Tarangire Treetops raises its twenty rooms into the boughs of ancient marula and baobab trees, on Maasai land in the Randilen Wildlife Management Area, just outside Tarangire National Park. The rooms are elevated, open-fronted and built around living trunks, so the experience begins the moment guests climb the walkway up into the branches.
The rooms are elevated, open-fronted and built around living trunks
Sitting outside the national park changes what is possible. Night drives and guided walks are tightly regulated inside Tarangire itself, needing authorized guides, armed rangers and special permits, yet here they run straight from the lodge road. You track genet, civet and predators under spotlight, or read the bush on foot with armed guides and the Maasai trackers who know this ground more closely than anyone else.
The main lodge is built to encircle a baobab thought to be close to a thousand years old. Its trunk rises straight through the open-sided lounges and dining areas, which spill out onto a deck above a waterhole. Randilen lies on the elephant route between Tarangire and the Lake Manyara basin, so the herds pass through with real regularity, gathering in the dry season between July and September as they move toward the river.
Randilen lies on the elephant route between Tarangire and the Lake Manyara basin
From the elevated decks the land opens across the Maasai Steppe towards the Rift Valley escarpment, with Lake Manyara below and, on clear days, Kilimanjaro on the far horizon. Elephants move through the woodland beneath you. Hyenas call after dark, and the rooms sit high enough that dawn arrives through the branches rather than across the ground.
The turn off the park road into Randilen leaves the busier parts of the region behind. The track winds through open woodland thick with baobab and marula until the main lodge appears, wrapped around its baobab, its decks hovering above the scrub. The conservancy covers 312 square kilometres of community-managed Maasai land, a buffer and a migration corridor set between Tarangire National Park and the Maasai Steppe. That position is much of the reason the wildlife moves through so freely, following the same paths it always has.
Each of the twenty treehouse rooms spans roughly 65 square metres, among the larger bedrooms found anywhere in East Africa, and each is reached by a raised timber walkway that heightens the sense of leaving the ground behind. Trunks pass straight through floors and railings. The open fronts are screened with mosquito gauze rather than glass, so the bush is never quite shut out. Inside there are double rain showers and wide beds under netting, and a private wrap-around veranda where the dawn light filters through the canopy and the hornbills begin to call.
The open fronts are screened with mosquito gauze rather than glass, so the bush is never quite shut out
Evenings gather around the waterhole and the pool deck. As the light turns, waterbuck and other game edge out of the thicket, sometimes joined by elephant families following the corridor between park and lake. Staff light lanterns along the walkways, and dinner might be laid in the Maasai boma by candlelight, singing from the local community carrying across the fire alongside the smell of grilled meats. When the sun drops behind the escarpment, Sunset Hill is the place for sundowners.
Guides sweep the conservancy with spotlights on night drives, catching the eyeshine of civet and genet, owls on the termite mounds, and the grey shapes of elephants moving through the dark, all of it well away from park traffic. Much of what makes this possible flows back to the community. Randilen’s fees help fund local game scouts, healthcare clinics and water systems, and the conservancy is divided into grazing and core zones so that Maasai herders and wildlife can share the same land.
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accommodation
Twenty elevated treehouse rooms, each around 65 square metres, built on stilts around the trunks of living marula and baobab trees. The open fronts are screened with mosquito gauze and give onto a private wrap-around veranda. En-suite bathrooms have twin basins and double rain showers, with wide netted beds, ceiling fans and an in-room safe.
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activities
Day game drives run in both Tarangire National Park and the Randilen conservancy. Night drives and guided walking safaris with armed guides and Maasai trackers are possible here because Randilen sits outside the park. Guests can also visit a nearby Maasai community, take bush breakfasts and dinners, gather for sundowners on Sunset Hill, and watch for the woodland's varied birdlife.
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conservation
Tarangire Treetops sits within the 312-square-kilometre Randilen Wildlife Management Area, managed in partnership with the Honeyguide Foundation. Most WMA fees return to the community, funding local game scouts, healthcare clinics and clean-water systems. A rotational grazing plan separates livestock and wildlife zones, sustaining Maasai herds without degrading the migration corridor.
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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Tarangire National Park
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Tarangire National Park
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Tarangire National Park
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Tarangire National Park
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Tarangire National Park
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Tarangire National Park
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Tarangire National Park
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Tarangire National Park
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Tarangire National Park
Fly from Arusha to Kuro airstrip, a hop of about twenty-five minutes, then drive out of the park into the conservancy, between roughly an hour and ninety minutes depending on routing and season. By road from Arusha the lodge is around two and a half to three hours, and arriving overland means no park gate formalities on the way in. A private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, is easily arranged where timing matters.
Scheduled flights carry shared seats and soft bags only, around 15 to 20kg per person depending on the airline, which we confirm with you before you pack.
Yes. The conservancy sits at savannah altitude, well under the 1,800 metre line the CDC and the UK's official travel health advice both use for malaria risk in Tanzania, so antimalarial tablets are recommended, and sleeping up in the canopy does not change that.
The rooms' gauze fronts and bed nets do their job, and tablets plus covered evening clothing do the rest. Confirm the current advice with a travel clinic or your doctor before you travel.
Warm days in the mid to high twenties with cool mornings, and the elevated, open-fronted rooms feel the night air more than a lodge with walls, which is glorious in the warm months and worth a proper layer in the June to August cool season. Short rains around November, long rains March to May.
Pack warm nightwear and a fleece for the cooler months, neutral daytime layers, a sun hat, sunscreen and closed shoes for the walking safaris. Soft bags only on the flights.
July to October, when the elephant traffic along the corridor past the lodge is at its heaviest and the waterhole below the deck stays busy. The green season from November to March is gentler and full of birds, with the conservancy's night drives running in every month, and March and April are the wettest and quietest.
Two to three nights works well, most often at the start or end of a northern circuit with Ngorongoro and the Serengeti beyond.
Families are welcome, including with younger children, and there is no published minimum age to stay. The honest caveats are physical: the rooms stand high on stilts with open, gauze-screened fronts, reached by raised walkways, so small children need an adult's hand after dark, and staff escort guests to their rooms at night. The walking safaris carry a minimum age, usually sixteen in this part of Tanzania, which we confirm when we book.
Tell us the ages and we will say plainly whether the treehouse format is a delight or a worry at that stage, and which rooms sit closest to the main lodge.
Modest, and honestly so. Expect wifi around the main lodge at message strength rather than in the treetop rooms, and mobile signal that flickers across the conservancy without ever settling.
For most guests two nights offline in a treehouse is the actual product. If you need to remain reachable, tell us before booking and we will confirm the current arrangement.
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our approach
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