Finally, a premium Tanzania’s resort which offers the great outdoors without venturing far from your room
The East African Rift Valley is one of the world’s most famous geological features
But imagine staying on a tourist property which meanders alongside the perimeter edge of the rift valley escarpment overlooking a flamingo-dotted Lake beneath the gorge.
Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge is the only hotel which sits firmly at the edge of the Rift Valley, providing guests with a vantage view of the vast landscape below which is split between a lake and wildlife filled National Park.
It features a total of 67 rooms built into well-designed 17 huts each with two vertical floors.
The Lodge of the ring
The experience at Manyara starts right at the entrance.
Getting into the main lounge, the salon has been designed right from a fairy tale.
It makes you feel like you are venturing into a ‘hobbit’ home in case you have watched the ‘Lord of the Ring!’
But again, it is supposed to be a lodge on the ring of the Rift Valley.
The eagle has landed
Gazing over the property from the sky, the huts’ roofings look like a flock of migratory giant birds that have just landed.
In fact, according to the management, even the designers call it ‘Birds Migration Shape!’
But it is not far-fetched either, because Manyara, the lake which inspired the Lodge’s identity, happens to be home to migratory birds, precisely the pink coated lesser flamingos.
Lake Manyara is the first station where the pink flamingos from Lake Manyara land after breeding season at Lake Natron.
Manyara, a shallow, alkaline water body, is the seventh largest lake in Tanzania with a surface measuring 470 square kilometers, encompassed within the Natron-Manyara-Balangida branch of the East African Rift Valley.
What to do at Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge
You know both the history and the story behind the luxury property.
But what can one do at Lake Manyara?
Signature experiences meeting adventure activities
Nature walks with the birds
To start with there is the nature walk, trekking from the lodge into the surrounding environs, along the rift valley escarpment where guests walk through fish ponds to gaze at live tilapia and into the surrounding forest cover escorted by over 100 species of birds and rare butterflies.
Forest hiking along the valley
There is a sweeping view of the natural landscape complemented with the gleaming Lake Manyara dotted by pink flamingoes.
The forest hiking leads you into the Kirurumu gorge, which is a hidden world of untouched wilderness featuring fig trees among other indigenous plantations.
Bike Riding under the natural hood
But during the safaris in the wild it is not all about walking guests can either march or ride.
Mountain biking adventures, allow guests to peddle their way into the wood gaining experience, enjoying the scenery and building muscles in the process.
Bicycle riding is a heathy undertaking that can take you to the nearest towns of Mto-wa-Mbu and Kigongoni.
Cultural Tourism
Below Lake Manyara Lodge, there is the historical Mto-wa-Mbu hamlet, a small gateway township regarded as a melting port for over 100 Tanzanian communities.
Mto-wa-Mbu offers trekking into the surrounding villages where guests can sample local banana farms and paddies of rice on the shores of Lake Manyara.
Guests can enjoy plantains, ripe bananas, vegetable farms, fresh fruits and other produce taken direct from the farm.
The lake and the boat rides
Lake Manyara is home to a variety of water species, some of which need to be watched at close proximity.
This is where canoeing comes in. taking a guided lake journey in traditional dug-out canoes paddling through flamingoes, marabou storks and other water birds as well as the hippos.
From the hotel to Sky walking
Lake Manyara is the only National Park in Tanzania which offers high rise swiveling gangplank providing the popular canopy walking experience where guests can skywalk as they watch the wild animals below their feet.
Zipline across baobab trees
Feel more courageous, then you can zip your way across the flora and fauna of Manyara, which is one of the most thrilling activities one can ever experience in Tanzania.
The adventure starts at Mto-wa-Mbu a few kilometers away from Serena Lodge.
People get to Zip between majestic baobab trees while taking in the stunning scenery of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara and Mto wa Mbu.
Night game driving
Adventure does not have to stop when the sun settles behind the horizon, because for the Lake Manyara Serene, this is when a new chapter unfolds.
This is the time when you can be taken to the Lake Manyara National Park in a safari vehicle to witness nocturnal wildlife activities that some alive under the African stars.
