The Highlands stands high on the slopes of the extinct Olmoti volcano inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, about three hours by road from Lake Manyara airstrip. Its eight suites are geodesic domes clad in canvas and perspex, each with a wood-burning stove; the honeymoon suite has an outdoor hot tub. Because it sits in the highlands rather than on the crater rim, the lodge is built around walking and hiking as much as driving: guests descend into Ngorongoro Crater for game drives, hike Olmoti Crater and Empakaai Crater to see flamingos, take nature walks and visit Maasai communities. A spa and sauna are on site. Minimum age for the crater hikes is 12.
What sets it apart
It is a hiking base in the Crater Highlands rather than a crater-rim viewpoint lodge, and the perspex domes are unlike anything else in the conservation area.
Who it suits
Crater Highlands hiking; Empakaai and Olmoti; cold-weather lodge comfort.
The essentials
| Country | Tanzania |
| Where | Ngorongoro Conservation Area, on the forested slopes of Olmoti Crater |
| Property type | lodge (domed suites under canvas and perspex) |
| Rooms | 8 domed suites. Go2Africa breaks this down as four standard suites, two with mezzanine levels, one honeymoon suite and one family suite; Asilia describes standard, family and honeymoon suites within the same total of eight. |
What it costs
The Highlands publishes its own rates. Published on the official site: "Green Season US$710–$790; Secret Season US$1,080–$1,130; High Season US$1,390–$1,450 per person per night", per https://www.asiliaafrica.com/camps-lodges/the-highlands/, as listed September 2026.
Rates move by season and are almost always quoted per person per night sharing, so read the property's own page before you budget.
About the photographs
The pictures on this page are stock photographs of African bush and desert country, chosen to suggest the kind of landscape you find around the Ngorongoro highlands of northern Tanzania. They are not photographs of this property, and we cannot verify where any of them was taken — a stock library records the photographer, not the place. We use them rather than borrow the property's own marketing images, which would imply we had been there. For pictures of the rooms, see the property's own site.