Ngorongoro Haradali Home

Ngorongoro Haradali Home sits in Tloma village, about five kilometres north of Karatu town, reached on a graded road that runs past smallholdings and coffee. The property is a working garden before it is anything else: lawns, flowering shrubs, vegetable beds and fruit trees, with the rooms set around them and a swimming pool in the middle. It is quiet enough that the loudest thing at six in the morning is birds in the hedges and somebody sweeping a path.

This is a base rather than a game viewing address. The Lodoare gate into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is about twenty kilometres away, roughly thirty minutes, which puts the Crater descent road within reach of an early start. Lake Manyara National Park lies below the escarpment to the east and Tarangire is a longer morning away. The highland air at Karatu is cold at night in June, July and August, and the property keeps hot water bottles and extra bedding for it. The short rains fall in November and the long rains in April and May, when the gardens are at their greenest.

There are eight rooms, each with its own bathroom and a private balcony facing the garden. They are built and furnished locally, with generous floor space and large bathrooms rather than hotel polish. Meals come largely from the property beds and trees, cooked in a Tanzanian and international style and served at set times, with dinner at seven in the evening. There is a lounge, a terrace, a coffee corner refilled through the day, and a pool that is cold in the cool months. Wifi reaches the shared areas rather than the rooms, which is worth knowing if you have to work.

It suits travellers who want a comfortable, characterful place to sleep before and after the Crater rather than a large resort. Couples, families and small groups all fit, and the triple rooms make it workable with children. People who want air conditioning, a spa or wifi in the room should look elsewhere in Karatu. The property is owned and run locally, and guests on TripAdvisor describe the service as personal rather than practised.

From Kilimanjaro International Airport the drive is about four hours: roughly an hour and a quarter west to Arusha, then about two and a half hours of tarmac through the Makuyuni junction and up the escarpment to Karatu, then fifteen minutes north to Tloma. Flying in, the nearest airstrip is Lake Manyara, about forty five minutes to an hour away by road up the escarpment.