Some animals, like the lions, love to hunt in the dusk.
Others such as hippos, prefer to graze at night.
Birds and Boons
Bird watching can be enjoyed right from your room, through the windows, without even getting out of the bed.
For those who don’t want to venture further from the lodge, the surroundings feature enough attractions in form of more than 100 birds’ species flying around the property posing for those postcard-like snaps.
Bushbabies, Baboons and Monkeys are regular guests at the lodge for those who don’t mind the primates’ mischiefs.
The legend of the enchanted Manyara Spear
The name is derived from Maasai word ‘Emanyara,’ which is the spiky trees dotting the landscape that the pastoralists normally use to make protective enclosure around a family homestead.
Another theory is that the Mbugwe tribe, that live within the Lake Manyara area, have the word ‘Manyero,’ meaning a water trough, or place where animals go to drink.
But on the other hand, the Iraqw tribe of Mbulu, calls Lake Manyara ‘Tlawta Moya!’
This is because the legend has it that ‘Moya’ used to be the servant of an ancient chief Haymu Tipe.
Chief Tipe had led his tribe all the way from the ancient Mesopotamia into the area, via Ethiopia, Kenya and eventually into the Ngorongoro Crater.
War with other communities forced them into the vast plain savannah landscape with a lake in between.
But that lake had occupied most of the land such that there was little left for farming.
Chief Haymu instructed his servant, ‘Moya,’ who had magical powers to move the lake and create dry land for his people.
Moya, as the story goes, tied a rope around his spear, then threw it onto the middle of the shallow rift valley lake.
He then started dragging the spear along as he walked away and the lake followed until it reached the current position.
Lake Manyara forms an important part of the adjacent National Park, which has been famous for tree-climbing lions, hot water springs and aerial canopy walkway.
It however provides an important activity; Canoeing on Lake Manyara, is a favorite adventure among guests who enjoy paddling in the midst of flamingos, hippos, marabou storks.
Lake Manyara is also a UNESCO man and biosphere reserve.
The Lake, the National Park and the wilderness below can be enjoyed from the comfort of any of the 67 rooms at the Serena Safari Lodge.
the corresponding Lake Manyara National Park, established in 1960 is the second oldest conservancy after the Serengeti.
The huts are two-floor structures housing four private rooms each with a view of the massive valley below the edge and the Lake which forms a larger part of its landscape.
Swimming when you are winning
Sometimes a luxury lodge is all about art.
And this also applies to Lake Manyara Serena’s swimming pool.
Its curvature stretches to the edge of the landscape making the pool’s blue waters look like they have been directly connected to the equally blue sky,
Venture further and it will seem like the water flows down into the lake which is seen beneath the rift, except it is just a clever design which by itself, is worth the trip to the facility.
Saved by the dinner bell
Worried about how safe the food in hotels is?
At Lake Manyara guests eat healthy organic food.
The hotel grows its own kitchen raw materials from the adjacent garden from which fresh vegetables and spices that find their way to the table are produced.
Guests essentially eat straight from the farm
In case you feel like cleansing the body with real food, then the lodge on the rift valley edge beckons.
An oval shaped dinging restaurant could also be just what the doctor had ordered.
Apart from dining indoors the lodge is also ready to arrange Bush breakfasts, bush lunches and evening Cocktail parties.
Mto wa Mbu, the nearest hamlet offers cultural tourism, indigenous cuisine and a walk into banana plantation to experience traditional lifestyle.
Adventure doesn’t have to stop when the sun settles behind the horizon.
Night game drives from the hotel into the park to witness the nocturnal wildlife that come alive under the African stars.
How to get there
There is an airfield just two kilometers away from the Serena Manyara Safari Lodge entrance.
Serena Lodge is also two kilometers from the main road which leads to Ngorongoro Conservation Area and gateway to Serengeti.
Lake Manyara is located about 125 kilometers from Arusha City Center and 60 Kilometers to Ngorongoro Crater along nicely paved roads.