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Anja
DE
Visited:
July 2015
Reviewed: Sep 27, 2015
Email Anja | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Small but plenty - but no big cats
It is also refreshingly uncroweded. We were there quite lat,e but there were one, maybe two other vehicles, and other than by Momella Lake, we were on our own. Roads tend to be dirt, and ther eis a lot of grass and bush on the side, which makes animal spotting a little harder. After a while (when you come from the main entrance off the main Moshi Highway) the scenery will change alot - first you'll be rewarded with magnificient views of Mount Meru, then you get pictures like in an Africa storybook - complete with giraffes and zebras.
This may not be the park where you get close to a lot of animals, but
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it feels like you can view them in their natural habitat withour driving right through it, and this makes it somehow more authentic.Last not least it has Momella Lakes, breeding place of thousands of flamingoes - this is quite unique in Tanzania, maybe even Africa, and although you can take the long drive to Lake Natron, there is nothing that makes the experience superior there.
We saw flamingos, giraffes zebras, buffalo, gazelles, monkeys and lots of unnamed birds aplenty. Sometimes you may spot an elephant, but there are definitely no big cats here.
In summary, this is a small but fine NAtional Park with good infrastructure, easily visited as a daytrip.
wildlifepictures.se
SE
Visited:
December 2011
Reviewed: May 3, 2015
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Not as open as Serengeti and Ngorongoro makes the park more hard spotting wildlife and wildlife is far from abundant. However scenery is excellent with mount Meru and Mt. Kilimandjaro in the background.
Justin
CA
Visited:
November 2014
Reviewed: Apr 28, 2015
Email Justin | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
It's a solid park and easy to fit in with any travel plans that pass through Arusha. There are definitely better parks in Tanzania.
rick harner photo
US
Visited:
February 2015
Reviewed: Apr 25, 2015
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Monkeying about in Arusha National Park
Arusha National Park is a small park close to the town of Arusha and Kilimanjaro Airport. While it boasts a rich variety of wildlife, you shouldn't expect the same game-viewing experience you will find in other national parks of Tanzania's northern circuit. It does have numerous black-and-white colobus monkey which are easily visible and are not found in the other parks. Common animals include giraffe, buffalo, zebra, bushbuck and warthog. In the northeast, the shallow alkaline Momella Lakes provide habitat for numerous species of water birds including Lesser and Greater Flamingo. Forest birds require work to see but experienced birders may be rewarded for their efforts. This park can be by-passed if on a tight schedule and or budget. I rate thes park Poor for wildlife photography.
darian
AU
Visited:
January 2015
Reviewed: Apr 17, 2015
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
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!
lindsaydonald1319
Visited:
February 2015
Reviewed: Apr 16, 2015
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.
DaktariPaula
Visited:
November 2006
Reviewed: May 13, 2012
Very nice landscape, close to airport
peter the safari maniac
Visited:
February 2009
Reviewed: Apr 11, 2012
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.
Julie and Stuart B
GB
Visited:
October 2025
Reviewed: Oct 28, 2025
Email Julie and Stuart B | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Lovely tropical vegetation. Beautiful landscape.
We did a walking safari and we were very fortunate that our guide took us very very close to a family of giraffes.
The lake and surrounding area is picturesque.
It was a lovely way to start our safari travels.