Lake Manyara National Park

Short Overview

With a variety of landscapes, Lake Manyara National Park offers a compact safari experience that gives visitors the chance to see everything from the vibrant flamingoes to the fearsome lion.

Info

Size: 330 square kilometres.
Location: Northern Tanzania. Roughly ninety minutes drive from Arusha.
Best Time: July to October for game or November to June for bird-watching.
To Do: Game drives, canoeing, cultural tours, mountain biking, abseiling, and forest walks.
Known For: Elephants and flamingoes.

Details of Lake Manyara National Park

With a variety of landscapes,  Manyara National Park offers a compact safari experience that gives visitors the chance to see everything from the vibrant flamingoes to the fearsome lion.

Named for the seasonal alkaline lake at its heart, Lake Manyara National Park is a great place for canoeing in the wet season and traditional game drives year round. Described by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I have seen in Africa”, Lake Manyara is an ideal starting or finishing point for the northern circuit.

In addition to its flamingo population, Lake Manyara is perhaps most famous for the tree climbing lions who call it home. Found nowhere else in Tanzania, these agile predators cut a striking figure as they lounge lazily in acacia trees.

Also calling the park home are Africa’s most iconic animals such as elephants, giraffes, zebra, wildebeest, and cape buffalo, as well as less well known but no less intriguing Kirk’s dik-dik and klipspringer.