overlooks the Kiligolf course on the Kilimanjaro Golf and Wildlife Estate at Usa River, just outside Arusha. Impala and gazelle graze the fairways below the poolside balconies. When the cloud allows, Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro both rise on the horizon, and the house makes a gentle first or last night of a northern Tanzania safari.
Impala and gazelle graze the fairways below the poolside balconies.
Kilimanjaro International is a short road transfer away, and Arusha National Park close enough for a guided morning walk among colobus monkeys and giraffe. Climbers settle in for a few nights before Kilimanjaro, then come back down to a lap pool and a gym, with four massage bandas waiting for tired legs. Dinner is plated and served at the house.
Miguel Van Hoof began supporting Baraa Primary School, a government school in Moshono, in 2009. That same year he founded the Siringit Foundation. The house was designed as a family home, and it was the first Siringit property.
Below the terraces, impala graze with Kilimanjaro on the skyline.
Built as a private home, the villa works as readily for one party as for several. Groups of up to fifteen can take the whole house, and others book room by room. Below the terraces, impala graze with Kilimanjaro on the skyline. Children of all ages are welcome, and the house stays open every month of the year, so a climb or a safari through northern Tanzania can begin here in any season.
David Jones designed Kiligolf, an eighteen-hole championship course that opened in 2015. Its fairways wind between streams and ponds, with Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro rising on the skyline. The villa sits on the edge of the course, so a round begins a few steps from the door. The impala and gazelle watched from the balconies graze the same grass the golfers play across. For guests who never pick up a club, the course is simply the view, open green running out towards both mountains on a clear morning.
Two-hour rides set out from the stables on nearby Dolly Estate, crossing open country, and the guides pace each route to suit beginners and experienced riders alike. Wildebeest, zebra, eland and kudu share the grass with impala and gazelle. Bicycles take Usa River’s village paths more slowly, stopping for nyama choma and roasted mahindi and at a stall of shuka and kikoi. Back on the estate, a resident naturalist leads birdwatching trips.
Wildebeest, zebra, eland and kudu share the grass with impala and gazelle.
Arusha National Park takes in Mount Meru itself, and its guided walking safaris lead through forest where buffalo and bushbuck browse. The Momella Lakes, with flamingo out on the water, lie within the same small park, as does the bowl of Ngurdoto Crater, and a morning there still leaves the afternoon free for the lap pool back at the villa. Above it all, a scenic flight over Meru and Kilimanjaro can be arranged by private charter, in a light aircraft or lower down in a helicopter.
Local Meru guides lead the cultural walks, and two of them finish at Baraa Primary School, the school where all of this began. Years of support have added classrooms and sanitary facilities, a library and a computer room. Some of the children the Foundation has sponsored have gone on to secondary school and university. The others give an inside view of local life around Arusha, and the profit from each goes to the local community.
accommodation
Siringit Villa has six en-suite rooms, let whole or one at a time. Poolside rooms open onto balconies over the fairway and its grazing impala and gazelle, while others face the gardens and the mountains beyond. Two rooms are set as twins, and five take a child's bed for families.
activities
On the estate: eighteen holes of golf on Kiligolf, birdwatching with the resident naturalist, gym classes from boxing to yoga, and spa treatments. Beyond it: horse rides from Dolly Estate, village cycling, guided walks in Arusha National Park, cultural walks to Baraa Primary School, and scenic flights arranged by private charter.
conservation
The Siringit Foundation has given veterinary drugs and a dart gun to Friends of Serengeti Switzerland for wildlife emergencies in the Tarangire-Manyara ecosystem, and supports The Kilimanjaro Project, planting indigenous trees along rivers on Kilimanjaro and Meru, Prioria msoo among them. Baraa Primary School has had its backing since 2009.
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.
By road. Kilimanjaro International, where most long-haul flights into northern Tanzania land, is about thirty kilometres away, and the drive runs west along the Moshi to Arusha road before turning off at Maji ya Chai for the estate's golf gate. There is no airstrip on the estate, so every arrival finishes on the road, and we arrange the transfer so a driver is waiting when you land.
Coming back from the parks, the scheduled light aircraft land at Arusha's small airfield on the far side of Arusha, around fifty kilometres by road. If you would rather set your own timings, we can arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, into Kilimanjaro International, which puts you closest to the villa, with the road transfer timed to meet it.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates all of Tanzania below 1,800 metres as high risk for malaria and recommends antimalarial tablets there, and the American CDC draws its line at the same height. The golf estate at Usa River lies at a little over 1,000 metres, well below that line, so the official advice applies here just as it does in the parks.
We are travel planners, not medical professionals, so we do not make medical recommendations. Which tablets suit you, and what is right for a child, is a conversation for your own doctor or a travel clinic, ideally with your travel dates in front of them. On the practical side, wear long sleeves once the sun goes down and keep repellent by the pool in the evening.
Yes. The villa can be taken whole for one party, sleeping up to fifteen across its six en-suite rooms, which lie over two floors. Every room has a king bed, two can be made up as twins, and five take a third bed for a child under seventeen, so a family can keep its youngest close. Children of all ages are welcome, and cots are provided for the under-sixes.
Two of the rooms are set up for guests with limited mobility, which helps when grandparents are travelling too. Tell us everyone's ages and how they like to sleep when we plan, and we will put the room arrangement together before you arrive rather than on the day.
Yes, and the course is the reason the estate exists. Kiligolf is an eighteen-hole, par 72 championship course designed by David Jones, the Northern Irish golfer and former Kenya Open champion, and all eighteen holes opened on 1 July 2015. The villa sits on the edge of the fifth fairway, so the first tee is a short walk from the terrace.
The fairways wind around streams and ponds fed by the Usa River, with Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro on the skyline. Plains game wanders the course freely, and impala, gazelle, zebra and kudu are all part of a round. Non-golfers in the party can take the same views from the poolside balconies, which look straight out over the course.
Plenty. Arusha National Park is close by for guided walks among buffalo, giraffe and colobus monkeys on Mount Meru's lower slopes, always with an armed park ranger, so you never walk alone. Two-hour horse rides go out from stables on Dolly Estate, about ten minutes away, for beginners and experienced riders alike. Cycling on village paths, birdwatching, the spa and the gym fill the rest.
The villa also arranges visits to Baraa Primary School on the edge of Arusha, which the Siringit Foundation has supported since 2009 with the Belgian charity iThemba, and a share of every stay goes to that work. For anyone climbing Kilimanjaro, a few quiet nights here make a sensible start before the mountain.
June to October, when the days are dry and bright, the trails in Arusha National Park are firm and Meru and Kilimanjaro are most often clear of cloud. December to February is a drier spell too, warm enough for the pool. April and May bring the heaviest rain, mostly in the afternoons, with cloud over the peaks. The villa is open all year.
The wetter months have their own appeal: the fairways at their greenest, soft light for photographs and the estate at its quietest. At a little over 1,000 metres the days are warm and the evenings cool, so pack a warm layer for dinner on the terrace, a hat, strong sun cream, and soft bags if a light aircraft comes next.
rated five stars by our clients
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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.
