Tanzania · East Africa
The Serengeti.
The Serengeti is the ecosystem the wildebeest migration moves through, and it is large enough that where you stay decides what you see.
Photo MARIOLA GROBELSKA / Unsplash
The herds are in the southern plains around Ndutu for the calving season, move west and north through the middle of the year, and cross the Mara River in the north later in the year before turning south again. A camp in the wrong sector at the wrong month is a long way from the animals.
That is why mobile camps that move with the herds exist, and why the month of travel shapes the Serengeti itinerary more than any other decision.
What is here
Elsewhere in Tanzania
- Ngorongoro and the crater highlandsThe Ngorongoro Crater is a collapsed caldera holding a resident population of game year-round, including some of the last black rhino in the north.
- 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.
- The southern and western circuitsNyerere, Ruaha, Katavi and Mahale are Tanzania's wild end — far larger, far emptier, and considerably harder to reach.
- 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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