Twelve tented suites stand along a high, isolated ridge in the western corridor of Serengeti National Park, and each one doubles as a gallery. Forty-six museum-grade works are woven through the camp, the ceramics of Zizipho Poswa among them and the carved seating of Rich Mnisi. None of it reads as decoration, and a stay here is spent inside the collection rather than visiting it.
Each year the plains fill with wildebeest and zebra.
Below the ridge, a waterhole draws elephants, buffalo and antelope into view from the main veranda, in the early morning and again as the light softens late in the day. Each year the plains fill with wildebeest and zebra. The Great Migration passes through this corridor, and the Grumeti country around holds resident lions, leopards and hyenas, with colobus monkeys down in the riverine forest.
Xavier Marie and Julie Brisson saw Zizipho Poswa’s ceramic sculptures at an exhibition, and the encounter redrew their plans. Marie had recently sold Maisons du Monde, the home furnishings company he founded, and Brisson is an interior designer. That same year they founded Laba Laba, and in July 2025 they opened an intimate art lodge on a hilltop in the Nyasirori region of the western corridor.
A morning drive can approach a herd in near silence.
Brisson curated the collection with the gallerist Liza Essers of the Goodman Gallery, and their idea of a slow safari runs through the pace of a stay. The custom Land Rovers switch between fuel and electric power. A morning drive can approach a herd in near silence, the only sound the grass under the tyres. Evenings settle around a boma fire built from dark volcanic stone.
The idea took hold when Marie and Brisson first saw Zizipho Poswa’s monumental ceramic sculptures, a work made in honour of Xhosa culture. The couple decided that their Serengeti camp would step away from the usual safari template and become a living collection for the continent’s contemporary artists. They acquired the rustic Grumeti Hills camp, a place of some twenty-odd tents, and rebuilt it from the ground up as a twelve-suite lodge, which opened in July 2025 on its hilltop in the Nyasirori region of the western corridor.
The lodge was worked in steel frames and timber shingle roofs, with hand-hewn local stone and hand-carved jali screens that filter the sun. Ten African artists contributed pieces, among them Nnenna Okore, Abdoulaye Konaté, Madoda Fani and Jomo Tariku, and Rich Mnisi’s carved seating stands alongside Poswa’s ceramics. In the common areas the line between furniture and sculpture dissolves, and a chair may as easily be a work to admire as a place to sit. Nothing in the room reads as hotel furnishing.
Night drives run after dark here, which the park itself does not allow.
Eleven of the suites cover around 113 square metres, each on its own raised deck. A copper bathtub waits beneath a custom clay chandelier, and an outdoor shower opens straight to the bush. A twelfth suite, with two bedrooms, takes those travelling with children. The collection carries on into the suites, so guests live among it. Dining draws on Tanzanian produce shaped by French technique, with a dedicated pastry chef, and dinner comes lantern-lit on the veranda or out under the open sky.
The camp occupies a hilltop inside Serengeti National Park’s western corridor, within the Grumeti Reserves, a private concession bordering the park. Night drives run after dark here, which the park itself does not allow, and hot-air balloon flights cross the plains. Thirty percent of company profits fund conservation and humanitarian work in Tanzania. The staff are drawn from the surrounding communities, and the owners’ Lebao’s Kids Foundation supports Tanzanian children living with disabilities. Solar power runs the camp.
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accommodation
Twelve tented suites in all. Eleven are luxury suites of around 113 square metres, each on a private raised deck with a king bed, lounge, minibar, deep copper bathtub beneath a clay chandelier and an outdoor shower. A two-bedroom family suite completes the count, and contemporary African art runs through every one.
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activities
Morning, afternoon and full-day game drives run in custom hybrid-electric Land Rovers with private guides. Because the camp lies within the Grumeti Reserves, a private concession bordering Serengeti National Park, night drives are possible here. Hot-air balloon flights over the plains and spa treatments can be arranged.
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conservation
Thirty percent of company profits fund conservation and humanitarian programmes in Tanzania. Staff are recruited and trained from surrounding communities. The owners' Lebao's Kids Foundation supports Tanzanian children living with disabilities. The lodge runs on solar power.
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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Shorter than most Serengeti arrivals. You fly from Arusha to the Grumeti airstrip in the western corridor, about an hour and a half on the scheduled light aircraft, and the lodge collects you for a game drive of thirty to forty minutes up onto its ridge. Many guests pair it with a camp elsewhere in the park, and the internal flights link the airstrips neatly.
We can also charter privately, a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12 depending on the group, which turns the journey into a single unhurried hop. Soft bags only on the scheduled services, fifteen kilograms each including what you carry on.
Yes. The ridge stands comfortably below the 1,800 metre threshold under which both the UK's official travel health service and the American CDC rate all of mainland Tanzania as high risk for malaria, and the riverine country beneath it holds moisture through much of the year.
See a travel clinic or your doctor for the current tablet advice before you go, and treat dusk with respect: long sleeves, repellent, and the nets the suites provide.
There are two good answers. The migration pushes through the western corridor roughly from May into July, when the herds mass toward the Grumeti River and its very large crocodiles, and the plains below the lodge fill with wildebeest and zebra. That is the season the region is famous for.
The quieter answer is almost any other month. April, just after the long rains begin to ease, turns the country green and gets the predators working hard, and the resident lion, leopard and hyena stay on this ground the whole year with far fewer vehicles than the central Serengeti ever sees. If you want stillness with your game viewing, the western corridor out of season is one of the park's better-kept secrets.
Children are welcome, and the two-bedroom family suite exists exactly for travelling with them, keeping everyone behind one door rather than across separate decks. Walking safaris carry a minimum age of twelve, so younger children stay with the vehicle-based days.
A lodge hung with museum-grade art asks slightly more of small hands than a classic bush camp, so tell us the ages when we plan and we will be honest about the fit, and about which room arrangement works best.
Yes, and it is a proper one: a long infinity lap pool built along the main deck, facing out over the plains, close to twenty metres of it, so you can swim real lengths rather than stand in a plunge pool. The hours between the morning and afternoon drives are made for it.
Pack swimwear and a light cover-up; the sun on the ridge is strong even when the air feels mild.
No. Drives here run privately, your own guide and vehicle for the stay, so a full day out with a picnic, a dawn start, or a slow morning parked beside one sighting are all simply choices rather than negotiations with strangers.
Hot-air balloon flights over the plains can be added and are priced separately, and we book them ahead because dawn seats go early in the migration months.
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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.
