Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania Northern Circuit Safari Destination

Lake Manyara National Park Highlight: Lake Manyara has a considerably different landscape from any of the other parks. Picture lush woodlands and the beaches of this Rift Valley lake where elephants, giraffe, wildebeest enjoy an endless supply of water. You will often see these massive animals in the water, sitting, sipping or just cooling off their bodies.

This unique habitat feature, gives room to hundreds of bird species to live in this forest. However, the forest offers a unique and ultimate worth seeing Tree-Climbing Lion

This park is moderately small. No matter its size it is still quite impressive and worth visited. Most of this park is covered in forest or thick bush in such that it is sometimes making it difficult to spot some wildlife. On shorter safari itineraries, we often recommend overlooking Lake Manyara, but it still gets visited regularly because of its expedient location between Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro Crater. This is one among the two parks by which you can do night game drives inside the park boundaries.

Location: Approximately three and half (3:30) hours’ drive from Arusha on the road en route to the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park. Accommodations can be utilized in Mto Wa Mbu near Lake Manyara or up the hill in Karatu which is about 40 minutes beyond Manyara.

Tourist and Safari Activities: Game Drives, Mountain Biking, Forest Hike, Night Game Drive, Nature Walk, Bird Watching.

Best Time to Visit: Can be visited in one day, but biking or hiking require a separate day, also Masai and cultural tour can be arranged here. Might be excluded on a short itinerary.

Animals: Elephants, Wildebeest, Blue Monkeys, Vervet Monkeys, Baboons, Buffalo, Hippo, Impala, Bushbuck, Waterbuck, Klipspringers, Zebra, Giraffe, Mongoose, Warthog, Leopards and the famous tree-climbing Lions and over 380 bird-species including impressive flocks of Flamingos feeding on the lake’s algae.