Serengeti National Park

Size 14,750 km²

Best time February for calving · June to July for the western corridor · July to October for the river crossings

Getting there 8 hrs by road from Arusha, or 1 hr by air to Seronera

Location Northern circuit

The Serengeti is not one landscape but four, and which one you want depends entirely on the month you can travel. The southern short-grass plains around Ndutu are where the wildebeest calve in February — half a million births in about three weeks, and every predator in the ecosystem waiting for them. By June the herds have moved through the western corridor towards the Grumeti. From July to October they are in the north, crossing and re-crossing the Mara River in the sight of crocodiles that have waited all year.

The central Seronera valley is the exception: it holds resident game every month of the year, which is why almost every itinerary spends nights there regardless of season. If you have four nights in the Serengeti, we will usually put two in the centre and two wherever the herds are.

Getting in is either a long day on the road through the Ngorongoro highlands — which is a good day, with the crater and Olduvai on the way — or a one-hour flight to an airstrip. We will tell you which makes sense for your itinerary rather than which is easier for us to book.

Where it is

How to get there

By road — about 8 hours from Arusha through the Ngorongoro highlands, with the crater and Olduvai Gorge on the way. A long day, and a good one.
By air — roughly an hour from Arusha to Seronera, Kogatende or Ndutu. Right when your days are short or the herds are in the far north.

Best time to visit February for calving · June to July for the western corridor · July to October for the river crossings

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What to see

Attractions

01

The Seronera valley

The centre of the park and the most reliable big-cat country in Tanzania. Permanent water means lion, leopard and cheetah are resident rather than seasonal, and the kopjes give them the high ground they like to lie on.

02

The Mara River crossings

In the far north from July to October, the herds pile up on the banks and then commit, all at once, into water that holds some very large crocodiles. Nothing else in African wildlife looks like it.

03

The southern short-grass plains

Around Ndutu, on volcanic soil too shallow for trees. In February this is the calving ground: roughly half a million wildebeest born inside three weeks, with every predator in the ecosystem in attendance.

04

The Moru kopjes

Granite islands in the grass, with Maasai rock paintings, a gong rock that rings when struck, and the small black rhino population the park protects most closely.

What to do

Activities

Game drives

Out at first light and again for the last two hours. A private vehicle means you stay with a sighting instead of leaving on someone else's schedule.

Balloon safari

An hour over the plains at dawn from Seronera, the western corridor or Kogatende, then breakfast under a tree. Book it early in high season.

Photography

A vehicle with a row of seats left out, beanbags and charging, and a guide who will hold a position for the light rather than the schedule.

Bush breakfast

Coffee at the vehicle before six and a cooked breakfast laid out on the plains when the light goes hard. Better than driving back to camp.

Itineraries

Trips that include Serengeti National Park

7 days

Classic Northern Circuit

Arusha · Tarangire · Ngorongoro · Serengeti · Arusha

The trip most first-time visitors should take. Three nights in the Serengeti, one on the crater rim, and enough time in each park to stop rushing.

8 days

Migration in the north

Arusha · Central Serengeti · Kogatende · Ngorongoro

Built around the Mara River between July and October, flying in to save two days on the road.

6 days

Calving season

Arusha · Ndutu · Ngorongoro · Tarangire

February on the southern plains, when the predators do not have to work very hard and the park is quieter than in August.

Shapes rather than fixed packages — every one of these is adjusted to your dates, your pace and the month you can travel before it is priced.

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