The Park stretches for 50 Kilometers along the base of the rusty gold 600 meter high Rift Valley escarpment, Lake Manyara is a scenic gem, with a setting extolled by Ernest Hemmingway as the “loveliest I had seen in Africa”.  The compact viewing circuit through Manyara offers a virtual microcosm of the Tanzanian safari experience.

From the entrance gate, the road winds through an expanse of lush jungle like groundwater forest where hundreds of baboon troop’s lounge along the roadside, blue monkeys scamper between ancient mahogany trees, bushbucks tread through the shadows, and forest hornbills honk in the high canopy.

Contrasting with the intimacy of the forest is the grassy floodplain and its views eastward, across the alkaline lake, to the jagged blue volcanic peaks that rise above the endless Maasai Stepped.  Large buffalo, wildebeest and zebra herds congregate on the grassy plains, as do giraffe’s, some so dark in coloration that they appear to be black from a distance.

Inland of the floodplains a narrow belt of acacia woodland is the favored haunt of the legendary tree climbing lion’s, and the impressive tusked elephants.  Squadrons of banded mongoose dart between the trees.

Manyara is the perfect place to be introduced to the Tanzania birdlife, more than 400 soecies have been recorded, and even a first time visitor to Africa might expect to observe 100 of these in one day.

About the Lake Manyara National Park, the size is 127 square miles, of which up to 77 square miles is lake when water levels are high.  The location is in Northern Tanzania; the entrance gate which is 80 miles west of Arusha along a newly surfaced road, and it is close to the town of Mto WA Mbu.  One your way to the Serengeti or Ngorongoro Crater from Arusha you pass by Lake Manyara.

The park offers game drive through the park,  with your own hired driver, night game drives, canoeing when lake is high, cultural tours, picnicking, bush lunch/dinner, mountain biking, and forest walks.

Best times to go the dry season is July to October for large mammals, the wet season November to June for bird watching, the waterfalls and canoeing.

Accommodations are one luxury tree house style camp, public bandas and campsites inside the park.  One luxury tented camp and three lodges perched on the Rift Valley wall outside the park, there are several guesthouses and campsites nearby.