5 of our itineraries spend time in Lake Manyara National Park. Every one is private, and every one can be changed.
Places Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro
Four days from Arusha through Lake Manyara, the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, in a private…
Places Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara, Lake Eyasi
Seven days through Tarangire, Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater, ending with a morning at Lake…
Places Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, Serengeti
Seven days pairing the parks with cultural time: Lake Manyara, Lake Eyasi, the Ngorongoro Crater and the…
Places Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro
Eight days built around the herds: Lake Manyara, Ndutu in the calving season, two days in the Serengeti…
Places Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro
Nine days across the northern circuit at an unhurried pace: Lake Manyara, the Serengeti, two nights at…
Lake Manyara National Park is about two hours from Arusha, on the road to the crater. The park is small, around 330 square kilometres, and most of that is the lake. The strip of land you drive is narrow, between the rift escarpment and the shore.
That narrow strip holds five habitats in a short distance. You enter through groundwater forest, thick and green, with baboons and blue monkeys. The forest opens onto acacia woodland, then floodplain, then the lake edge with its flamingos and pelicans. Hot springs bubble at the southern end.
Manyara is where Ernest Hemingway hunted and where Iain Douglas-Hamilton made the first long study of elephant behaviour. It is a park with history, and it still has good elephants.
Most of our itineraries give Manyara a half day or a full day on the way to the crater. The listing above shows which. The sections below say what to expect from it.
Manyara is known for lions that climb trees. Nobody is sure why they do it here more than elsewhere. The usual guesses are shade, a breeze, and escape from biting flies. You see them draped along acacia branches in the middle of the day. It is not guaranteed on any single visit, and your guide will know where the pride has been.
The lake draws flamingos when the water level and the algae suit them. In a good year the shallows turn pink. In other years the birds are elsewhere and the lake holds pelicans, storks and cormorants instead. Over 400 bird species are recorded here.
Elephants are common and relaxed. Hippos live in the pool near the northern entrance. Giraffe, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest use the floodplain. The forest has baboon troops of a hundred or more, blue monkeys and bushbuck.
The escarpment wall runs the length of the park. It is the western edge of the Great Rift Valley, and the view from the top, at the road up to Karatu, takes in the whole lake.
A half day is the usual visit. You arrive from Arusha in the late morning, drive the northern half of the park in the afternoon, and sleep in Mto wa Mbu or up the escarpment in Karatu. That covers the forest, the hippo pool and the lakeshore.
A full day reaches the hot springs at the southern end. The track is longer and the south is quieter, with fewer vehicles and good elephant herds. You need an early start and a packed lunch.
A night inside or beside the park lets you take a night game drive. Manyara is one of the few northern parks where night drives are allowed. You see genets, civets, porcupines and sometimes leopard, animals you will not see by day.
The treetop walkway near the northern gate is a series of suspension bridges through the forest canopy. It takes about an hour and is good for children and for anyone who wants to be out of the vehicle.
Dry Shoulder Green Long rains
Warm and mostly dry. Good elephants. Flamingos possible.
Long rains. Very green, some tracks muddy. The forest is at its best. Few visitors.
Dry season. Animals on the lakeshore and the floodplain. Clear views of the escarpment. Busiest.
Short rains. The park greens up again, migrant birds arrive, and the lake often rises.
Three things at Manyara are not a game drive.
The treetop walkway is a 370-metre canopy walk on suspension bridges, up to 18 metres above the forest floor. It ends on a viewing deck over the trees. It suits families and anyone who has spent a day in a vehicle.
Night drives run from the park gate after dark, with a park ranger and a spotlight. They last about three hours. Manyara is one of the few national parks in the north that allows them, which makes it the place to fit one in.
Mto wa Mbu is the town at the gate. It is a busy market town with people from many parts of Tanzania. A walk through the banana plantations and the market, with a local guide and a lunch cooked in a family home, is a good afternoon. Ask us to add it to any itinerary on this page.
Manyara sits at the foot of the escarpment, directly on the road from Arusha to Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. Almost every northern circuit safari passes the gate. That is why it is so often a first stop.
The usual pattern is Arusha to Manyara in the morning, a game drive in the afternoon, then the climb to Karatu for the night. The crater is the next day. The whole thing fits a single travel day without rushing.
Manyara pairs with Tarangire, which is a short drive east. A two-day start does one park on each day. In the dry months Tarangire is the stronger of the two. In the green season Manyara, with its forest and permanent water, often shows more.
On a longer trip Manyara can come at the end instead, on the way back from the Serengeti to Arusha. A short drive and a night drive make a gentle last day.
Every package on this page visits Manyara. The listing above shows where it falls in each itinerary.
A Manyara drive runs south from the gate along one track, with loops down to the lakeshore and back into the trees. There is no other way through, so the park feels like a corridor. That is its charm and its limit.
You enter through the forest. The first kilometres are under a canopy of fig and mahogany trees, with baboons on the road and blue monkeys overhead. The hippo pool comes soon after, on a side track to the left. Then the forest thins into acacia woodland, and this is where the lions climb.
The lakeshore is next. The track runs along the edge of the floodplain, with the water on one side and the escarpment rising on the other. Buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and giraffe use the plain. Pelicans and storks work the shallows. In a flamingo year the pink line sits far out on the water.
Beyond the Maji Moto hot springs the park narrows and the track reaches the southern gate. Few vehicles get this far, and the elephants here are relaxed.
Most people turn back at the lakeshore. If you want the south, say so in the morning so your guide plans the fuel and the time.
Add a day, swap a park, upgrade the lodges, travel in a different month. Tell us what you want and we will rebuild the itinerary around it.
