Elewana Arusha Coffee Lodge

Tucked away amongst the coffee trees, guests can enjoy a relaxing stay in Elewana Arusha’s Plantation Suites. These spacious rooms feature a warmly lit lounge area with sofas and elegant tables, a large bedroom furnished with a king-size bed, and a spacious en-suite bathroom. The lounge is an ideal spot for resting and enjoying the tranquillity of your surroundings.

The windows look out onto the plantation, offering sweeping views of lush green trees and coffee beans. Laze on the comfortable sofa with a refreshment from the minibar and enjoy a show on the room’s flat-screen television. The bathroom consists of a triple-headed rainfall shower and a large tub. From the bathtub, guests can open the blinds and gaze across the landscape while enjoying a soothing soak. The room also features a private elevated terrace where guests can sit out and watch the sunset as the plantation trees become no more than silhouettes against a burning sky.

The Plantation Rooms feature a cosy living space with a small sofa and coffee table for relaxing and admiring the view of the verdant coffee plants. Enjoy the aroma of the coffee beans as you wake in the mornings, after spending a night snuggled up in the soft four-poster king-size bed. The bedrooms are elevated on a separate level to maximise the use of space.

On cooler evenings, you can light the log fire and laze on an armchair beside the warm flames. The en-suite bathrooms are spacious with twin basins, a large shower and a bathtub. The rooms lead out to a private verandah where guests can enjoy the coffee-scented air and surrounding garden. The plantation rooms are furnished with a charming modern decor that emphasises the peaceful and luxurious nature of the plantation.

Arusha Coffee Lodge’s restaurant opens at 6:30 am on weekdays, offering guests a delicious breakfast buffet until 10 am. Continental breakfast is also available, as well as ordering from the kitchen’s a la carte menu.

Lunch can be enjoyed in the garden. Arusha Coffee Lodge’s executive chef offers guests the chance to enjoy a 4-course buffet lunch each day. Choose from a selection of fresh meats, vegetarian dishes, indulgent desserts and fresh, rich coffees. Enjoy your meal while surrounded by the tropical plants of the Coffee Lodge’s garden.

Arusha’s Bistro features its own bar, coffee station and roaring pizza oven. Guests can enjoy a range of hot meals such as meat, fish, pasta and fresh pizza, accompanied by a variety of sides and salads. Enjoy a slice of freshly baked cake with a cup of aromatic coffee, all made from fresh and locally sourced ingredients. Guests can choose to sit out on the garden terrace or retreat indoors to hide in the cool shade.

The Grill Room offers guests the chance to enjoy delicious culinary recipes cooked with local flavouring. Arusha’s executive chef has tailored a menu that takes international gourmet dishes and makes them with fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Indulge in a three-course meal, finished with a sweet dessert and one of the restaurant’s many fine wines. The Grill Room is situated with the main house at the Coffee Lodge.

Guests are invited to take a guided walk around Arusha’s coffee plantation and learn about the process of growing coffee and harvesting the beans before drying them and using them to create Arusha’s signature coffee blends. Enjoy tasting the different coffees produced on-site and explore one of Tanzania’s largest coffee plantations.

Visit the Trader’s Walk, a charming collection of boutiques and cafes that are situated within Arusha’s Coffee Lodge’s grounds. Guests can browse the crafted pieces at the Shanga workshop where delicate jewellery and artwork is made from recycled materials, purchase authentic safari clothing from Soko, marvel at the beautiful gemstones available from The Tanzanite Experience, Try out traditional Swahili food at Jikoni’s open-air restaurant, or enjoy freshly ground coffee and homemade cakes at Kahawa.

Arusha National Park is relatively small, spanning 137 square kilometres, but is filled with a range of wildlife including giraffes, Cape buffalos, zebras, flamingos, turacos, and elephants. The montane forest located by the park’s entrance is the only place on the Northern safari circuit where black and white colobus monkeys can be easily seen, and is also home to a number of curious blue monkeys.

Guests can visit the Ngurdoto Crater which is surrounded by herds of buffalo and warthog who thrive in the marshy environment and forests. The small size of Arusha National Park means that guests can take their time to explore over the course of a single day. Take a picnic lunch with you and enjoy the stunning views of the diverse landscape as the many types of indigenous birdlife fly overhead.

