Quick Facts
About Manyara National Park
Peak Time
June - October
Best Time To Go
Year-Round
Famous For
Tree-Climbing Lions
Home Of
Diverse Birdlife
Overview
Lake Manyara is in northern Tanzania. The lake stretches for about 50 km along the bottom of the 600-meter-high Rift Valley escarpment. It is one of Tanzania’s most beautiful places. The famous writer Ernest Hemingway called it “the loveliest I had seen in Africa.”
Wildlife & Scenery
Lake Manyara offers a great safari experience in a small area.
Near the park entrance, visitors travel through a green forest with many animals. Large groups of baboons can often be seen beside the road. Blue monkeys move through the trees, bushbucks hide in the shade, and hornbills call from high above.
Beyond the forest are open grasslands with beautiful views of the lake and distant mountains. Large groups of buffaloes, wildebeests, and zebras graze here. Giraffes are also common, and some appear almost black from far away because of their dark color.
The acacia woodland is home to Lake Manyara’s famous tree-climbing lions and large elephants. Visitors may also see banded mongooses, Kirk’s dik-diks, and klipspringers. In the southern part of the park, hot springs bubble near the lakeshore.
Bird Watching
Lake Manyara is one of the best places in Tanzania for bird watching. More than 400 bird species have been recorded here. Even first-time visitors can often see around 100 species in a single day.
Popular birds include thousands of pink flamingos, as well as pelicans, cormorants, and storks.
About Lake Manyara
Size: 330 square kilometers (127 square miles). When water levels are high, the lake can cover up to 200 square kilometers (77 square miles).
Location: Northern Tanzania, about 126 km (80 miles) west of Arusha. The drive takes about 1.5 hours. The park is close to the town of Mto wa Mbu.
Getting There
- By road from Arusha
- By charter flight
- By scheduled flight
- Often visited on the way to Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater
Activities
- Game drives
- Night game drives
- Canoeing (when water levels are high enough)
- Cultural tours
- Picnics
- Bush lunches and dinners
- Mountain biking
- Abseiling
- Forest walks outside the park on the escarpment
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Best time to visit
July to October (Dry Season):
- Best for seeing large mammals
November to June (Wet Season):
- Best for bird watching
- Good time to see waterfalls
- Best time for canoeing