Arusha National park is located closely to the northern Tanzanian saffron capital Arusha. The fifth highest mountain of Africa, the mount Meru is the heart of the park and the center of attraction with a height of 4566m above sea level. Often, the park is likely to be overseen by tourists and travelers, although the park offers the possibility of exploring an attractive number of different of biotopes within a short amount of time and close to a main city.

After passing the entrance gate, you pass by a shadowy montane forest which gives shelter to curious blue monkeys and colourful turakos as well as trongos. This forest is the only place within the northern safari circuit, where you are able to easily observe these athletic black and white colobus monkeys. In the middle of this montane forest awaits you the spectacular Ngurdoto crater, where buffalo and warthog herds roam through marsh lands along the steep and rocky walls.

Further north, rolling grassy hills enclose the tranquil beauty of the Momela Lakes, each one a different hue of green or blue. Their shallows sometimes tinged pink with thousands of flamingos, the lakes support a rich selection of resident and migrant waterfowl, and shaggy waterbucks display their large lyre-shaped horns on the watery fringes. Giraffes glide across the grassy hills, between grazing zebra herds, while pairs of wide-eyed dik-dik dart into scrubby bush like overgrown hares on spindly legs.

Although elephants are uncommon in Arusha National Park, and lions absent altogether, leopards and spotted hyenas may be seen slinking around in the early morning and late afternoon. It is also at dusk and dawn that the veil of cloud on the eastern horizon is most likely to clear, revealing the majestic snow-capped peaks of Kilimanjaro, only 50km (30 miles) distant.