Tanzania
Serengeti (Seronera)
The largest surviving concentration of big mammals on earth, moving across an ocean of grass that runs flat to the horizon in every direction.
The Serengeti is the great grass plain of northern Tanzania and the stage for the Great Migration, close to two million wildebeest and zebra turning in a slow annual circuit between the short-grass plains in the south and the Mara River in the north. Seronera, in the middle of the park, is the year-round base: a river valley of acacia and granite kopjes carrying one of the densest lion and leopard populations in Africa. The herds move with the grass, so the month you come decides which part of the park you should sleep in.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
Swahili, English
Currency
TZS
Timezone
UTC+3
Why you'll love Serengeti (Seronera)
The migration well over a million wildebeest and a few hundred thousand zebra circle the ecosystem all year, so something is always on the move somewhere in it.
Big cats the Seronera valley and the eastern plains hold lion prides on the kopjes, leopard in the sausage trees and cheetah hunting the open ground.
The scale grass to the horizon, broken only by granite kopjes and flat-topped acacia, under a sky that takes up most of the view.
First light balloons lift off the plain at dawn and drift low over the herds, and the best game viewing of the day is over before breakfast.
Best time to visit
May-Oct
25-30° days
2.447° S, 34.819° E
UTC+3 · Africa/Dar es Salaam
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Weather & when to go to Serengeti (Seronera)
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best May-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Serengeti (Seronera)
No bad season, but there is a wrong place for the month: the herds are down south around Ndutu from December to March, pushing west through the Grumeti in May and June, and up on the Mara River from July to October. April is the wettest month of the long rains, when black-cotton tracks turn to grease and some seasonal camps close. Crossings are never guaranteed.
Top things to do in Serengeti (Seronera)
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Seronera River valley - the year-round heart of the park
safari nature wildlife 👍 PopularThe central valley is the reason Seronera works in any month: permanent water, so resident lion prides, leopard draped in the sausage trees along the riverbank and elephant coming down to drink. Mornings and late afternoons are the productive hours, and it is the busiest patch of the Serengeti for vehicles at a good sighting.
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Mara River crossings - the northern Serengeti at Kogatende
safari nature wildlife 👍 PopularFrom roughly July to October the herds mass on the banks in the far north and eventually pour across the Mara in the face of the crocodiles. The waiting is long and the crossing can take minutes, and nobody can tell you which day it happens. The north is quieter and greener than the central park either way.
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Balloon safari over the plains - sunrise from the basket
scenic safari 👍 PopularA pre-dawn start, then an hour drifting a few hundred feet over grass, river bends and whatever is moving below, with the burner off and no engine noise at all. It ends with a champagne breakfast laid out on the plain. Flights go from Seronera and from the seasonal camps in the north and south.
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Ndutu and the southern short-grass plains - the calving season
safari nature wildlife ⭐ Highly recommendedFrom about January to March the herds spread across the mineral-rich short grass on the southern edge, where something like half a million calves are dropped in a few weeks. Predators concentrate to meet them, and the open ground makes cheetah and hyena hunts easier to watch here than anywhere else in the ecosystem.
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Moru Kopjes - Maasai rock art, the Gong Rock and black rhino
safari history culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedA cluster of granite outcrops south-west of Seronera with ochre Maasai shield paintings under an overhang and a ringing stone the Maasai used to send sound across the plain. The surrounding country holds the park's small protected population of black rhino, and lion use the rocks as lookouts.
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Grumeti River and the Western Corridor - the westward push
safari nature wildlife off beaten pathThe corridor runs towards Lake Victoria along a riverine forest belt, home to outsized crocodiles, hippo pods and colobus monkey. In May and June the migration funnels through and crosses the Grumeti, a smaller and much less watched version of the northern spectacle.
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Simba and Gol Kopjes - cats on the granite islands
safari scenicWeathered rock domes standing out of the eastern plains, warm at first light and used by lion and cheetah as shade, lookout and den. The Gol Kopjes area is a classic cheetah stretch of open grass, and the light on the rocks late in the day is what most people end up photographing.
