Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara is a stunning natural wonder, bordered by the eastern and western escarpments of the Rift Valley. It’s about a two-hour (130 km/75 miles) drive from Arusha on well-maintained roads. Alternatively, it’s a 20-minute flight from Arusha Airport (ARK) or a 45-minute flight from Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). From Lake Manyara, reaching Ngorongoro Crater takes about 1.5 hours by car, with an exhilarating ascent up the western Rift Valley escarpment.

Size

Lake Manyara National Park spans 250 square miles (330 km²), with one-third being land (22 sq miles / 100 km²) and the remainder occupied by the lake. It is Tanzania’s third smallest national park.

Wildlife and Natural Highlights

The park’s year-round greenery is maintained by an underground water forest that sustains the lush vegetation. This attracts a variety of migratory and wetland bird species. The lake itself, which is mostly shallow and alkaline-saline, owes its unique composition to the Rift Valley’s heat, which causes rapid evaporation and high concentrations of saline and sodium carbonate. These conditions support cyanobacteria, a blue-green benthic algae that draws flamingos to the area. Although the lake’s waters can reach a pH level of 9, making them too toxic for most animals, flamingos have adapted to this environment and feed on the algae as a steady food source. Other prominent species in the park include large troops of baboons, blue/Sykes monkeys, vervet monkeys, tree-climbing lions, kudus, buffalo, giraffes, hippos, wildebeest, zebras, elephants, impalas, Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelles, lions, cheetahs, warthogs, leopards, hyraxes, elands, bushbucks, waterbucks, and dik-diks.

Activities

Nearby Mto Wa Mbu, a culturally rich town with a population of 18,000 people from 85 different tribes, offers a variety of multicultural activities. Visitors can enjoy village walks, mountain biking, forest walks along the western Rift Valley escarpment, cycling around the lake and to waterfalls for the fit, canoeing, and visiting a local brewery. Within Manyara National Park, activities include game drives, walking safaris, and night game drives.