Arusha National Park

A chance to encounter the locals close up.

It was difficult to stop and get out of the car in some parts. At times it felt a little rushed. But the day was perfect. There were some great viewpoints and the views were amazing. We saw lots of wildlife so I felt satisfied on that front.

More dense with vegetation and so harder to see the animals.

A small safari to get you started on your Tanzania adventure

My time in Tanzania was to start on the Serengeti, move to Ngorongoro Crater, then to Tarangire, and finish at Arusha National Park. After doing some research I changed that order and reversed it...and I am glad I did.

Arusha National Park is far smaller than the other parks and doesn't have the larger wildlife the other parks have like elphants, hippos, rhinos, etc. What it does have is a thriving flamingo population, baboons, and black and white colobus monkeys. It is a great park to start your journey through Tanzania because it gives you a way to sort of dip your toes into the safari travel without being immersed in it. The roads are dirt, the wildlife is right outside of your car, the views are beautiful but it is a small park and the animals are smaller and less intimidating than other parks.

We stopped for lunch at a picnic grounds and could see baboons around the restroom area maybe 30 feet from us waiting for us to leave so they could scavenge any food we left behind. Impressive animals but at no time did I feel threatened. The lakes were filled with greater and lesser flamingos in the thousands. The Black and White Colobus monkeys played in the trees above our heads in the jungle sections of the park. And the bird species were innumerable.

You will get a feel of a safari vehicle riding on dirt roads, get a bit of jungle, plains, lakes, etc that you will encounter at the larger parks without feeling over-whelmed. But Arusha is simply not as thrilling as the big three. The Serengeti is unmatched, Ngorongoro is unique, and Tarangire provides amazing landscapes as backdrops to the many elephants in the park. The other three are better for seeing the big 5 and most of the animals you came to Tanzania to see, but Arusha is a good way to start your journey...just don't finish it there or you will be disappointed. But when you start there...you get a brief look at the bigger things to come.

Beautiful landscape of stunning variety.

Arusha National Park has an incredible diversity of landscape for its small size, ranging from savannah, to soda lakes, forests with craters, and the slope of Mount Meru itself.

Arusha National Park is lusher and has thicker vegetation than the other Parks we visited. However, it has some unique bird species and well as the charismatic black and white Colobus monkey.

Lot of birds in the park, good sightings and also the special Black and white Colobus monkey are in the park. Nice tropical rainforest.

Beautiful and lush, loved this park! Lower number of game to see, but we were never disappointed - still saw lots of wildlife.

Thus park is smaller and heavily forested so it was fun to see in comparison to the parks with more grasses. The trees do make it a bit more difficult to spot wildlife.

Arusha was the first park we went to. It was definitely one of the most beautiful, but we only saw herbivores.

A little gem!

I was in TZ to do the Northern Circuit but read somewhere that Arusha NP was worth a visit, so I arrived a couple of days early and was given a private full day tour here. It was well worth it. If you are not desperate to tick those five boxes or you've already done it, then come here. It is small so a day is enough. One thing that surprised me which I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere was the butterflies, lots of them, large and vividly coloured. And, you have most environments in a small area, mountain, crater, forest, plains and lakes. Also, you can get quite close to the flamingos, which you can't in places like Ngorongoro. Lots of giraffe, buck, etc, and of course those gorgeous, b+w Collobus monkeys. Not dramatic or awe inspiring just totally charming.