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Retina Hippo Pool - a bend of the Seronera packed with hippo
safari nature wildlifeOne of the few places in the park where you get out of the vehicle: a viewing bank above a river bend holding scores of hippo stacked together in the shallows, with crocodile on the sand and the smell to match. Fifteen minutes, usually slotted into a morning drive.
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Walking safaris and night drives in the private concessions
safari adventureNeither is allowed inside the national park itself, so camps in the bordering concessions and game reserves run them instead: walking with an armed ranger for tracks, dung and small detail, and after-dark drives with a spotlight for genet, aardwolf and hunting lion.
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Serengeti Visitor Centre - the ecosystem explained at Seronera
nature wildlife historyA short interpretive trail through the kopjes behind the Seronera headquarters, with panels on the migration cycle, the volcanic ash that makes the southern grass so rich, and the park's history. Hyrax sun themselves on the rocks and there is shade for a packed lunch.
Best areas to stay in Serengeti (Seronera)
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Seronera (Central Serengeti)
First-time visitors $$River valley of acacia and granite kopjes
Explore hotels in Seronera (Central Serengeti) →
Northern Serengeti (Kogatende and Lamai)
Crossing season $$$Rolling hills above the Mara River
Explore hotels in Northern Serengeti (Kogatende and Lamai) →
Ndutu and the southern plains
Calving season $$$Open short grass and shallow soda lakes
Explore hotels in Ndutu and the southern plains →
Western Corridor (Grumeti)
Quiet and riverine $$$Riverine forest running towards Lake Victoria
Explore hotels in Western Corridor (Grumeti) →
Lobo and the north-east
Northern staging $$Wooded hills and rocky outcrops
Explore hotels in Lobo and the north-east →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Serengeti (Seronera)
Getting to & around Serengeti (Seronera)
Getting there
Fly into Seronera Airstrip by light aircraft from Arusha or Kilimanjaro, or drive up from Arusha through Ngorongoro in one long day.
Flight
Seronera Airstrip (SEU)
Seronera is the central airstrip, graded dirt with a shade tree for a terminal. Light aircraft hop in from Arusha and Kilimanjaro, usually touching down at two or three other strips on the way. Your camp meets the plane, and the drive to camp is a game drive in itself.
Drive
Naabi Hill Gate
The classic overland route from Arusha climbs through Ngorongoro and crosses the southern plains, roughly 8 hr to Seronera and usually broken with a night on the crater rim
Drive
Ndabaka Gate
From Mwanza and Lake Victoria in the west it is around 2 hr to the gate and a few more across the Western Corridor, the shortest road approach to the park
Getting around
Safari vehicle with guide
A pop-top 4x4 with a driver-guide is how essentially everyone moves here, arranged as part of the camp or the tour
TBC
Light aircraft
Scheduled hops link Seronera with the Kogatende, Grumeti, Ndutu and Lobo strips, and save a whole day of driving between ends of the park
TBC
Self-drive 4x4
Permitted with a high-clearance vehicle, park fees paid at the gate and no off-road driving; rare, and you carry your own fuel and recovery gear
TBC
On foot
Only at marked spots such as the hippo pool and visitor centre, or on a guided walk with an armed ranger in the bordering concessions
Free
Day trips from Serengeti (Seronera)
Ngorongoro Crater
1-2 daysCollapsed volcanic caldera
An intact caldera walled by 600 m of rim, holding lion, elephant, flamingo on the soda lake and the best chance in Tanzania of black rhino. Nearly everyone drives it on the way in or out rather than as a return trip from Seronera.
Getting there
car | tour
About 3 hr drive south-east to the rim, then a 4x4 descent into the crater floor
Olduvai Gorge
Full dayEarly-human excavation site
The ravine where the Leakeys dug up hominin remains and stone tools that pushed human origins back by a long way. A small museum on the lip explains the layers, and the shaded terrace looks straight down the gorge onto the excavation sites.
Getting there
car | tour
Around 2.5 hr drive south-east, on the road between Seronera and Ngorongoro
Ndutu and the southern plains
Full dayCalving-season grasslands
Open short grass around two shallow soda lakes, and where the migration drops its calves early in the year. Cheetah, hyena and lion work the same ground, and being outside the park proper means guides can leave the track to follow a hunt.
