Arusha National Park is the closest park to Arusha town – North Tanzania’s safari capital. The park is a jewel that is often overlooked by tourists, despite the opportunity it offers to explore diverse habitats in within a short period of time.

From the entrance gate, visitors are taken into a montane forest where blue monkeys, turacos and trogons reside; the black and white colobus monkeys also reside in these forests. In the middle of the montane forest is the Ngurdoto Crater, which encloses an extensive marshy ground within its cliffs. Buffalos and warthogs can be found in the marshy crater floor.

To the north of the park are rolling grassy hills surrounding the Momella lakes; each of these lakes has a different hue due to varying mineral concentrations; the lakes support a variety of resident and migratory water birds. Giraffes, zebras, and dik-dik graze in the grassy bushes around the lakes. Elephants are not very common in this park and lions are altogether absent; however, leopards and spotted hyenas can be seen in the early mornings and late afternoons.