The Lake Manyara Tree Lodge is the only lodge to lie within the boundaries of the Lake Manyara National Park. Lying in the heart of the park, the Lake Manyara Tree Lodge offers stunning views of the towering escarpment of the Great Rift Valley, while its exclusive position allows for extensive safari game drives in the southern section of the park, which is dominated by its soda lake, often home to thousands of greater flamingos and lesser flamingos. Designed to resemble a tree house, the Lake Manyara Tree Lodge offers just ten individually-designed rooms and a central dining and bar area.

Location

The Lake Manyara Tree Lodge is located within the Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania. The park lies 3 km from the small town of Mto wa Mbu, Northern Tanzania (130 kilometres west of Arusha via the Arusha-Serengeti road: approximate journey time 1.5 hours). The national park has an airstrip.

Accommodation
 
Lake Manyara Tree Lodge offers ten charming tree houses, which are elevated on wooden stilts and cradled in the boughs of huge mahogany trees. Wide-spaced and exceptionally private, each tree house is built of timber and thatched with traditional Makuti palm thatch. The interiors are elegant, yet understated and feature spacious seating areas, luxurious bedrooms with ensuite facilities (bath, twin basins, private WC and outside shower) and panoramic verandas. All the rooms at the Lake Manyara Tree Lodge offer overhead fans, mosquito nets, safes, telephones, hairdryers, and laundry services.

The Lake Manyara Tree Lodge is closed in April.

The Lake Manyara Tree Lodge offers in-room massage services and a shop featuring Tanzania handicrafts made by the local community.

Dining and bars

The central dining area at the Lake Manyara Tree Lodge features an interactive kitchen with views out over the forest. The lodge also offers a traditional forest ‘boma’ encampment, which is surrounded by dug-out canoes. In the evenings this is charmingly lit by candlelight. The central bar and lounge areas of the lodge feature a traditional yet modern safari look, with plenty of individualized seating areas and views out over the forest.

Conference and event facilities

Lake Manyara Tree Lodge does not offer specific conference facilities but small events and weddings can be accommodated.

Child-friendly
Lake Manyara Tree Lodge welcomes children. Regretfully, children 5 years and younger cannot participate in the regular game-drives. Child-minders can be booked at an additional cost. Children aged 6 to 11 years are accommodated on game-drives at the lodge manager’s discretion. An extra bed can be arranged for a child 16 and younger sharing its parents ’tree house’. No more than one triple in the camp at any one time.

What to see and do

Typical Tanzania safari experiences: Safari game drives in especially adapted 4WD safari vehicles (with professionally trained Tanzania safari guides), adventure bush breakfasts, lunches and dinners; cocktails around the lodge safari campfire and guided safari walks through the bush and around the flamingo-fringed lake. E Unoto Retreat also offers ornithological tours, cultural performances and visits to the local Maasai people of Tanzania.

Specific to Lake Manyara adventure safaris activities: Boating trips around Lake Manyara and its ecosystem, Flamingo-viewing; visits to the villages of the Mbu Cultural Tourism Programme offering village walks, bicycle tours and boating trips.
Mountain biking around the national park and adjacent landscapes; day game driving trips to nearby Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Park; visits to the Conservation Area and the Ol Duvai Gorge paleolithic site.