Transformative Tanzania Safaris
The most underrated park in Tanzania — wild, varied and entirely your own
Most people fly into Kilimanjaro International Airport, transfer to Arusha, and leave the next morning for the parks further west. In doing so, they drive past one of the finest and most underrated parks in Tanzania — Arusha National Park, sitting directly between Kilimanjaro and the town that bears its name, with Mount Meru rising to 4,566 metres above it.
Arusha National Park doesn’t have lions. It doesn’t have elephants in vast numbers. What it has is something rarer in East Africa than either of those things: genuine solitude. This is a park where you can do a full morning game drive and see only two or three other vehicles. Where you can walk — really walk, on foot, without a vehicle — through giraffe country with a ranger and feel the ground beneath you and the wind through the acacias and understand, in a way that no game drive quite captures, what it means to be a mammal in Africa.
| Arusha National Park is East Africa’s best-kept secret. We intend to keep it that way. |
| ARUSHA NATIONAL PARK — WILDLIFE & ACTIVITIES |
Arusha is one of the few parks in northern Tanzania where walking safaris are fully permitted and regularly run. There is nothing quite like covering ground on foot — tracking giraffe through the yellow fever trees, finding zebra grazing in a clearing, following the sound of colobus monkeys through the Ngurdoto Crater forest. We include walking in every Arusha itinerary.
The Momella Lakes — a series of shallow alkaline lakes in the park’s eastern section — can be explored by canoe, drifting past hippo and waterfowl at water level in a way that no game drive vehicle can replicate. It is a completely different texture of safari experience, and it stays with guests long after the big game moments of the Serengeti.
For guests who have climbed Kilimanjaro with Resilience Expeditions, or who are acclimatising before an attempt, Mount Meru offers a four-day climbing route through montane forest to an alpine summit at 4,566 metres. The views of Kilimanjaro from Meru’s summit on a clear morning are among the finest in East Africa.
| Giraffe | Arusha has one of the highest densities of Masai giraffe in Tanzania. Exceptional on foot. |
| Buffalo | Large herds move through the park. One of the Big Five present in numbers. |
| Colobus Monkey | The Ngurdoto Crater forest holds healthy troops. A highlight for primate enthusiasts. |
| Flamingo | The Momella Lakes attract flamingos and over 400 other bird species. |
| RESILIENCE INSIDER TIP
Arusha National Park is where we start many of our Northern Circuit itineraries — giving guests a gentle first day of game walking and canoeing before the larger parks ahead. It also serves as the perfect final day before flying home, when the big game intensity of the Serengeti needs a quiet, contemplative closing chapter. The park is different from every other stop on the circuit. That is exactly why we include it. |
