Lake Manyara National Park: Nestled away in the Great Rift Valley, just 2 hours from Arusha and on the way to Ngorongoro/Serengeti, surrounded by picturesque escarpments, covered in glittering water bodies and swaying green canopies is the small national park of Lake Manyara. The beauty of this lake made even the American literary icon, Ernest Hemingway, pause and exclaim ‘loveliest lake in Africa’.

Lake Manyara is popular for its diverse habitats and multiple ecosystems. Around the lake you can find thick rainforests, savannas, wetlands, and acacia forests, sustaining its own set of animals. A major part of the park is submerged under the water, so the game drives will be shorter compared to other parks, but even within this small region you will find a variety like no other place.

Who do we recommend this park for? Lake Manyara National park is a great place to visit if you enjoy exploring diverse habitats, beautiful sceneries, plants and birds. Within the park you will find 600+ species of plants itself and hundreds of thousands of birds. Although it hosts several species of animals, from small reptiles like monitor lizards to favourites like Lions, Elephants and Giraffes, their numbers are not as high as you would find in other parks. So if you are mostly interested in wildlife only and the idea of seeing diverse habitats/beautiful scenery, variety of birds doesn’t sound as exciting, then you might perhaps have a better experience visiting other parks in the region instead of Lake Manyara.