Lake Manyara National Park

The park is quite small but has an unusual rain forest environment. The hotel overlooking Manyara has one of the most exciting swimming pools in the world - there is a thousand foot drop from one side.

We had spectacular elephant encounters at Lake Manyara and didn't leave the park until we absolutely had to. That said, it's very popular so you often see other tourists.

Nice park for the animals and birds lovers.

You feel the Rift Valley

This was particularly thrilling because it was our first safari

Amazing experience with my 8-year-old son

It's the first time my husband and son had been to Africa. I went there before but for business - only for three days. It's not like we saw on TV (tragedies etc.). We went through Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania's business city. We visited the spice island of Zanzibar first before flying to Arusha and then Lake Manyara National Park - where my son had a blast.

Coming from Minnesota - it felt hot even though it's supposed to be one of their cooler months. But it gets hotter even in Minnesota. We loved the weather.

You can't expect to get the first world service in a third world country but I would say - we're really impressed with what we paid for. Plenty of wildlife, beautiful uncontaminated air, exotic food, very good and kind African people.

It's our best trip ever!! Going again in the next two years,

May be in Jan to July when it rains but this park has been drying up for last few years its sickening to go after nov when the heat is on .Deforestation catchin up or shall we say desertification. Its usually joined in with tarangire and ngorongoro to make a better package.

More of a stopover than a destination.

I have been 6 times.

Lake Manyara NP was our first foray into the African wildlife scene and we were not disappointed. Lions, hippos, giraffes, flamingos, baboons, elephants, gazelle, impala, monkeys, and birds, birds, birds.

The best piece of advice I can offer for Lake Manyara or any other safari is to make sure you have a good guide/driver beforehand. You might have to pay a little more for a top guide, but it is well worth the cost. If you can afford a private guide/driver, even better. Ours was exceedingly knowledgeable about the environment and the wildlife. He was able to spot and point out animals that we would have never seen our own. A place like Lake Manyara is quite scenic to drive through, but when someone is able to point out and describe things you would not otherwise notice, it makes the experience truly memorable.