Tanzania

June through October for the dry season and the Mara River crossings in the northern Serengeti, and January to February for the calving season on the southern plains. The Ngorongoro Crater holds game year-round, which makes it the reliable half of any itinerary whatever month you travel.

Almost always, and in that order. Safari days start before dawn and ask something of you; four or five nights on the Indian Ocean afterwards is what turns a trip into a holiday. The flight from the Serengeti is short and we handle the connection and the luggage weight limits that catch people out.

Seven to ten nights on the ground is the comfortable minimum for the Serengeti and the crater without a wasted day, and twelve to fourteen if you add Zanzibar. Fewer than six and the internal flying starts to eat the safari.

Tanzania for scale and for the crater; Kenya for the private conservancies, where walking and night drives are permitted and vehicle numbers are capped. Many of our clients do both in one trip. We have written a fuller comparison in the Journal.

It is the single biggest difference in what you see. A private vehicle and guide means you stay with a leopard for an hour instead of moving on for someone else's list, you leave when the light is right, and breakfast happens where you are.

A day in the Ngorongoro Crater is shaped by its rules: each vehicle may spend up to six hours on the floor per drive, and the access roads are one-way, descending by Seneto on the western side and climbing out by Lerai. Because the floor fills with vehicles by mid-morning, the six hours are worth most when they start at opening: first vehicle down, breakfast on the floor, and back on the rim as day visitors arrive.

Staying on the Ngorongoro Crater rim makes the descent to the floor about twenty minutes rather than two hours from Karatu. That matters because the crater floor fills with vehicles by mid-morning, and the six hours each vehicle is allowed below are only worth having if they begin at opening. The rim is what lets you be first down, before the gate queue.

No. Tanzania has issued no visas at the border since January 2025, so the visa has to be arranged before departure, not on landing. For US passports it is a US$100 multiple-entry e-visa under Tanzania's reciprocity rule, valid for twelve months with stays of up to 90 days.

Tanzania's bush flights allow around 20 kg per person, and that includes hand luggage and all camera gear, packed in soft bags no larger than 25 × 30 × 62 cm. That limit, not the camp, decides which lens you bring, so a photographic safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro is planned from the weight allowance backwards.

The Hadzabe morning is a dawn walk with one of the last hunter-gatherer communities in East Africa, offered as part of a Tanzania journey. It is arranged through people who have worked with the Hadzabe for years, rather than sold as a stop on a route, so the visit is set up properly and on the community's terms.

A luxury Tanzania safari with Forest Travel is planned from around US$1,500 per person per night, before international flights, and Serengeti camps quote from US$1,800 per person per night in migration season. Park fees come on top: US$70.80 per adult per 24 hours in the Serengeti in low season and US$82.60 in peak, plus 18% VAT, and US$295 per vehicle to descend to the Ngorongoro crater floor. A private vehicle adds from roughly US$250 per vehicle per day. The planning fee is US$250 per itinerary.

For a first luxury safari, the best in Tanzania is the northern circuit: the Serengeti, timed to where the herds are, paired with the Ngorongoro Crater, which holds game in every month. Calving peaks around Ndutu in February, the columns move through the western corridor in June and the Mara River crossings peak in August. Stay on the crater rim so you descend at opening, keep a private vehicle, and add Zanzibar for a second half that asks nothing of you.