Thirty thousand square kilometres of grassland carrying the largest land mammal migration on earth, plus the highest lion density anywhere.
What it is
About 30,000 square kilometres of grassland, acacia woodland and granite outcrops in northern Tanzania, continuous with Kenya’s Maasai Mara across an invisible border. The name comes from the Maasai siringet — the place where the land runs on forever, which is accurate.
It carries roughly two million wildebeest, several hundred thousand zebra and gazelle, around 3,000 lions, and the densest concentration of large predators on earth.
The migration, month by month
There is always a migration. It is a continuous clockwise loop, not an event, and the question is only where the herds are.
January–February: calving on the short-grass plains in the south, near Ndutu. Around half a million calves in about three weeks, and the highest predator activity of the year. Excellent, and cheaper than the July peak.
March–May: the herds move north-west through the corridor. The long rains; many camps close; prices drop sharply.
June: the Grumeti River crossings in the western corridor.
July–September: the Mara River crossings in the north, and the footage everyone has seen. This is peak season and peak price.
October–December: the herds return south with the short rains.
No operator can promise a crossing on a given day. Herds gather at a bank for hours and then decline to cross. Anyone guaranteeing it is selling something they cannot deliver.
What a safari costs, plainly
Three components, in order of size:
Park fees, set by the government, per person per day, and substantial. They are non-negotiable and they set the floor under any price you are quoted. The Ngorongoro Crater carries an additional fee.
Vehicle and guide, a day rate divided among whoever is in it. This is the lever you control: a shared vehicle with six people costs each of them a sixth of what two people pay for a private one. Budget group safaris out of Arusha are a genuine product and they work.
Accommodation, from a public campsite to $2,000 a night. It is the most marketed component and the one that least affects what you actually see.
Flying between airstrips instead of driving saves a day each way from Arusha and costs roughly what a day of vehicle hire does.
The circuit around it
Most Serengeti trips are part of Tanzania’s northern circuit:
Ngorongoro Crater — a collapsed caldera 20km across with around 25,000 large animals permanently inside it, including some of the last black rhino in the region. Extraordinary, and busy, because the crater floor is small.
Tarangire — enormous baobabs and the largest elephant concentrations in northern Tanzania, best in the dry season.
Lake Manyara — tree-climbing lions, flamingos, and a short stop.
Olduvai Gorge, between the crater and the plains, is where the Leakeys found hominin remains that reset the timeline of human evolution.
Practical
Yellow fever certificate may be required depending on your route. Malaria prophylaxis is necessary.
What to bring: binoculars, which matter more than any camera; neutral colours; a warm layer, because dawn game drives on the plains are cold; and dust protection for equipment.
Vehicle etiquette: stay in the vehicle unless your guide says otherwise, do not stand up through the roof when close to predators, and do not ask the driver to go off-road — it is prohibited in the Serengeti and it damages the grassland.
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