Kikafu River Lodge

Kikafu River Lodge sits above the Kikafu River valley, thirty minutes from Kilimanjaro International Airport and thirty minutes from Moshi, and it faces Mount Kilimanjaro. The verandahs, the rooftop bar and the pool all look toward the mountain. On clear mornings it stands there over breakfast. Some days it stays behind cloud until late afternoon, then appears all at once. After sunset, the stars come down to the horizon.
A short, steep path drops from the lodge into the valley, where the river runs cold off the mountain. Breakfast can be served in the riverbed, and lunch or sundowners at the water's edge.
Around the lodge there is a walking trail, the pool, a grill on the deck in the evening, and a private verandah quiet enough to work a morning with the mountain in view. Further afield, the walk to Materuni waterfall winds through Chagga villages and banana groves, a bike ride crosses the flat cane fields of the TPC sugar estate, and a full day takes you up onto the Shira Plateau, close to 4,000 metres on Kilimanjaro's western side.