Lake Manyara National Park
Size
648 square kilometres (250 square miles), a large part of it lake
What Lake Manyara is known for
Groundwater forest, elephants close up, monkeys and waterbirds
Lake Manyara from Arusha
About 125 kilometres (78 miles) on tarmac, two to two and a half hours
Best time to visit Lake Manyara National Park
All year, with the green season the quietest period
We recommend
Half a day to a full day, on the way to the Serengeti
You drive through the gate and you are straight into forest. No savannah, no open plain, but tall trees with light falling through them in stripes, and troops of baboons sitting along the road. That forest does not live on the rain but on springs that come out of the wall of the Rift Valley, and so it stays green all year. Groundwater forest it is called, and nowhere else in northern Tanzania do you meet it like this.
A few kilometres further the forest stops and you look across open ground to the lake, with the rift wall behind you rising six hundred metres (2,000 feet). In a small area the landscapes follow one another, from dense forest through acacia woodland to the shore of a soda lake. That makes Manyara different from the parks that come after it, where you drive for hours through the same landscape.
And then the elephants. Manyara is the place where Iain Douglas-Hamilton did the research in the late sixties that showed the world how elephant families are put together. The elephant close up is still the high point travellers mention most here. In the forest they sometimes stand a few metres from the car, among the trees, and that feels different from seeing a herd out on a plain.
Manyara is not the park where you stay three nights. It is the park that lies on the road from Arusha to the highlands and the Serengeti, and that turns a long drive into a safari day. You step out of the world of tarmac and villages and within half an hour you are among the elephants. For many travellers this is the first wildlife they see in Tanzania, and they do not forget it.
Baboons in large troops, often with young, right behind the gate. Elephants in the forest and the acacia woodland. Hippo at the hippo pool, sometimes dozens at a time. Then giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, impala and bushbuck. And along the water pelican, stork and ibis. For birdwatchers this is a rich park, with an estimated three hundred and fifty to four hundred species in a small area.
The park is a narrow strip, so you drive it lengthways. Right behind the gate lies the groundwater forest, where the baboons, the monkeys and the bushbuck are and where you can meet your first elephants. The canopy walkway hangs here too. Further on, where the forest gives way to open ground, lies the hippo pool at the Simba river, with waterbirds around it. Behind that lie the shore flats, the part that has been largely under water since the rains. In the acacia woodland sit the elephants and the giraffe, and here the chance of lions is greatest.
Deep in the south lie the hot springs of Maji Moto, where almost nobody comes, although that part is not always reachable when the water is high. The viewpoints over the park are up on the rift wall, outside the park boundary, where some of the lodges are too. From there you see at a glance what the strip between wall and lake looks like. The crowds are in the northern section. Because almost everyone drives the same route, jams form as soon as something is standing by the road.
November and December
Manyara is small, and that is exactly why it works. In a few hours you see the forest, the hippo pool and the acacia woodland, with the elephants and the monkeys in between. Travellers who spend a full day there without an extra activity often find that long. We include Manyara in many trips, and we use the park in two ways. As a first safari day, for a few hours, on the way from Arusha to the Serengeti. Without Manyara your first day is too long a drive.
Close to the entrance lies Mto wa Mbu, with a lively market, banana plantations and small workshops. You can cycle through the fields and past the rice paddies towards the shore, or take a walk with someone who lives there. Together with a few hours in the park that turns your stop into a full and varied day.
There are three ways to sleep here, and each has its own advantage. Inside the park there are a few small camps and lodges. There you are in the middle of the area, and at sunrise you are the first into the forest. A night drive is also possible from inside the park. With a spotlight you go looking for animals that sleep during the day.
In Mto wa Mbu, the village beside the gate, the choice is wider, from simple guesthouses to small lodges. You are a few minutes from the park entrance. And many travellers sleep in Karatu, some way further on towards the highlands. There the choice is largest, and the next morning you are already closer to the Ngorongoro Crater and the road to the Serengeti.
Elephants in families of dozens at a time, among baobabs centuries old. The park where most travellers begin their safari.
Endless plains, the largest predator population in Africa, and the stage for the migration of the herds. The park where you want to stay longest.
A collapsed volcano with thousands of animals on the floor, close together. One of the few places in Tanzania with black rhino.