Whereas the Serengeti is a vast, relatively flat grassland, Tanzania’s Lake Manyara National Park is a narrow strip of woodland sandwiched between a towering escarpment and a soda lake. It’s famous for its tree-climbing lions but is also rich with herbivores and hundreds of bird species.

The two environments make for a fascinating contrast, yet I usually skip the lake in favor of the relatively nearby Ngorongoro Crater. During the pandemic, I had the crater almost entirely to myself, but now that it’s struggling with overtourism, I decided it was high time for a spell by the water. I asked the Andrew Harper Travel Office to book us a stay at the one permanent safari lodge within Lake Manyara National Park.

&Beyond Lake Manyara Tree Lodge

We drove from the airstrip into the northern end of the park, turning our transfer to the lodge into a game drive. Because only one main road — sometimes little more than a track — traverses the park, all safari vehicles drive along it. A scenic picnic spot, where we enjoyed a delicious spread of pasta, vegetables and stir-fried beef, became thronged with visitors by the time we departed. Even so, we had fine game viewing, spotting baboons, waterbuck, impalas, zebras, Cape buffalo, elephants, Maasai giraffes and lions.

Traffic thinned by the time we reached the nine-room lodge, where we ascended to the inviting lounge area on the covered upper deck for check-in. Our stand-alone Treehouse Suite perched on stilts amid mature mahogany forest. Up a flight of stairs, it made a favorable first impression, with a vaulted ceiling of dried banana leaves, a comfy living area, a furnished deck and a spacious bath with an outdoor shower. In the indoor tub, our housekeeper had drawn a warm bubble bath — just the thing after our dusty drive.

We had a walk around looking at the lodge’s lounger-filled pool patio and the open-air massage pavilion, and then we returned to the main building for sundowners. The anticipatory bartender immediately proffered frozen vodka tonics. Not my usual tipple, but they were undeniably refreshing to sip as we watched a Maasai man light oil lamps in the boma enclosure, a romantic spot for dinner.

The uneven food — tasty rare tuna steak, tough slow-cooked pork — heralded larger problems. Or rather smaller: When we got back to our suite, I took off my shoes and promptly stepped on a cockroach. It was one of five I killed; several others escaped. Though I’ve stayed in countless ecolodges in jungles around the world, never have so many bugs invaded my room. Then the water stopped running.

We had memorable game drives here, and other guests we spoke with enjoyed &Beyond Lake Manyara. We all agreed that the staff could not have been lovelier. But I’ve never been so thrilled to check out of a safari lodge.