Luxury Hotels Atlas / The Maison / Asilia Africa

Asilia Africa hotels

East African camps pair deep guiding traditions with partnerships on community-owned wildlife land.

Asilia brings intimate safari camps and lodges together across Kenya and Tanzania, with guiding, conservation, and the surrounding landscape at the center of the stay. Its name means “authentic” or “genuine” in Swahili, and the Arusha-based company belongs to the B Corp-certified Nawiri Group, with an announced gorilla-trekking lodge extending its reach to Uganda.

8 Asilia Africa hotels in 2 countries on the Luxury Hotels Atlas, each placed on the six LHA Tiers.

• Part of the Nawiri Group
• Worldwide: 18 operating camps and lodges across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda as of September 2026, employing more than 1,000 people. Asilia About Us
• On the atlas: 3 High Luxury, 2 Core Luxury, 3 Accessible Luxury

History

Asilia grew by bringing investment and support to camps with established local knowledge, including Rekero and Oliver’s Camp. Partnerships with Maasai conservancies, park authorities, and community land trusts helped the company develop while retaining the guiding traditions of individual camps. Its announced Bwindi lodge extends that approach into Uganda, with gorilla trekking and reforestation giving the stay a new setting.

Timeline

• 1986 — Rekero Camp is established in the Masai Mara, one of the two family-run camps whose legacy Asilia would later inherit.
• 1992 — Conservationist Paul Oliver establishes Oliver's Camp in the remote southern Tarangire ecosystem, pioneering walking-safari tourism in the park.
• 2002 — Dutch investment banker Jeroen Harderwijk and his wife Jane relocate to Arusha, Tanzania, intending an extended sabbatical; they found the Kamitei Foundation for rural education and never leave.
• 2004 — Asilia Africa is formally founded by Jeroen Harderwijk and Bas Hochstenbach, uniting a handful of East Africa's oldest family-run safari operations, including Rekero and Oliver's Camp, under one professionalized, better-capitalized operator.
• 2009–2010 — Sayari Camp, which began life in 2005 as a mobile camp following the migration, becomes the first permanent camp in the northern Serengeti, securing long-term conservation of an area previously plagued by bushmeat poaching.
• Late 2000s — Asilia adopts the conservancy model, partnering with Maasai landowners on community-owned conservation land rather than pursuing exclusive private concessions
• 2011 — Naboisho Camp opens as a founding member of the Mara Naboisho Conservancy, a partnership between tourism operators and more than 500 Maasai landowners.
• 2013 — Rubondo Island Camp opens on Lake Victoria, extending Asilia's range to chimpanzee-trekking territory.
• 2014 — Namiri Plains reopens in the eastern Serengeti after a 20-year closure for cheetah research, with Asilia as custodian of one of the region's highest cheetah densities.
• 2016 — The Highlands opens on the Olmoti Crater slopes in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, later profiled by Architectural Digest and Vogue for its geodesic-dome architecture.
• 2017 — Jabali Ridge opens as Asilia's flagship in the Southern Circuit, built into a granite kopje above Ruaha National Park.
• 2018 — Dunia Camp becomes the first safari camp in Africa run entirely by women, a milestone covered by The Guardian.
• 2020 — Sayari Camp reopens after a complete rebuild, part of Asilia's stated effort to "slow down" the safari experience and encourage longer stays.
• 2021 — Kimondo Migration Camp is quietly retired, its role absorbed by sister migration camps Ubuntu and Olakira.
• 2022 — Usangu Expedition Camp opens in Ruaha's remote southern wetlands.
• 2023 — The Retreats debut at both Sayari and Namiri Plains, two additional exclusive-use units at each camp, interiors led by longtime Asilia designer Caline Williams-Wynn.
• 2024 — Kwihala Camp closes; Kokoko Camp, a pared-back three-tent dry-season camp, opens on the same Mwagusi riverbank site.
• 2025–2026 — Erebero Hills opens on the northern fringe of Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Asilia's first lodge outside Kenya and Tanzania, and its first gorilla-trekking property.

The houses to know

1. Namiri Plains, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania — The camp occupies a former cheetah-research reserve and was ranked fourth in Condé Nast Traveller’s 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards.
2. Naboisho Camp, Mara Naboisho Conservancy, Kenya — A founding member of Kenya's flagship community-owned conservancy, over 500 Maasai landowners, one of the highest lion densities in the Mara ecosystem.
3. Rekero Camp, Maasai Mara, Kenya — One of the Mara's oldest owner-run camps, dating to 1986, with a deck overlooking a signature Talek River migration crossing point.
4. Asilia Dunia Camp, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania — Africa's first all-women-run safari camp, eight tents in a valley of umbrella acacias near the Moru Kopjes, central Serengeti.
5. Kokoko Camp, Ruaha National Park, Tanzania — A pared-back, three-tent dry-season camp on the Mwagusi Sand River, built on the site of the retired Kwihala Camp.
6. Matemwe Lodge, Matemwe, Tanzania — The hotel is in Matemwe, Tanzania.
7. Roho ya Selous, Nyerere National Park, Tanzania — A peninsula camp on Lake Nzerakera in one of Africa's largest protected wilderness areas, with one of the continent's most significant wild dog populations.
8. Rubondo Island Camp, Rubondo Island, Tanzania — Africa's only safari camp built around chimpanzee trekking on a private Lake Victoria island.

Newest openings

• Erebero Hills — Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda — opened 2026 — Asilia's first property outside Kenya and Tanzania and its first dedicated gorilla-trekking lodge. Eight bamboo-built, glass-fronted suites sit on 18 hectares of reforested land on Bwindi's northern edge, designed by Bali-based Pablo Luna Studios; roughly 25,000 native trees were planted as part of a long-term reforestation buffer intended to eventually become accessible forest for the local Batwa community.
• Kokoko Camp — Ruaha National Park, Tanzania — opened July 2024 — A minimalist three-tent, six-guest dry-season camp on the Mwagusi Sand River, built on the site of the retired Kwihala Camp; every stay includes a private vehicle and guide, and the camp closes outside the dry season.

Opening next

• No further Asilia camp openings beyond Erebero Hills have been publicly confirmed as of mid-2026. Asilia's own messaging around the Uganda launch frames it as the fulfillment of a long-standing ambition — "we've been exploring the idea since 2020," per Head of Strategic Operations Cai Tjeenk Willink — rather than the first step of a rapid-fire expansion; the brand has also begun offering DMC (destination management) services in Uganda and Rwanda alongside the lodge itself, which may signal further East African growth without necessarily meaning additional owned camps in the near term.

Every Asilia Africa hotel on the atlas

Tanzania

• Namiri Plains — Serengeti National Park · High Luxury
• Asilia Dunia Camp — Serengeti National Park · Core Luxury
• Kokoko Camp — Ruaha National Park · Core Luxury
• Matemwe Lodge — Matemwe · Accessible Luxury
• Roho ya Selous — Nyerere National Park · Accessible Luxury
• Rubondo Island Camp — Rubondo Island · Accessible Luxury

Kenya

• Naboisho Camp — Mara Naboisho Conservancy · High Luxury
• Rekero Camp — Maasai Mara · High Luxury

Open The Maison in the atlas for Asilia Africa's full dossier, with prices and maps.

Every house in The Maison

How the six LHA Tiers work