When is the Best Time to Visit Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania?

The best time to visit Ngorongoro Crater depends on your preferences and safari plans. The Ngorongoro Crater is a year-round African safari destination because the wildlife remains in the steep-sided crater throughout the year.

Deciding when is the best time to visit Ngorongoro Crater, is more about your tolerance for crowds than finding the optimal time for game viewing.

What is the Ngorongoro Crater?

Before we unpack the best time to visit, here’s a quick explanation of the crater. The Ngorongoro Crater is a must-visit destination for nature lovers and wildlife enthusiasts. Located in Tanzania, East Africa, this unique safari destination is home to an incredibly diverse range of wildlife, including the Big 5 animals, within the walls of an extinct volcano. 

Rhino in Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater is a remarkable natural feature and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a 25-kilometer (15-mile) wide geological marvel formed around three million years ago when a massive Rift Valley volcano erupted and collapsed. What remains is the world's largest inactive, unbroken, and unflooded caldera, a 610-meter (2,000-feet) deep crater covering an area of 260 square kilometres (100 square miles). 

Ngorongoro Crater is a destination on the popular Tanzania Northern Safari Circuit. The crater floor forms a natural amphitheatre home to an incredible array of wildlife, including elephants, lions, hyenas, zebras, wildebeest, and the endangered black rhino. Additionally, the crater boasts a soda lake, Lake Magadi, at its centre that attracts flamingos and other water birds. Small streams drain from the lake, providing this ecosystem with water, along with Ngoitokitok Spring near the eastern crater wall draining into a swamp area popular with elephants and hippos.

Now let’s see when the best time is to visit this Big 5 Tanzanian wildlife haven.

​View of Ngorongoro Crater

Best Time to Visit Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania

The best time to visit Ngorongoro Crater depends on your interests and plans for your holiday. For the full African safari experience, many choose to combine Ngorongoro Crater with the world-famous Serengeti National Park. Others combine a Ngorongoro Crater Safari with some beach time on Tanzania’s exotic spice island, Zanzibar. Here are the key travel seasons to keep in mind when planning your trip:

The Dry Season (June to October) - Peak Season

This is the time to experience the Great Migration in Serengeti National Park. While the animals do not stick to our calendars and sightings are never guaranteed, June marks the early stage of the Great Migration when the enormous herds begin to move from the southern Serengeti.

By July/August the migration is in full swing, and this is the time to witness the herds crossing the Grumeti River with the associated drama of crocodiles and other predators lying in wait. In these months, the floor of Ngorongoro Crater is blanketed in short grass ideal for superb wildlife viewing. 

On Zanzibar Island, the dry season means lower humidity, making for slightly cooler temperatures. At this time of the year the ocean is calm and clear, excellent conditions for any snorkeling and diving activities. However, be warned, this is peak tourist season in Tanzania which means higher rates and many more tourists.

Lions in Ngorongoro Crater

The Shoulder Season (January/February) 

January marks the start of calving season in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater when the vast herds of wildebeest and zebra give birth to their young, and predators are on the prowl.

There is a good chance that you will witness newborn calves taking their first wobbly steps. The Shoulder Season falls between the short rains of November to December and the long rains, of March to May, so you can expect mostly dry weather with occasional showers. There are also fewer crowds compared to peak season, which makes for a more pleasant safari experience.

On Zanzibar Island the weather is hot, but humidity comes down after the rainy season. This is a lovely time to soak up the sunshine and enjoy a relaxed beach break. There are relatively fewer tourists than peak season which means that Tanzania is less crowded.

Elephant in Ngorongoro Crater

The Short Rainy Season (November to December) - Green Season

The Green Season is a lovely time to visit the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti.

The lush, newly green landscape is a treat for the wildlife and there are fewer safari vehicles. The vast herds of the Great Migration start moving back to Southern Serengeti following their time in the Masai Mara of Kenya. Migratory birds also start to arrive in their thousands, making for excellent bird spotting. Travel plans may be interrupted by rain showers, but these are generally short-lived with blue skies emerging soon after.

This less popular season is good for photographers and birders alike, it also means lower safari prices.

On Zanzibar Island, this is a transitional season with occasional rains followed by blue skies. There are fewer people around and rates are more reasonable.

What makes a Ngorongoro Crater safari one of the best in Africa?

Buffalo in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

The unique geology of the Ngorongoro Crater sets the stage for some of the easiest and most rewarding game viewing in East Africa. 

The wildlife encounters on the crater floor are where the safari adventure truly begins. The high concentration of animals includes the Big 5 safari animals (lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros), and herds of wildebeest, zebras, and antelope grazing on the open plains. The many habitats of the crater floor also attract a fantastic diversity of birdlife, from flamingos around the soda lake to numerous raptors soaring above.

In addition to the breathtaking setting, Ngorongoro Crater safaris are known for their unique predator-prey interactions in this densely populated wilderness.  

Ngorongoro UNESCO World Heritage Site

Ngorongoro Crater is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique geology and the diverse wildlife it supports: 

• It is the world's largest intact volcanic caldera with an unbroken rim.
• It hosts a high density of globally threatened species like black rhinos, wild hunting dogs and golden cats, making it an area of global importance for biodiversity conservation. 
• It has the highest density of mammalian predators in Africa.

The greater Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area also supports one of the largest animal migrations on earth, involving over 1 million wildebeest, 72,000 zebras and approximately 350,000 Thompson and Grant gazelles from the Serengeti Plains. 

The Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area has produced a lot of important evidence related to human evolution over millions of years. This includes fossilized footprints pointing to the development of upright walking and an impressive range of fossils representing the hominin lineage in Olduvai Gorge. Remains found in the Ngorongoro Crater itself show the development of stone technology and the transition to the use of iron.

Leopard, Big 5 Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Ngorongoro Crater vs Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area

The Ngorongoro Crater forms part of the larger Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which also includes other protected areas, from the plains of the Serengeti National Park in the northwest to the eastern arm of the Great Rift Valley. Spanning approximately 8,300 square kilometres (3,200 square miles), it is a microcosm of East Africa, featuring mountains, forests, grassland plains, a few extinct volcanoes, and valuable archaeological sites. 

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is also the ancestral home of the Maasai people, and some safari experiences include visits to Maasai villages for insights into their traditional customs and close relationships with the cattle they keep.

The unique coexistence of wildlife and humans in the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area contributes to the area's outstanding universal value as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Kids in Ngorongoro, Tanzania

Summary: Best Time to Visit Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania

If the Great Migration is on your bucket list, join the crowds from June to October to be part of this famous spectacle and be sure of excellent animal sightings in Ngorongoro Crater. 

However, be warned that you will be sharing this experience with many other safari visitors. For a less crowded safari, visit during the January/February calving season or take advantage of the lower prices during the Green Season.

For help planning the best Ngorongoro Crater safari for you, chat with one of our experienced African travel consultants.