Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara is a lovely scenic park on the road from Arusha to the Ngorongoro Crater, famous for its tree-climbing lions, great birdlife, good elephants, and baboons. The lake itself takes up much of the park, leaving a strip of land running along its shores where game concentrates. Often visited for an afternoon game drive on the way to Ngorongoro, it would be a shame to miss out Manyara if you’re driving straight past it – but it’s really not up there with the heavyweight big boys in terms of game viewing.  However, if you’re going on to Ngorongoro and Serengeti, you’ll see plenty of game there anyway. The concentrations of game here is not nearly as high as in surrounding parks, but there are a number of unique species that give reason enough to safari here.  The park’s main attraction is Lake Manyara’s famous tree-climbing lions – why these lions habitually climb trees is still up for debate, but viewing a pride relaxing in an acacia tree is a remarkable sight! The park is also famous for its elephant and a huge number of baboons, and its varied landscape supports an impressive range of other game including wildebeest, buffalo, hippo, flamingo, zebra, warthog, waterbuck, giraffe, dik-dik and impala.  The birding here is also very good, especially raptors.