African Safaris | Luxury Safaris | Oldline safari

Arusha National Park, although one of Tanzania's smallest parks, is one of its most beautiful and most topographically varied. Its main features include Ngurdoto Crater (often dubbed Little Ngorongoro) and the Momela Lakes to the east. To the west is beautiful Mt Meru. The two areas are joined by a narrow strip, with Momela Gate at its centre. The park's altitude, which varies from 1500m to more than 4500m, has a variety of vegetation zones supporting numerous animal species.

Ngurdoto Crater is surrounded by forest, while the crater floor is a swamp. West of the crater is Serengeti Ndogo (Little Serengeti), an extensive area of open grassland and the only place in the park where herds of Burchell's zebras can be found.

The Momela Lakes, like many in the Rift Valley, are shallow and alkaline and attract a wide variety of wader birds, particularly flamingos. The lakes are fed by underground streams; due to their varying mineral content, each lake supports a different type of algal growth, which gives them different colours. Bird life also varies quite distinctly from one lake to another, even where they are only separated by a narrow strip of land. Mt. Meru is a mixture of lush forest and bare rock with a spectacular crater.

Animal life in the park is abundant. You can be fairly certain of sighting zebras, giraffes, waterbucks, reedbucks, klipspringers, hippos, buffaloes, elephants, hyenas, mongooses, dik-diks, warthogs, baboons and vervet and colobus monkeys, despite dense vegetation in some areas. You may even catch sight of the occasional leopard. There are no lions, and no rhinos due to poaching.