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.
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.
