Lake Manyara National Park

Wonderful piece of Tanzania. Must see!

During our safari, Lake Manyara NP was our 1st destination. We heard about lions on trees, thousands flamingos over the lake, but nobody told us that it contains wonderful landscapes! We were sad we cannot visit the lake from near, our guide said it is forbidden to go outside streets and go closer to the lake.
We were happy there weren't too many tourits around there, it was really quiet and peaceful.
Absolutely recommended!

Evocative sunset

We visited Lake Manyara National Park only in the afternoon because our plane was in late so we weren't able to visit all the park (organization of the guides is the most important requirement for this travels).
The park is very large and offer a good opportunity for the birdwatching. We were able to see storks, hornbills, flamingos, ibis, baboons, zebras, gnu, buffalo, hippos, gazelles, antelopes.
I know the park is a good place to see the leopards activity not only in the night but we unfortunately weren't able to see them. We visited the park until the sunset, the light is so warm and weak and all the photo we took have so nice colours. At the end of the day we covered the near hills so we could admire the Lake from the top of the hills...it is so long and suggestive.

A beautiful park but a bit difficult to find wildlife such as lions and elephants.

An amazing place to experience safari

With the Ngorogoro crater being the star attraction, it would be easy to overlook Lake Manyara for a safari. However, thankfully, we didn't and had an amazing time there.
We saw a wide range of wildlife such as Elephants, Babboons, Sea Eagles, Kingfishers as well as Flamingo's which the park is famous for.
The scenery in the park varies. When you enter, you travel through forest but once you reach the viewpoints over the lake, the land stretches on for miles over open plains.
We were there in August and the temperature was moderate (mid 20's) so pleasant enough without being unbearable.
The park is less crowded than Ngorogoro which means that it feels a little more personal.
If you only had one day to do a safari, would I pick Lake Manyara?.....well probably not because Ngorogoro is deservedly one of the most incredible places I've visited. However, don't overlook Manyara; you'll have a different but amazing time there too.

It's different if you compare it with the Serengeti and Ngorongoro. We have seen a lot of monkey's and less bigger animals. But a visit, oh yes it is worthwhile.

Lake Manyara is a beautiful place to stop by for a visit. It is located in a populated area so the feeling of wilderness and isolation is not there. It is however, a very beautiful destination and worth a visit.

Not as spectacular as Serengeti or Ngorongoro but good close up views of elephants. Close to Arusha too

This was our first day on safari, and we didn't spend as long here as we did in other parks. We had a boxed lunch watching Lake Manyara and the Rift Valley. We are not birders – but no one could fail to be impressed with the all the birds -red and yellow barbet hopping around our feet, a weaver bird finishing off a nest a few feet from us, several other species with spectacular colours. After lunch, we drove around the park and saw our first zebras (babies too), giraffes (babies too), impalas (babies too), buffalos, warthogs and flamingoes from a distance. Many elephants and babies. On the way out, we stopped to watch a family of baboons, and later a family of Vervet monkeys.

This was one of the few places to see flamingos and they were my favorite part. The water almost looked completely pink because there were so many flamingos.

Paradisiacal experience at lake Manyara

In april 2014 I went on a game view at Lake Manyara. The day before we went to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Although Ngorongoro was very beautiful, I even liked Lake Manyara more! Lake Manyara is a smaller but very nice park, where animals suddenly show up from between the trees. That was very awesome. A lot of variety in animals and beautiful birds, wide vast land as a viewpoint (with giraffes, flamingos, impalas, zebras, hippos...), a very quiet safari because of low season (which was very nice to be almost alone), flock of elephants at 1 meter from the jeep,...

The accomodation and food at the Jumbo campsite at Mto Wa Mbu, were unbelievable. It had a pool, very nicely warm tents. There we had our first warm shower in two months!! The organisation and guidance were very very good. They listened to our 'demands' to make sure we had the best safari ever for as less money as possible.

This organisation and safaris are very much recommended! I had the time of my life.