Spotlights sweep the Kuka Hills after dark at Klein’s Camp, something the rules of neighbouring Serengeti National Park forbid. The camp holds a 10,000-hectare concession on Maasai land along the park’s north-east edge, and out here guides can walk, or keep tracking into the dark. Lion and leopard are resident in the valley, and so is cheetah.
Wildebeest and zebra file through the valley below.
From the cottage verandas the ground falls away to the upper Grumeti, with the Masai Mara to the north. Wildebeest and zebra file through the valley below. They are moving between the two ecosystems, most heavily late in the year, while large buffalo herds and elephants stay all year. At night the spotlight may pick out animals such as serval and caracal, or bushbabies leaping through the acacias.
The site began as a hunting camp built around a spring, and the thatched sitting room still keeps the mood of that era. Leather armchairs are drawn up to a deep round firepit on the stone floors. Dinner is served in the dining room or on the veranda, and on some nights the tables go out onto the concession under the stars.
On the verandas, binoculars stay trained on the valley.
Most of the staff come from the Maasai villages around the concession, and the kitchen draws its vegetables from an organic garden on site. The middle of the day belongs to the pool on its stone terrace or the library. On the verandas, binoculars stay trained on the valley. The camp stays open all year, through the rains.
Light aircraft land at Lobo airstrip, and the road on to the Kuka Hills takes about an hour and a half. There is game to watch the whole way, so the transfer doubles as a first drive. From then on the days turn on two drives, one at first light and one in the late afternoon, and the guides choose between the concession and Serengeti National Park according to where the animals are moving. In the park, vehicles keep to the roads. On the concession there are no other vehicles at a sighting, so they can stay with a leopard or follow a cheetah’s hunt.
Walks leave camp across the rocky slopes of the Kuka Hills and drop into woodland of acacia and desert date, where the pace slows to that of a guide reading spoor in sandy ground. Dik-dik flick away in pairs. Olive baboons work the rocks, and vervet monkeys raise the alarm long before anything larger appears. After sunset the night drives cover the same ground, and the animals that kept out of sight all day take over. A morning walk and a night drive show the concession at both ends of its day.
After dinner the walk back is quiet enough to hear a lion calling from the valley.
Klein’s Camp is built just below the crest of the Kuka Hills, its cottages spread well apart along the slope. Afternoons on a veranda look out over woodland savanna to hazy ridges, and every so often a line of elephants crosses the valley floor below. Dusk brings sundowners out in the bush, then the deep round firepit back in camp. After dinner the walk back is quiet enough to hear a lion calling from the valley. Hyenas carry from somewhere further off, while the sandy paths wind on between the cottages.
The land is leased from its Maasai landlords. That land also keeps a migration route open beyond the park boundary. Ololosokwan village itself is close enough for a visit to a family boma, arranged through the guides, to fit between drives. The camp shop sells Maasai crafts made locally.
accommodation
Ten round cottages of local stone and makuti thatch line the slope, linked by sandy paths. Each opens onto a private veranda facing the valley or the Grumeti River, and has an en suite bathroom with a shower and an in-room safe. The Family Cottage joins two of the ten by a covered walkway, giving parents and children a door each.
activities
Game drives go out twice a day, either on the concession or into the neighbouring national park. Night drives and guided walks happen on the concession only. Other options include bush breakfasts, lunches and dinners, birding, visits to a Maasai boma in Ololosokwan village, and massage in your cottage between drives.
conservation
In 1999 Ololosokwan had no clinic, and the nearest was 60 km away in Wasso, a drive of five to six hours that could end in tragedy for women in labour. That year the camp's community partner, Wild Impact (then the Africa Foundation), built a two-room clinic, with villagers giving the land and labour. It grew to ten rooms serving neighbouring villages too, and in 2015 passed to the government. Guests can visit it and two nearby schools.
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.
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By light aircraft from Arusha to Lobo airstrip in the northern Serengeti, then about an hour and a half by road to the camp, with game viewing on the way. That drive is part of the stay. Coastal Aviation and Auric Air both fly to Lobo from Arusha every morning. Landing at Kilimanjaro from overseas, a night in Arusha first makes it an easy start.
We can also arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, straight into Lobo at a time that suits you, without the stops a scheduled flight makes at other strips. Scheduled aircraft take fifteen kilograms a person, hand luggage included, and soft bags pack best into the hold.
Because the camp stands outside the national park, on a private concession of 10,000 hectares of Maasai land on the edge of the Kuka Hills, bordering the Serengeti. Inside the park, night drives are not allowed and walks stay short and close to camp. On the concession, night drives go out looking for the animals the day hides, such as bushbabies, genets, serval and, with luck, an aardvark.
Guided walks go out on the concession too, and you never walk alone: a trained guide leads every one, reading tracks, birds and plants as much as looking for big game. By day the vehicles work both the concession and the park, so nothing is given up. Night drives, walks and meals out in the bush are all included in the stay.
Yes, at any age. The Family Cottage is two cottages joined by an enclosed passage, each with its own bathroom and veranda, for two adults and two children, or three children by arrangement. Children under six do not join the shared game drives, so young families take a private vehicle, which lets the day run at their pace. From six to eleven, the camp manager decides on the shared drives.
There is a pool for the middle of the day, and a children's programme run by the camp's staff is part of the stay. A private vehicle costs extra and depends on availability, so we book it with the cottage. Tell us their ages when you enquire and we will plan the days around them.
Yes, treat it as one. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, puts every part of Tanzania under 1,800 metres at high risk of malaria, and the CDC uses the same height. The cottages sit high on the Kuka Hills, near that line, but the valley and plains where the drives go lie well beneath it. Both services include antimalarial tablets in their recommendations for these areas, alongside avoiding bites.
We are travel planners, not medical professionals, so which tablets suit you is a question for your own doctor or a travel clinic. Every cottage has a mosquito net, and long sleeves and repellent from late afternoon help in every month.
July to October is the strongest stretch: the dry season leaves the grass short and the game easy to find, which matches the months our Serengeti National Park best time page rates highest. In those months the wildebeest and zebra are in the northern Serengeti and move through Klein's valley below the camp, with the predators following, and in November and December many come back south through the Lobo area.
The camp is open all year, and the quieter months have a real case. Lion, leopard and cheetah are resident, as are the big buffalo herds and breeding elephant, and the concession is for the camp's guests alone in any month. From January to March the grass is fresh and green and the light is clear for photographs; April and May bring the long rains.
Yes, and it happens naturally, because the camp stands on Maasai land and most of the people who run it come from the surrounding communities, many of them Maasai. A conversation with your guide on a drive is often the best introduction. The camp also arranges visits to a boma, a Maasai family homestead not far from camp, to see how herding, the home and daily life fit together.
If you would like to see more, there are visits to the clinic at Ololosokwan and to local schools the camp has supported. Tell us when you book and we will set the visit for a time that does not cut into the best of the game viewing.
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