Explore Tanzania by province
Accommodation in Tanzania
20+ results in Tanzania
20+ results in Tanzania
Tanzania holds the largest wildlife spectacle left on earth and one of the oldest trading coasts in the Indian Ocean, and most trips take both. The northern circuit runs from Arusha through Tarangire and the Ngorongoro Crater into the Serengeti, where close to two million wildebeest and zebra move in a continuous loop across the plains and into the Masai Mara and back. The southern and western parks, Ruaha and Nyerere, are far emptier and better for anyone who has done a first safari already. Then there is Zanzibar and the Swahili coast, which is where almost everyone finishes.
The migration is not a single event, it is a year. Calving is on the short-grass plains of the southern Serengeti and Ndutu from about January to March, when hundreds of thousands of calves drop inside a few weeks and the predators gather. The Grumeti and Mara river crossings, the images everyone knows, happen in the north from roughly July to October. Between those, the herds are simply somewhere on the way.
June to October is the dry season and the peak. The long rains fall from March to May, when many camps close and prices drop hardest. The coast is warm all year and best from June to October and again in January and February.
June to October is the dry season and the peak, and it covers the river crossings in the northern Serengeti. January to March puts you on the southern plains for the calving. The long rains from March to May are the quietest and cheapest, with some camps closed.
It is a continuous loop, not a date. Roughly: the southern Serengeti and Ndutu for calving from January to March, the western corridor and the Grumeti around May and June, the northern Serengeti and the Mara river crossings from July to October, then back south with the short rains in November and December. Timing shifts each year with the rain, and no camp can promise a crossing.
Most people do, and the logistics are easy: short flights connect the northern circuit and the coast. Three or four nights on the coast after a safari is the usual shape. Zanzibar is warm all year, with the long rains from March to May the one period to avoid.
The northern circuit for a first safari: the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire deliver density and variety, at the cost of other vehicles. Ruaha and Nyerere in the south are far quieter, better for walking and boat safaris, and better suited to a second or third trip.