Getting there
car | tour
Roughly 3 hr drive south from Seronera across the plains
Moru Kopjes
Full dayRock art and rhino country
Granite outcrops with Maasai shield paintings under an overhang, the ringing Gong Rock, and the sector where the park's black rhino are protected. Lion lie up on the rocks through the middle of the day and the drive out crosses good plains game.
Getting there
car | tour
About 2 hr drive south-west of Seronera
Grumeti River and the Western Corridor
Full dayRiverine forest belt
A green ribbon of forest along the river with very large crocodile, hippo pods and black-and-white colobus overhead. Worth the day in May and June when the herds are crossing, and a quiet contrast to the central valley the rest of the year.
Getting there
car | tour
Around 3 hr drive west of Seronera along the corridor
A little history of Serengeti (Seronera)
Maasai herders have grazed these plains for centuries and gave them their name, siringet, the place where the land runs on forever. Europeans came late: Oscar Baumann reached the highlands on the eastern edge in 1892, and the plains themselves were barely known until hunting parties arrived after the First World War. Shooting pressure on lion led the British administration to declare a game reserve around Seronera in 1921, and in 1951 the Serengeti became Tanganyika's first national park.
In 1959 the boundary was redrawn, and the Maasai living inside it moved east into the newly created Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a shared-use arrangement that is still argued over. The same year Bernhard and Michael Grzimek published Serengeti Shall Not Die after mapping the migration from a zebra-striped aircraft; Michael died when it came down over the Crater Highlands, and the book and its film did more than anything to make the park famous. Rinderpest was cleared from the region's cattle in the 1960s, and the wildebeest population climbed from a few hundred thousand to well over a million, which is the herd that moves through here today.
Maasai pastoralists graze the plains and give them the name siringet, the place where the land runs on forever.
The Austrian explorer Oscar Baumann reaches the Ngorongoro highlands on the eastern edge of the ecosystem.
The American hunter Stewart Edward White reaches the Seronera country and publicises the plains abroad.
The British administration declares a game reserve around Seronera after heavy hunting pressure on lion.
The Serengeti is gazetted as Tanganyika's first national park.
The boundary is redrawn and Maasai residents move east into the new Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
The Grzimeks publish Serengeti Shall Not Die; Michael dies in a light-aircraft crash over the Crater Highlands.
Rinderpest is cleared from the region's cattle and wildebeest numbers climb past a million within two decades.
The park is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Limited
Power
Type G
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+255
Mobile network & SIM card
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FAQs about Serengeti (Seronera)
▸ When is the best time to visit the Serengeti?
June to October is the classic window: dry, easy driving, game concentrated on water, and the Mara River crossings in the north. January to March is the other great time, when the herds calve on the southern plains. April is the wettest month of the long rains and the quietest in the park.
▸ Where is the migration in each month?
Broadly: the southern plains around Ndutu from December to March for calving, moving north-west through the Moru and Seronera country in April and May, crossing the Grumeti in the Western Corridor around June, on the Mara River in the north from July to October, and drifting back south in November.
▸ Are you guaranteed to see a river crossing?
No. The herds gather on the bank and may wait hours or days before going, or turn back and cross somewhere else. Three or four nights in the north during the season gives you a fair chance; a single night is a lottery. The rest of the game viewing is excellent regardless.
▸ How many days do you need?
Three nights is the sensible minimum, four or five if you want to combine two areas such as Seronera and the north. Most people fold the Serengeti into a wider northern-circuit trip with Ngorongoro and Tarangire, which usually runs about a week.
▸ Is the Serengeti expensive?
Yes, by African safari standards it sits at the pricier end. Park fees, camp rates and vehicles all add up, and the remote seasonal camps in the north and at Ndutu cost more than the central lodges. Camping and a group tour out of Arusha is the cheaper way in.
▸ Serengeti or Ngorongoro Crater?
They do different jobs and sit an easy drive apart, so most itineraries take both. The crater is a compact half day of very high density, including rhino. The Serengeti is about scale and movement, and needs several days to show you what it is.
▸ Can you walk or do a night drive here?
Not inside the national park, where you stay in the vehicle except at marked spots such as the hippo pool. Guided walks with an armed ranger and spotlit night drives run in the bordering private concessions and game reserves, so pick a camp there if either matters to you.
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