Lake Manyara National Park

Small in size. Enormous in surprise

Don’t let the size fool you. At just 330 square kilometres, Lake Manyara National Park packs more variety into a single game drive than parks ten times its size. A shimmering alkaline lake fringed by fever trees, a dense groundwater forest alive with baboons and elephants, and open floodplains where flamingos gather in their thousands — all set dramatically beneath the towering escarpment of the Great Rift Valley. Manyara is compact, beautiful, and endlessly rewarding.

Flamingo

Tanzania’s Lake Natron is the world’s most critical lesser flamingo breeding site — up to 2.5 million birds nest on its caustic soda flats where alkaline conditions lethal to predators protect the colony.

Secretary Bird

Tanzania’s secretary bird walks 30 km daily across open savanna, killing snakes with stamp-kicks that deliver five times its body weight in force — one of the most powerful strikes in the entire bird world.

Ostrich

Tanzania’s ostriches are the world’s largest and fastest running birds at 70 km/h, with eyes larger than their brains — males incubate at night, females by day, in a shared parental rotation system.

Colobus Monkey

Tanzania’s black-and-white colobus have no thumbs — their hands are pure hook-shaped climbing tools — while the endangered red colobus of Zanzibar exists nowhere else on Earth and is hunted by chimpanzees.

Vervet & Blue Monkey

Vervets use predator-specific alarm calls — a distinct sound per threat type — while blue monkeys live in female-dominated forest groups, with one territorial male calling deep pyow boundary warnings.

Chimpanzee

Tanzania’s Gombe chimps — studied since 1960 by Jane Goodall — were the first animals documented making tools, stripping leaves from sticks to extract termites and reshaping human understanding of intelligence.

Why Visit Lake Manyara?

Tree-climbing lions — Manyara is one of the very few places in the world where lions regularly climb trees and rest in the branches. Seeing it for yourself is genuinely surreal.
Flamingo flocks — When conditions are right, tens of thousands of flamingos turn the lake’s shallow edges a vivid pink. One of East Africa’s most striking natural spectacles.
Rich groundwater forest — The park opens with a canopy of ancient fig and mahogany trees, home to troops of olive baboons, blue monkeys, and large elephant herds.
Great Rift Valley backdrop — The 600-metre escarpment wall looms over the entire park, creating one of the most dramatic landscape settings of any safari destination in Tanzania.
Perfect starter park — Manyara is just 2 hours from Arusha, making it an ideal first game drive on a Northern Tanzania circuit before heading on to the Serengeti or Ngorongoro

Best Time to Visit

Season	Months	Highlights
Dry season	Jun – Oct	Best game viewing, large animal gatherings
Short rains	Nov – Dec	Flamingo numbers peak, lush scenery
Warm & dry	Jan – Feb	Excellent birdwatching, good game drives
Long rains	Mar – May	Fewest crowds, green and photogenic

Tip: November and December bring the best flamingo numbers as the rains raise the lake level and create ideal feeding conditions. For tree-climbing lions, the dry season delivers the most reliable sightings.

What You'll Experience

Game drives — Wind through the groundwater forest, across open floodplains, and along the lakeshore in search of lions, elephants, hippos, giraffes, and the park’s famous tree-climbing lions.
Birdwatching — Over 400 species have been recorded here, making Manyara one of Tanzania’s premier birding destinations. Look for the lilac-breasted roller, African fish eagle, and vast flocks of flamingos along the shoreline.
Canoeing on the lake — Paddle quietly across the alkaline waters for an up-close view of waterbirds, hippos, and the Rift Valley escarpment from the water level.
Night game drives — Manyara permits night drives, revealing a nocturnal world of bushbabies, genets, and elusive nocturnal predators rarely seen during the day.
Treetop walkway — Walk above the forest canopy on a suspended walkway for a completely different perspective on the park’s ecosystem and birdlife.

Getting There

By road from Arusha — A straightforward 2-hour drive makes Manyara the easiest major park to reach from Arusha — and the natural first stop on the Northern Circuit.
By air — Lake Manyara airstrip receives scheduled and charter flights from Arusha and other Northern Tanzania destinations. Flight time: approximately 30 minutes.

Lake Manyara pairs naturally with Tarangire, Ngorongoro, and the Serengeti — most Northern Tanzania itineraries include it as an opening or closing day.