Tree climbing lions in Lake ManyaraIn the past, I would include Lake Manyara National Park in most of my Tanzania safari itineraries. Manyara is famous for its tree-climbing lions. Why is this unique? While a leopard sleeping lazily in the treetops is a common sight on safari in Tanzania, this strange behavior exhibited by lions has been the subject of interest and wonder. Lions climbing trees is not normal. Historically, the only places in the world to see tree-climbing lions is Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda and Lake Manyara in Tanzania. This behavior has now spread to the lions in Tarangire National Park.
This is important to note because Lake Manyara is an incredibly small park that has been made smaller by recent flooding. The park consists of one strip of land that lays between the lake and the greater rift escarpment. As the lake floods, the land in the park gets swallowed up. Many guides in Tanzania are opting to spend more time in Tarangire, where tree-climbing lions are present birds are abundant. They are then skipping Manyara altogether and going directly to Ngorongoro. Those that are including Manyara spend only an hour or two driving through the park as that's all the time it takes to see the land that is left visible. I'm sure that lake levels will rise and fall with the years, but for now, Manyara is a "miss" for me. If the flamingos are at Manyara, it would be worth a quick stopover, but they were at Lake Natron during my trip.
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
5 days ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.
Mary Warren
6 days ago
Jess was very easy going and answered all our questions. It’s not easy dealing with 6 people at once but she did an outstanding job!
Diane Foster
1 week ago
Kassandra and the Adventure Life team have been incredible! Kassandra was very knowledgeable and attentive to our asks while making sure we kept within our budget. This was our first experience with a travel agent and we were blown away by the booking/initial exploration service. We will use Adventure Life again.