Destination guide

Serengeti

Endless plains and the stage of the great wildebeest migration

The Serengeti is Tanzania's flagship national park, a vast sea of grassland that hosts the great migration of over a million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of zebra. Travellers come for classic big-cat country and, in season, the dramatic river crossings.

By the numbers

~15,000 km²

Park size

of open plains and woodland

1.5 M+

Wildebeest

on the great migration

~250,000

Zebra

migrate alongside the wildebeest

Since 1951

National park

Tanzania's oldest and most famous

UNESCO site

Status

World Heritage and Biosphere Reserve

Prime habitat

Big cats

lions, cheetahs and leopards

Best time to visit

The dry season from June to October is prime for general game viewing and for the Mara River crossings in the north. For the calving season, visit the southern short-grass plains between January and March, when hundreds of thousands of wildebeest give birth.

Common questions

The famous Mara River crossings in the north generally occur from about July to October, though timing shifts each year with the rains.

It moves in a rough annual circle: calving in the south from January to March, heading north-west by mid-year, and crossing the Mara in the north from July onward.

The great migration takes place within the Serengeti ecosystem, though the herds also pass through the northern part of the neighbouring Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Flying from Arusha to a Serengeti airstrip such as Seronera takes about an hour, far quicker than the long overland drive.