Arusha National Park is small, close to town and easy to underestimate. In a single day you can move from the forested slopes of Mount Meru to the open rim of Ngurdoto Crater and down to the shallow, colourful Momella Lakes. It is one of the few parks in northern Tanzania where you can walk with an armed ranger and paddle a canoe, and on a clear day Kilimanjaro rises over the plains to the east.

What you will see

Black-and-white colobus monkeys: the park is a reliable place to see them, leaping through the forest canopy with their long white tails.
Plains game: giraffe, buffalo, zebra, warthog, waterbuck and several kinds of antelope. Elephants live here too but are seen less often. There are no lions, which is part of why walking is possible.
Momella Lakes: a string of alkaline lakes whose colours shift with the minerals and algae in the water. Flamingos gather on them at some times of year, along with plenty of waterbirds.
Ngurdoto Crater: a forested crater that you view from the rim. The floor is left undisturbed, and buffalo are often seen grazing far below.
Mount Meru: at 4,566 metres it is Tanzania's second-highest mountain, a steep, dramatic volcano that dominates the park.

What to do

A game drive covers the main areas in half a day or a full day. On a walking safari, a ranger leads you on foot through grassland and forest, which is a very different way to meet giraffe and buffalo. Canoeing on Small Momella Lake gives you a quiet view of the birdlife from the water. For stronger walkers, a Mount Meru climb usually takes three or four days, with huts on the route and a final summit push along a narrow crater rim.

When to go

The park is open all year. The dry months, roughly June to October and late December to February, give the clearest views of Meru and Kilimanjaro and firmer tracks. The long rains, around March to May, bring green scenery and fewer visitors but more cloud. See our weather guide for detail.

Getting there

The main gate is roughly an hour's drive from Arusha town and about an hour and a half from Kilimanjaro International Airport, so you can leave after breakfast and be back for dinner.

How it fits your trip

Many travellers use Arusha National Park as a gentle first day, either on arrival or as a way to shake off jet lag before a longer northern safari. Climbing Mount Meru before Kilimanjaro is a sound way to acclimatise, because you spend several nights at altitude on a quieter mountain first. A day walk or canoe trip here also fits neatly into the rest days at either end of a climb.