Arusha National Park

Arusha National Park is a green paradise

I have been in Arusha National Park several times, and the park never disappoints me. Of course it depends on what you are looking for. Arusha National Park is not comparable to Serengeti, Tarangire and other parks in Tanzania. But the park is great in its own way. There are, they say no big cats in the park ... but I have actually seen a leopard once crossing the road upp the mountain. The park sits on the eastern slopes of Mt Meru and you can drive upp quite high upp almost beyond the tree limit. Also the park features walking safari and canoeing. The later I have not tested but I can recommend the walking safari. Both in the lowlands walking to a water fall. And upp in the mountain ... (you need a guide with a gun on the walking safari). The park have both rainforests and small grass plains. You will I can almost promise you see buffalo, zebra, giraffe, waterbuck, flamingo, and two different kinds of monkey (not counting baboon) - the blue monkey and the colobus monkey. I do not know about accommodations today. But there are a lot of hotels close to the park. Arusha national Park was one of our usual day trip from where we used to live when I lived in Tanzania. So I really love the park. This time it was also a day trip and it was the first time for me with a safari company - Mlimani Safaris Africa. And I can recommend them to. So my conclusion is. If you are visiting Arusha for other purposes than Safari (business / conferences) and do not have time for a long safari. Arusha National Park is the place to go. If you have been in the other bigger parks and are tired of big plains and dusty roads, but still wants some wildlife and nature experience. This is the place to go. Or if you like the shade of a jungle. Don't miss Arusha National Park.

For a day trip, Arusha National Park is pretty special.

I only had one day to spend on seeing wildlife after a week of work in Arusha. Arusha National Park proved to be a very accessible location. It is easy to get to and has an abundance of wildlife if you're prepared to spend some time to look around. It may not have all the animals, but if you go with the proper expectations you will not be disappointed.

Less Crowded but Plenty to See

Arusha National Park was our first destination on our two week Safari in Tanzania and Kenya. What we really liked about the park is it is smaller and less crowded than the other parks, but still had a good variety of wildlife. We were excited to see our first baboon, but then saw large groups that were fascinating to watch. We encountered our first elephants with 10 feet of the Land Cruiser. We say Colobus monkeys jumping from tree to tree and some very cute blue monkeys. We also saw a few giraffes. Didn't see any cats, but saw plenty at other locations. Arusha was fairly close to our lodge, so we got back in time to relax. We did not run into any bugs. We highly recommend Arusha.

An excellent start

A good start to our tour of Tanzania with nice accommodation, excellent birding and some lovely scenery

Could walk with giraffe

Walking safari awesome

one of the greatest adventure

Arusha walking Safari was one of the highlights for me. We were able to get quite close to a giraffe and it was incredible to see how big they really are when you are standing on the ground next to them.

The bush vibe was excellent in Lake Eyesi where we visited the bushmen.

Perfect and even more scenic than Serengeti.