# Safari in Tanzania: northern & southern circuits

> The northern and southern circuits, park by park: when to go, what each park is for, where the wildebeest migration is month by month, and what to know about Kilimanjaro.

Canonical: https://seeyoutanzania.com/safari

About 40 per cent of Tanzania's land is under some form of protection, on World Bank figures for 2025. The question is never whether there is wildlife. It is which month, which circuit, and how long you have.

## The parks

- [Serengeti](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/serengeti) (Northern circuit, 14,763 km²): Grass to the horizon, and the migration that moves across it. Best time: June–October for the crossings; December–March for calving.
- [Ngorongoro](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/ngorongoro) (Northern circuit, 8,292 km²): A collapsed volcano holding its own ecosystem — and not a national park. Best time: Year-round; the floor is clearest early.
- [Tarangire](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/tarangire) (Northern circuit, 2,850 km²): Baobab country, and the largest elephant concentrations in the north. Best time: July–October.
- [Lake Manyara](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/lake-manyara) (Northern circuit, 648.7 km²): A narrow strip between the Rift wall and a soda lake. Best time: June–October for game; November–June for birds.
- [Ruaha](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/ruaha) (Southern circuit, 19,822 km²): The second largest park in the country, and one of the emptiest. Best time: June–October.
- [Nyerere](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/nyerere) (Southern circuit, 30,893 km²): Tanzania's largest national park, carved out of the Selous in 2019. Best time: June–October.

Six of twenty-two. The rest — the western chimpanzee parks, the vast southern reserves, the island parks on Lake Victoria and Zanzibar's Jozani — are all on the [full parks index](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks).

## The migration, month by month

Nothing about it is on a timetable. It follows the grass, and the grass follows the rain.

### Dec – Mar: Ndutu & the southern plains

Calving. Around half a million wildebeest are born in a few weeks on the short grass, and the predators gather for it.

### Apr – Jun: The western corridor

The herds move north and west through the long rains, gathering at the Grumeti River. Fewer vehicles, greener country, softer roads.

### Jul – Oct: The northern Serengeti & Mara River

The crossings. Dramatic and entirely unschedulable — the herds go when they go, and waiting is most of the day.

### Nov: Returning south

The short rains pull the herds back down towards Ndutu. A quiet, cheap, underrated month to travel.

[The full migration guide](https://seeyoutanzania.com/know/great-migration)

## Kilimanjaro: five thousand, eight hundred and ninety-five metres

Short itineraries turn far more climbers back than long ones. The difference is not fitness. It is time spent between three and four thousand metres, and there is no way to buy your way past it.

[The Kilimanjaro region guide](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/kilimanjaro)

## Related

- [All the national parks](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks)