Tanzania · East Africa
Ngorongoro and the crater highlands.
The Ngorongoro Crater is a collapsed caldera holding a resident population of game year-round, including some of the last black rhino in the north.
Photo Justin Lane / Unsplash
It is a half-day rather than a stay: vehicles descend into the crater floor for a game drive and come back up to lodges on the rim. Its density is extraordinary and its popularity shows, so timing the descent matters.
The wider conservation area includes Olduvai Gorge, one of the most significant palaeoanthropological sites in the world, and the Empakaai and Olmoti craters for walking.
How do you get to the Ngorongoro Crater?
By road from Arusha, around three to four hours, usually with a stop at Tarangire or Lake Manyara on the way. The nearest airstrip is at Lake Manyara, a drive of an hour or so from the rim, and the crater lies on the road between Arusha and the Serengeti.
How big is the Ngorongoro Crater?
The caldera is about 20 kilometres across and some 600 metres deep, formed when a large volcano collapsed on itself two to three million years ago. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area around it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Can you see the Big Five in the Ngorongoro Crater?
Yes, and black rhino is the one people come for, since the crater is among the best places in Tanzania to see it. There are no giraffes on the crater floor, because the walls are too steep for them to climb down, and no impala either. Time on the floor is limited for each vehicle, so descents start early.
What is Olduvai Gorge?
A ravine in the conservation area where Louis and Mary Leakey found some of the most important early human fossils, including the skull of Paranthropus boisei in 1959. A small museum at the gorge explains the finds, and it is a stop on the road between the crater and the Serengeti.
How long should you spend at Ngorongoro?
One or two nights on or near the rim, with a day in the crater. A second night allows a walk on the crater highlands, around Empakaai or Olmoti, with an armed ranger.
What is there to see in Ngorongoro and the crater highlands?
What does Ngorongoro and the crater highlands pair well with?
- The SerengetiThe Serengeti is the ecosystem the wildebeest migration moves through, and it is large enough that where you stay decides what you see.
- Tarangire and Lake ManyaraTarangire is baobab and elephant country and the northern circuit's most underrated park; Lake Manyara is a short, scenic stop beneath the Rift escarpment.
- Zanzibar and the coastZanzibar is the standard finish to a Tanzanian safari — a Swahili archipelago with a World Heritage capital and a long history of its own.
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Elsewhere in Tanzania
- The southern and western circuitsNyerere, Ruaha, Katavi and Mahale are Tanzania's wild end — far larger, far emptier, and considerably harder to reach.
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