Lake Manyara National Park Tanzania

Pink flamingo bend and graze by the thousands colorful specks against the grey minerals of the lake shore. Yellow-billed storks dive and twist on warm air 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 wonder at within the national park.

Lake Manyara National park covers a geographical area of about 330 square kilometers of forest, arid land and much of the land is covered by the soda lake during the rainy season but absent during the arid season. Tacked between the Arusha and Manyara regions, this park runs on a narrow strip between Lake Manyara and the Gregory Rift Valley wall. Lake Manyara is acidic in nature and it attracts a lot of pink flamingos. The park is home to the Big Five and due to its close nearness to Tarangire, visits to these parks can be combined in one itinerary.

This park was recognized in 1960 and has its main point of emphasis as Manyara Lake. In the whole of the East African Rift, Ernest Hemingway identified lake Manyara as the most luxurious place, its impressive setting that he once commended with the documentary maker, Collin Willock. Passionate safari tourists like to get to the world famous Serengeti and Ngorongoro getting there more often through the Manyara National park. Within a considerably small location, Lake Manyara Park clouds a range of important microcosm of the safari experience in Tanzania.

As part of the famed northern safari journey, Lake Manyara National park can only be visited by very few people in isolation. Most of the safaris to this particular destination of Lake Manyara National Park, start their journey from the town of Arusha.

By Air

The best way to get there is by flying into the Kilimanjaro International Airport. (KIA). From Arusha, this airport is located in a distance of about 46 kilometers. Using a local flight, it is also likely to fly to Arusha Airport (ARK) while flying into the Julius Nyerere International Airport (DAR) in Dar es Salaam. Booking a cheap flight from Nairobi in Kenya is another option to explore and take a shuttle bus to Arusha. At such times, visitors can always be picked up by their tour operators from Tanzania as well as dealing with any other ground operations like ongoing flights. Situated at the top of the rift wall, there is also another airport, Lake Manyara Airport (LKY)

Charter flights can be arranged from Arusha and the Serengeti to Manyara’s airstrip. Here, it is a 10 minutes’ drive from the park after landing at Manyara airstrip on the escarpment. Domestic flights can be arranged with a domestic carrier. Additionally, charter flights between parks are in most cases booked by their tour operator as part of your safari package.

On the Road

Located southwest of Arusha, Lake Manyara National Park is in a distance of 126 kilometers and can easily be reached by car. Visitors can also flexibly get there from Bahati, the capital of Manyara region.

By car, one can also take a trip (road safari) to the newly tarred road from Arusha which only takes 1 ½ to 2 hours to reach the entrance gate. Since lake Manyara Park is on the way to Ngorongoro crater and the Serengeti which are the other parks of the northern circuit, most people prefer to take a circuit by a safari vehicle. You would need to rent a vehicle to enter the park via the gateway village Mto Wa Mbu which is accessible by bus.

All year through, there is a good access to this park and note that the best time for large mammals is the dry season that comes between July to October while November to June the wet season which is best for birds.