Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara National park bowls a bunch of diverse habitats from the Rift Valley soda lake to dense woodlands and steep mountainsides. Aside from this impressive natural setting, the park is also famed for its iconic tree-climbing lions and huge elephant herds. Situated between Lake Manyara and the Great Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park is a protected area that you can explore during your Tanzania Safari. It covers an area of 325 square kilometres including about 230 square kilometres of Lake Surface. The Park offers a perfect introduction to Tanzania’s wildlife and especially birdlife. You can find around 400 recorded bird species within the park making it a rewarding place for a birding safari.

Best Time To Visit Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara is dramatically beautiful to visit all year round. Yet to get the best Tanzania safari experience, you need to know the best time of the year. However, the dry season from June to October is the best time to visit Lake Manyara. During this time other water sources get dry up making the wildlife congregate in one place. So, you can spot them from a very close distance while moving in the park. It doesn’t mean that the wet season has no benefits. Indeed, this is the best time for birding and photographic safaris. As Lake Manyara National park is also a great haven for various colourful birds, it will never disappoint you during the wet months. You can see one of the major attractions of this park, the pink flamingoes in thousands.

Dry/High Season (June-October)	Wet/Low Season (November-March)
Amazing wildlife sightings	Full of life and greenery nature
The days are sunny with hardly little rain	Short afternoons and evening thunderstorms
The northern section gets more crowded	Best time for bird watching and photographic safari
It can get quite chilly in the day and night	Some roads may be found muddy and hard to navigate
Fewer mosquitoes and insects	Less crowd with low accommodation price

Wildlife At Lake Manyara

Like other national parks in northern Tanzania, Lake Manyara National park also offers an excellent wildlife viewing experience. Thanks to its diverse natural surroundings and various attractions. Elephants are the most famous in this national park and are frequently seen while exploring the savannah plains. Apart from that you can also spot the unusual tree-climbing lions which are unique in Lake Manyara National Park. Other wildlife species including monkeys, antelopes, gazelles, baboons, hyenas, warthogs, giraffes, zebras, impalas and many others can be spotted here in this great habitat.

Activities to do in Lake Manyara

Offering a variety of wildlife, you can get plenty of safari activities to do in Lake Manyara National Park. You can go for a safari game drive with a traditional 4WD safari vehicle. Through this, you can get a chance to witness the rich wildlife grazing in the savannah plains. The park also offers the night game drive which is not allowed in any other parks in northern Tanzania. Apart from the game drives, you can also go for bird watching as the park is famous for birding safari. The park hosts the most famous pink flamingoes and they are best viewed from November to April.

Top activities to do in Lake Manyara National Park

• Day and Night Game Drives
• Waking Safari
• Bird watching
• Canoeing
• Visit Maasai Bombas