Lake Manyara Safari Lodge Tanzania Safari Tours to Lake Manyara
Lake Manyara Safari
A Lake Manyara Safari is often overlooked. Many people pass Lake Manyara National Park in their rush to the Serengeti. However, we recommend you consider this enchanting and interesting park. Although small, it is one of the prettiest and most game rich parks in the country.

Lake Manyara Safari Lodge Tanzania Safari Tours to Lake Manyara

Lake Manyara National Park

Stretching for 50km along the base of the rusty-gold 600-metre high Rift Valley escarpment, Lake Manyara is a scenic gem, with a setting extolled by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I had seen in Africa”.

Located beneath the cliffs of the Manyara Escarpment, on the edge of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park offers varied ecosystems, incredible bird life, and breathtaking views. Located on the way to Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti, Lake Manyara National Park is well worth a stop in its own right. Its ground water forests, bush plains, baobob strewn cliffs, and algae-streaked hot springs offer incredible ecological variety in a small area, rich in wildlife and incredible numbers of birds.

The alkaline soda of Lake Manyara is home to an incredible array of bird life that thrives on its brackish waters. Pink flamingo stoop and graze by the thousands, colourful specks against the grey minerals of the lake shore. Yellow-billed storks swoop and corkscrew on thermal winds rising up from the escarpment, and herons flap their wings against the sun-drenched sky. Even reluctant bird-watchers will find something to watch and marvel at within the national park.

Lake Manyara’s famous tree-climbing lions are another reason to pay this park a visit. The only kind of their species in the world, they make the ancient mahogany and elegant acacias their home during the rainy season, and are a well-known but rather rare feature of the northern park. In addition to the lions, the national park is also home to the largest concentration of baboons anywhere in the world -- a fact that makes for interesting game viewing of large families of the primates.

The compact game-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 hundred-strong baboon troops lounge nonchalantly along the roadside, blue monkeys scamper nimbly between the ancient mahogany trees, dainty bushbuck tread warily through the shadows, and outsized forest hornbills honk cacophonously in the high canopy.

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

Inland of the floodplain, a narrow belt of acacia woodland is the favoured haunt of Manyara’s legendary tree-climbing lions and impressively tusked elephants. Squadrons of banded mongoose dart between the acacias, while the diminutive Kirk’s dik-dik forages in their shade. Pairs of klipspringer are often seen silhouetted on the rocks above a field of searing hot springs that steams and bubbles adjacent to the lakeshore in the far south of the park.

Manyara provides the perfect introduction to Tanzania’s birdlife. More than 400 species have been recorded, and even a first-time visitor to Africa might reasonably expect to observe 100 of these in one day. Highlights include thousands of pink-hued flamingos on their perpetual migration, as well as other large waterbirds such as pelicans, cormorants and storks.

About Lake Manyara National Park
Size: 330 sq km (127 sq miles), of which up to 200 sq km (77 sq miles) is lake when water levels are high.
Location: In northern Tanzania. The entrance gate lies 1.5 hours (126km/80 miles) west of Arusha along a newly surfaced road, close to the ethnically diverse market town of Mto wa Mbu.

Getting there
By road, charter or scheduled flight from Arusha, en route to Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.

What to do
Game drives, canoeing when the water levels is sufficiently high.
Cultural tours, mountain bike tours, abseiling and forest walks on the escarpment outside the park.

When to go
Dry season (July-October) for large mammals;
wet season (November-June) for bird watching, the waterfalls and canoeing.

Accommodation
One luxury treehouse-style camp, public bandas and campsites inside the park.
One luxury tented camp and two lodges perched on the Rift Wall overlooking the lake.
Several guesthouses and campsites in nearby Mto wa Mbu.

Accommodations near Lake Manyara
E Unoto Retreat
Maasai is E Unoto Retreat's theme. It is located in a secluded and natural spot in the Maasai plains outside Lake Manyara National Park, and is easily accessible by road and air, approximately 120 kilometers southwest of Arusha.

Kirurumu Tented Camp
Kirurumu is located on the ridge of the Rift Valley wall. The lodge is rustic and has been designed to compliment the eco-system.

Lake Manyara Serena Lodge
Manyara Serena Lodge is located at the edge of the Mto Wa Mbu escarpment and overlooks the Great Rift Valley and the Manyara soda lake.

Lake Manyara Hotel
Lake Manyara Hotel overlooks Lake Manyara from its perched location upon the Rift Valley escarpment. With its own landing strip, a direct flight to the hotel means you have more time to view game or just relax.

Lake Manyara Tree Lodge
Lake Manyara Tree Lodge is situated in the exclusive southern area of Lake Manyara National Park, approximately a kilometre from the lakeshore.

ACCOMMODATIONS IN Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara Tree Lodge
Location: S 03.66773 E 035.74774
Capacity / Beds: 20
Year of establishment: 2002
Owner: Conservation Corporation Africa

Public Campsite No 2
Original name: Public Campsite
Capacity / Beds: 60
Owner: TANAPA

Bagayo A
Original name: Special Campsite
Capacity / Beds: 20
Owner: TANAPA

Bagayo B - Lake Manyara
Original name: Special Campsite
Capacity / Beds: 20
Owner: TANAPA

Endabashi Riverside
Original name: Special Campsite
Capacity / Beds: 20
Owner: TANAPA

Endabashi Lake Shore - Lake Manyara  
Original name: Special Campsite
Capacity / Beds: 20
Owner: TANAPA

Lake Manyara Safari Lodge Tanzania Safari Tours to Lake Manyara Lodge Safaris