Safari in Tanzania | Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tarangire

Pride of lionesses and cubs resting on the Serengeti plain

Destination

Scale is the word that describes Tanzania best: plains that never end, an entire crater turned into a reserve, and the migration crossing all of it.

Design my safari

Tanzania gives over an enormous share of its territory to national parks and conservation areas. That decision explains why wildlife here moves with genuine freedom, across ecosystems that remain connected to each other instead of being cut into islands.

The northern circuit — Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire and Manyara — puts four very different landscapes within a few hours of each other: open plain, volcanic caldera, baobab woodland and riverine forest beside a Rift Valley lake.

It is the destination for travellers after the classic image of Africa taken to its limit, and for anyone who wants to pair the safari with the coast: Zanzibar is a short flight from the end of the route.

If you are deciding on the month, read when to travel and where the migration is each month.

The name comes from the Maa word siringet, 'the endless plain', and the description is literal. The scale of the park changes the rhythm of the trip: here the days are organised around where the wildlife is, not around a fixed circuit.

Sunset over the Serengeti plain, with an acacia silhouetted against the sun

The northern circuit holds the essentials; the south and the west are for those who come back.

Serengeti National Park

The plain that gives the great migration its meaning. Abundant wildlife all year and an expanse large enough to leave every other vehicle behind.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

An intact volcanic caldera that works as an enclosed nature reserve. A high density of wildlife in a contained space, black rhino included.

Tarangire National Park

Large elephant herds among centuries-old baobabs, above all in the dry season, when the wildlife gathers along the Tarangire river.

Lake Manyara National Park

Riverine forest and an alkaline lake at the foot of the Rift escarpment. Primates, water birds and the well-known tree-climbing lions.

Ndutu and the southern plains

The calving grounds of the migration between January and March. Thousands of calves are born in a few weeks, and with them comes the busiest predator season of the year.

Zanzibar

Not a safari, but it closes the trip. White sand beaches and Stone Town, a short flight from Arusha or the Serengeti.

The migration moves all year: your dates decide where along the circuit you meet it.

January to March

Calving season in Ndutu and the southern Serengeti. Vast numbers of newborns and constant predator activity.

June to October

A pronounced dry season and the best general wildlife viewing. The Grumeti river crossings usually fall between June and July, with the push north coming later.

April, May and November

The rains. Green landscape, far fewer vehicles and better conditions for photography, with harder roads as the trade-off.

The northern circuit holds the greatest concentration of large mammals on the continent.

The great migration

The annual movement of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle across the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. In Tanzania you can follow it through most of the cycle.

Predators in high density

Lion, leopard, cheetah and hyena. The Serengeti supports one of the most significant lion populations in Africa.

Black rhino

The Ngorongoro Crater is one of the likeliest places to see one, thanks to the protected population inside the caldera.

The elephants of Tarangire

Large herds gathering by the river in the dry season, in a baobab landscape that looks like nowhere else on the circuit.

Wildlife and landscapes typical of this destination.

What travellers ask most before choosing this destination.

When is the best time for a safari in Tanzania?

From June to October, at the height of the dry season, wildlife gathers around water and sightings are far more consistent. Between January and March the southern Serengeti sees the wildebeest calving season, the busiest time of year for predators.

What is the difference between the Serengeti and the Masai Mara?

They are one ecosystem split by a border: the Serengeti is the Tanzanian half and the Masai Mara the Kenyan one. The Serengeti is far larger and allows several days of driving without covering the same ground twice; the Mara is more compact and concentrates encounters in a smaller area.

Is the Ngorongoro Crater worth including?

The Ngorongoro Crater is a volcanic caldera with a floor of some 260 square kilometres, where the wildlife lives all year round without migrating. It is one of the few places on the continent where the full Big Five can be seen in a single day, which is why it usually makes the itinerary.