Arusha is a vibrant city that offers guests a range of experiences. Visit the many gift shops and the Maasai Markets Market and find gifts for loved ones back home. Alternatively, guests can learn more about the heritage and culture of Arusha by visiting the Museum of Natural History, Tanzanite Museum and Arusha Cultural Heritage Centre. Educate yourself on the local history between retail therapy and enjoying delicious refreshments at the many cafes and restaurants of Arusha.

Take a day trip to the Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic crater which was formed when a volcano collapsed in on itself over 2 million years ago. The crater is 2,000 feet deep and it is estimated that the original volcano would have been between 15 thousand and 19 thousand feet high. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area which surrounds the caldera is home to an abundance of birdlife and wildlife, including the Ngorongoro Lions who live within this natural enclosure.

Elewana is a steadfast partner and supporter of the Land and Life Foundation, a charity committed to supporting local people and preserving wildlife and their habitats. Because Elewana covers 100% of their operational costs, all donations can go straight towards their amazing projects. The Foundation focuses on 4 types of programs to achieve its goals: the Wildlife Warrior Program, nature conservation, medical support, and education support.

The Wildlife Warriors Program was designed for the purposes of sharing conservational knowledge between generations, encouraging innovative thinking and proactivity in wildlife conservation. It’s the ultimate aim to take the most talented children through to tertiary levels of education so they can become the top conservationists of the next generation. Across Tanzania and Kenya, over 2000 children are part of this program, and around 40 have been awarded scholarships that will take them all the way through their primary and secondary education.

Elewana is committed to its responsibility of nature conservation, with a focus on protecting areas that fall outside of national parks and reserves. The Land and Life Foundation is working on a large scale project to mitigate conflict between human and elephant populations.

Conflict occurs when elephants leave protected reserves and raid the crops of nearby villages, causing retaliation from the farmers who are trying to defend their livelihoods. For this reason, there are programs designed to negate these hostilities by protecting farming lands and providing safe deterrents to ward away the elephants without harming them before they can damage crops.

The Land and Life Foundation works to ensure local communities in Laikipia and the Maasai Mara have access to quality healthcare. They have been supporting the Aitong Health Centre in the Maasai Mara for 8 years through providing medical supplies and free clinics, and in 2018 they partnered with Ewaso Dispensary in Laikipia.

So far, 4,520 patients have been treated free of charge and vast sums of medical treatments and equipment have been provided by donors such as antibiotics, antihistamines, multivitamins, hormonal contraceptives, pregnancy tests, blood pressure machines and cuffs, syringes and needles, oxygen pumps and gauges, and first-aid kits.

The Land and Life Foundation supports a number of schools in key conservation areas across Tanzania and Kenya as they understand the need of ensuring that communities in these areas can actively benefit from tourism. One of the schools supported by Elewana and the Foundation is Ura Gate Primary School, where there are currently 385 children and 15 teachers. Fundraising has helped the school’s infrastructure to support this student population through developing 12 permanent classrooms, a dining hall and kitchen, a toilet block, a computer room and 3 houses for teachers.

Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers founded Zoo Check in 1984 to fight against the mistreatment of zoo animals and for their welfare after the premature death of an orphaned elephant Pole Pole. Zoo Check would later become the Born Free Foundation in 1998.

The Foundation now encompasses numerous campaigns including Zoo Check, the Elefriends Campaign, Wolf Campaign, Dolphin Campaign, Primate Campaign, Big Cat Campaign, and the Bear Campaign. It’s their aim to change attitudes towards animal captivity and promote the welfare of animals across the globe.

Elewana has banned plastic bottles at their camps and lodges and provides each new guest with a reusable aluminium bottle that can be filled up at the properties.

‘Historically, when reusable bottles were introduced to six of Elewana’s camps in Kenya, this was shown to prevent over 160’000 non-biodegradable plastic bottles a year from ending up in landfills. At the beginning of 2019, we were the first in East Africa to eliminate the use of plastic straws. We now offer biodegradable paper straws and encourage guests to go to ‘War with the straw’.’

Elewana’s camps and lodges also employ recycling systems to reduce waste. For instance, glass is sent to the Shanga workshop in Arusha, where disadvantaged Tanzanians are able to use the glass for creating artwork and jewellery.