About us

Welcome to Banana Farm Eco Hostel

Banana Farm is located in Arusha, Northern Tanzania, in the natural paradise of the vast highlands between Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro. Our elevation is 1450m above sea level. Banana Farm is a 100% locally owned and operated Tanzanian farm and hostel.

We have a biogas plant on our farm that helps us produce gas for cooking and electricity. 100% of the energy the hostel uses comes from renewable sources and 80% of it is generated right at the farm. We use both solar and biogas energy and we heat our water with biogas heating system that produces zero CO2 emissions. Our biogas plant tour can be given while you are staying with us.

We also have cows on the farm for milk, yoghurt and biogas, goats for milk and fertilizer, chickens for eggs and fertilizer. Everything at the farm is organically grown with the use of cow manure (biogas waste) as fertilizer and herbs for treatment of plants.

Here’s a list of what we grow at the farm:

• 16 types/varieties of bananas that can be differentiated while on a farm tour
• 3 types of avocados such as hass, fuerte, and kienyeji (local) avocados
• Arabica Coffee which is famously grown in Arusha and Kilimanjaro in rich volcanic soil above 900 to 1800m above sea level.
• Vegetables like spinach, lettuce, okra, celery, chayote, red and green chilli, pepper, tomatoes, leeks, mchicha, egg plants and tree tomato
• Herbs like mint, sage, rosemary, parsley, dill, oregano, basil, chives, thyme, cinnamon and lemon grass
• 4 types of Passion fruits (purple, yellow, giant passion fruit and sweet granadilla)
• We also grow other fruits like papaya, mangoes, guavas, soursop and jack fruit (seasonal)

While staying at our hostel we serve you with the freshest, highest quality and tastiest vegetables, herbs and fruits grown with organic methods in our farm. We use most of our produce at the hostel for our guests and sell the rest directly at local markets and renowned farm-to-table restaurants. For some of the things we don’t grow at the farm we source it from other organic farmers in and around our village.

With an area of 4.5 acres in total you can walk around our farm anytime and go relax down the garden down the farm, take a nature walk on the river path or go dip your feet in the river while reading a book or listening to music/podcast with beautiful views of Mount Meru and monkeys jumping from tree to tree.
Whether you go for a gentle stroll around our village, relax in one of our hammocks in the garden area, learn how to milk cows, get a traditional cooking lesson in Tanzanian cuisine, feel free to make our hostel your home.