The two rainy seasons
Tanzania sits just below the equator and has no winter and summer, it has wet and dry. The long rains fall from late March to May, and the short rains in November and part of December.
The dry season, June to October, is the best for seeing animals for one simple reason: there is no scattered water, so everything concentrates on the rivers and waterholes that are left. The grass is low too, and you see far more.
The long rains of April and May are the only period genuinely worth avoiding. It rains hard, some tracks become impassable and a fair number of camps close. In exchange, it is when everything is cheapest and emptiest.
Month by month
| Months | What happens | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| January – March | Wildebeest calving in the southern Serengeti. Plenty of hunting. | Anyone after predators and newborns |
| April – May | Long rains. Green, empty and cheap. Some camps close. | Tight budgets and a tolerance for mud |
| June – July | The dry begins. The migration moves up the western corridor. | A good balance of price and game viewing |
| July – October | Mara river crossings in the north. Best viewing of the year. | Anyone coming for the migration. High season |
| November | Short rains. The herd comes back south. | A good shoulder month, fewer people |
| December | Green, migration already south. Christmas in heavy demand. | Anyone travelling in the school holidays |
If you are coming for the migration
The great migration is not an event with a date: it is a million and a half animals making a continuous circuit of the ecosystem. It is never "over", it is only somewhere else.
- February: calving at Ndutu, half a million young in three weeks. The largest concentration of predators of the year.
- June and July: Grumeti river crossings, in the western corridor.
- July to October: Mara river crossings in the north, the ones from the documentaries.
- December and January: the herd comes back down towards the southern plains.
The herds move clockwise: from December to March they are on the southern plains and at Ndutu, in April, May and June they move up through the centre and the western corridor, between July and October they cross the Mara River, and in November they come back down the eastern side, past Lobo.
- The herds, in the chosen month
- Their route over the year
- Border
January Calving
Southern plains and Ndutu
The herds graze the short grass of the south, between the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro area. Calving begins at the end of the month.
- January · Southern plains and Ndutu. The herds graze the short grass of the south, between the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro area. Calving begins at the end of the month.
- February · Ndutu. Calving month: close to half a million calves in three weeks, with lions, cheetahs and hyenas close behind. The best time of year to see a hunt.
- March · Southern plains. The calves now run with the herds. When the grass runs out and the long rains arrive, they start moving north-west.
- April · Central Serengeti. The long rains. The herds move up past Seronera and the Moru kopjes; the park is green and almost empty of vehicles.
- May · Centre to the western corridor. Columns of wildebeest miles long heading west. It is the rut: the bulls fight and you hear the herds long before you see them.
- June · Western corridor · Grumeti River. The first crossings, over the Grumeti River and past its crocodiles. Then the herds begin to head north.
- July · From the western corridor to the north. The herds leave the western corridor and move north. The Mara River crossings can begin at the end of the month, depending on the rain.
- August · Mara River · Kogatende and Lamai. Peak season for the Mara River crossings, on the border with Kenya. You watch them from the Tanzanian side, at Kogatende and Lamai.
- September · Mara River and the Maasai Mara. The crossings go on: the herds go back and forth across the river after the grass, on both sides of the border.
- October · Northern Serengeti. The last Mara crossings. With the first rains, the herds start back towards the south.
- November · Eastern Serengeti · Lobo. The short rains. The herds come down the eastern side, past Lobo, towards the new grass in the south.
- December · Central and southern Serengeti. The herds reach the southern plains. Everything is green and it is quiet, except over Christmas.
If what you want is fewer people
July and August is when the Serengeti has the most vehicles, and it shows: a leopard can end up ringed by fifteen cars. If your priority is the feeling of being alone out there rather than the sheer number of animals, March, or November, will give you a very different trip.
The Ngorongoro crater is the exception to nearly all of this: because the animals do not migrate, it works just as well in any month of the year.
Official sources
- TANAPA — Tanzania National Parks — The official body that runs the Serengeti, Tarangire and Manyara.
