Loading
04/TZ
The migration, the crater, and then the ocean.
Serengeti to Ngorongoro to Zanzibar, which is the only sequence that makes sense.
About Tanzania
Tanzania is the one country here that can carry a three week trip without repeating itself. The Serengeti holds the migration for most of the year, moving from the Ndutu calving grounds in February to the Mara River crossings around August.
Ngorongoro puts roughly twenty five thousand animals inside a collapsed caldera you descend into at dawn. Then you fly east and finish barefoot on Zanzibar, which is why almost every itinerary we write here ends at the coast.
- Gateway
- Kilimanjaro (JRO)
- Calving season
- Feb, Ndutu
- River crossings
- Jul to Sep
- Crater floor
- 260 sq km
Where you go in Tanzania
Serengeti
Thirty thousand square kilometres of plain, with the migration somewhere inside it every month of the year.
Ngorongoro Crater
A collapsed caldera holding dense resident game, including the best black rhino odds in the region.
Zanzibar
Stone Town, spice farms and the reef. The right way to end a safari rather than a separate holiday.
Tarangire
Baobab country with the densest dry season elephant population in northern Tanzania.
How we plan Tanzania
Chase the herd, not the map
The migration is a moving target. We place camps against where the herds are forecast for your dates, which sometimes means a mobile camp rather than a lodge.
Crater at dawn
First vehicles down the descent road get the floor to themselves for an hour. That means a 5:30 start, and it is worth every minute of it.
Finish at the reef
A short hop from Arusha to Zanzibar turns a hard-driving safari into a trip people actually come home rested from.
When to go
Best
Jun to Oct
Dry season and the Mara River crossings. The headline window.
Strong
Jan to Mar
Calving in the southern Serengeti and predators working the herds.
Green
Apr to May
Long rains. Some mobile camps move or close, rates fall hard.
Mixed
Nov to Dec
Short rains and the herds moving south through the Seronera.
Great Migration, Ngorongoro Crater and Zanzibar.
Photographs from Tanzania
Before you plan Tanzania
Next destination
Rwanda
Mountain gorilla trekking in the Virungas
Ready to plan Tanzania?
Tell us when you want to travel and who is coming.