The Highlands

The Highlands is pitched at around 2,700 metres on the flank of Olmoti Crater, well above and away from the cluster of hotels on the Ngorongoro crater rim. Asilia's answer to the cold and the weather at this altitude is a set of eight geodesic domes, part canvas and part glass, each with a wood-burning stove and a wall of window facing out over montane forest and moorland.

The position is the point. Most visitors to Ngorongoro stay on the rim and descend into the crater in convoy; guests here make the same descent but return to somewhere genuinely quiet, with a landscape of highland forest and Maasai grazing country that rewards being explored on foot.

Alongside the crater day, the camp runs hikes up Olmoti and to the Empakaai crater lake with its flamingos, walks with Maasai guides from the surrounding community, and visits to nearby villages. Interiors nod to Maasai textiles and to Scottish tartan, a slightly odd combination that suits the cold, misty setting better than it sounds.