Arusha National Park

A Boutique Park

This was a great Park to start in, considering some slight jet lag we were dealing with. It’s a small park in comparison to most others, but hasn’t any of the main predators in it like lions, leopard and hyena BUT this means all the animals we did see were quite relaxed with our presence

Wildlife highlights here included the very beautiful black & white but shy Colobus monkeys with their long fluffy white tails. Around one of the lakes in the park was an abundance of Lesser Pink Flamingoes constantly feeding and also some of our favourite birds, the African Fish Eagle. There were numerous large and very confident ‘tribes’ of baboons, which would happily sit very close to our vehicle and the baby baboons kept us very amused with their playful antics. There are also quite shy Blue Monkeys and plenty of zebra, giraffe and buffalo.

Our accommodation outside the Park near Arusha was fabulous!

Arusha NP was disappointing. The other parks in Tanzania were amazing!

Arusha National Park was the first National Park we visited. This was probably just as well as all the wildlife we saw was new and interesting to us. It was also relatively close to our Lake Duluti accommodations. As a photographer I did take a lot of images of Bush Bucks, Water Bucks, Cranes, flamingos, some giraffes and many baboons (who are everywhere). However, you will not see any large predators or for that many any of the Big Five. The park is surrounded by farmers who have hunted or at least cleared out all the large predators. Compared with the other parks it was a great disappointment. If I were to do the trip again, I would skip Arusha NP and spend an extra day at Ngorongoro Crater which was exceptional.

Very nice landscape, close to airport

Not much excitement here the alternatives of Ngorongoro , Tarangire and manyara or even serengeti are better

Birding was spectacular! Other wildlife was amazing but not as diverse as the other parks we visited.

The pouching is a big problem in Arusha National Park and that is the reason why the wildlife is quite shy there
TANAPA need to invest more in the conservation of that beautifull jungle landscape

Nice forest and mountains, a good change from the plains.