Is Arusha National Park worth visiting if I am also doing a longer safari?

Absolutely — Arusha National Park delivers experiences that no other northern circuit park can replicate. The extraordinary canoe safari, the close-range colobus monkey encounters, the beautiful Ngurdoto Crater views, and the dramatic Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro panoramas all provide a completely different and equally rewarding dimension to the northern circuit experience. Most Serengeti Scent Adventures guests who include Arusha National Park rate it as one of the most memorable and most surprising highlights of their entire Tanzania visit.

Is the canoe safari safe?

Yes — completely safe. All canoe safaris on the Momella Lakes are guided by experienced park rangers with full safety equipment provided. The extraordinary close-range encounters with hippos and flamingos from the canoe surface are managed with the highest standards of safety and professionalism on every single trip.

What is the best time of year for this day trip?

Arusha National Park delivers outstanding experiences in every single month of the year. The dry season from June to October offers the clearest skies and the best photography conditions — particularly for Kilimanjaro views. The green season from November to March delivers the most lush and most beautiful forest and the most spectacular flamingo concentrations on the Momella Lakes.

Arusha National Park Day tour - Wildlife and Safari

Overview

Itinerary

Cost

FAQs

Overview

Itinerary

Cost

FAQs

Overview

Our Arusha National Park Day Trip is the most convenient, most surprisingly rewarding, and most beautifully diverse single-day wildlife experience available from Arusha — a perfectly designed full-day safari and nature adventure into Tanzania’s most accessible and most underrated national park situated just 35 kilometres from Arusha city combining a beautiful canoe safari on the extraordinary Momella Lakes, outstanding colobus monkey encounters in the ancient groundwater forest, spectacular flamingo flocks, breathtaking Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro panoramic views, and a unique guided nature walk — all departing and returning directly to your Arusha hotel with Serengeti Scent Adventures.

Highlights

Black & white colobus monkeys — outstanding close-range encounters in the ancient groundwater forest
Canoe safari — one of Tanzania’s most unique and most memorable wildlife activities on the Momella Lakes
Flamingo flocks — spectacular flamingo concentrations on the beautiful Momella Lakes
Ngurdoto Crater rim — dramatic views across the pristine and protected crater floor
Buffalo & waterbuck — large herds throughout the park’s diverse habitats

Day 01 :

The intermarry

MORNING

Depart your Arusha hotel at 6:30 AM and drive the beautiful 35 kilometre scenic route to Arusha National Park’s Ngurdoto Gate — arriving at the park entrance by approximately 7:30 AM.

Begin the morning with a beautiful game drive along the extraordinary Ngurdoto Crater rim — offering breathtaking panoramic views across the pristine and permanently protected crater floor with buffalo, warthog, and waterbuck grazing in the beautiful grassland below and spectacular black and white colobus monkeys leaping dramatically through the ancient forest canopy along the rim trail.

Continue through the park’s extraordinary groundwater forest — one of the most beautiful and most biodiverse forest habitats in northern Tanzania — searching for blue monkeys, olive baboons, bushbuck, and an exceptional diversity of forest bird species in the cool and deeply atmospheric ancient forest.

Arrive at the breathtaking Momella Lakes — seven shallow alkaline lakes of strikingly different colors — for outstanding wildlife viewing and exceptional birdwatching. Search for spectacular flamingo flocks, pelicans, herons, saddle-billed storks, and an extraordinary diversity of waterbirds before boarding your guided canoe for one of the most unique and most memorable wildlife experiences in all of northern Tanzania — paddling silently across the beautiful lake surface among hippos surfacing just metres away and flamingos feeding in the shallows.

MIDDAY

A beautifully prepared bush picnic lunch served at a scenic viewpoint overlooking the extraordinary Momella Lakes — with breathtaking views of Mount Meru rising dramatically above the park and Mount Kilimanjaro glowing magnificently on the eastern horizon on clear days — one of the most beautiful and most memorable lunch settings in all of Tanzania.

AFTERNOON

After lunch explore the park’s beautiful Little Serengeti — an open grassland area home to large Masai giraffe herds, plains zebra, Grant’s gazelle, and warthog — providing beautifully open and photogenic game viewing with spectacular Kilimanjaro views on the eastern horizon.

An optional guided nature walk through the beautiful lower forest zone of Mount Meru with an armed ranger — encountering colobus monkeys, buffalo, and elephant tracks in the ancient montane forest at ground level. Continue to the beautiful Jekukumia River valley — excellent for buffalo, waterbuck, reedbuck, and bushbuck in the golden late afternoon light.

A beautiful sundowner stop at the park’s most scenic viewpoint — watching the extraordinary African sunset paint Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro in breathtaking shades of gold and crimson — before departing the park and returning to your Arusha hotel arriving approximately 6:30 to 7:00 PM.

Arusha National Park Day tour