Lake Manyara National Park

Stretching for 50km along the base of the rusty-gold 600-metre high Rift Valley escarpment, Lake Manyara National Park is a scenic gem, with a setting that alone qualify it for a superior Tanzania Safari Holiday”.

This compact game reserve is small, but it offers a wildlife experience that can be considered a condensation of the average Tanzanian safari experience. Drive slowly and appreciate the wide variety of game and birds that is available in this diversity-rich park.

Enjoy watching huge baboon troops, blue monkeys, bushbuck and outsized forest hornbills while driving through the lush jungle-like groundwater forest. Apart from the forest, towards the lake, is a grassy floodplain with its wide views eastward, across the lake to the erratic blue volcanic peaks that is visble on the endless Maasai Steppes horizon. Large buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe and zebra herds are found on these plains.

Inland from the floodplain, a narrow band of acacia woodland is the place where Manyara’s legendary tree-climbing lions and large-tusked elephants can be found. Banded mongoose play between the acacias, while the tiny Kirk’s dik-dik feeds in their shade. Klipspringers are often seen standing on the rocks above the hot springs that steams next to the lakeshore in the southern end of the park.

Thousands of pink-hued flamingos, pelicans, cormorants and storks provide the initial introduction to Tanzania’s birdlife. With 400+ species recorded, twitchers will surely enjoy their Tanzanian safari holiday and even come back to tick off even more of the species found here in Lake Mayara National Park.

Activities in Lake Manyara National Park

Activities revolve around the opportunities offered by the amazing wildlife and nature. Safaris in open safari vehicles, day and night, canoeing when the water is high, visits to a cultural village, bush dining, mountain biking, abseiling and forest walks in the vicinity of the lodges and camps.

Basic facts about Lake Manyara National Park

It has five distinctive biomes resulting in diverse habitats and animal species. Lake Manyara National Park was created to protect elephants in 1960. Up to about 200 sq km of the park is covered by Lake Manyara when the water level is high. The high soda content of the lake results in an amazing number of different species as well as large numbers of birds.