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User Reviews of Ngorongoro Crater (555 Reviews)

Ngorongoro Crater Safaris Ngorongoro Crater
Sort By: Date Most Helpful 361-370 of 458 Reviews

Average User Rating

4.7892 / 5 4.8 /5
4.7910 / 5 4.8510 / 5 4.2341 / 5 4.3152 / 5

Rating Breakdown

5 star 458 / 10 458
4 star 79 / 10 79
3 star 17 / 10 17
2 star 0 / 10 0
1 star 1 / 10 1
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Male avatar icon Anders Norway flag NO       Visited: August 2014 Reviewed: Jul 28, 2015

Email Anders  |  20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5

Ngorongoro is a great place to spot African wildlife, mainly because all the animals are "locked" into a small place. While all the wildebeasts in the Serengeti wander off to Kenya once a year, all the animals in Ngorongoro live there all the year around. The opportunity to see dramatic lion hunts or similar is bigger than in Serengeti. In other words you can probably spot more animals in shorter time than you will in Serengeti, which of course is much, much bigger.

Female avatar icon Diana023 Canada flag CA       Visited: January 2015 Reviewed: Jul 24, 2015

35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5

Mind blowing scenery and such concentration of wildlife in a few kilometres is inconceivable till you see it.

Female avatar icon Pinar Erc Turkey flag TR       Visited: July 2015 Reviewed: Jul 18, 2015

20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

Heaven on earth

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 / 5 5 / 5 / 5

The scenery is excellent. Very suitable for safari if you have short time. All land is visible, you can spot lots of animals in a short time. A little bit cold in the rim. It is a must if you are travelling to Tanzania for safari.

Avatar icon Donal C Wells Visited: June 2015 Reviewed: Jul 12, 2015

The Land That Time Forgot

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 4 / 5
Descend into the Ngorongoro Crater (actually a caldera, but let's not quibble) and enteri a cool and quiet world belonging to lions, rhinos, hippos, elephants wildebeest, zebras, hyenas, Thompson gazelles, olive baboons, vervet monkeys, jackals, and any number of birds and smaller creatures--just about everything but giraffes. Twenty kilometers in diameter and seemingly flat, the crater hides springs, lakes, and forests (and a few nice bathrooms) where you'll find the animals that don't usually roam the broad grasslands. Humans intrude in pop-top Land Cruisers, but our early-June visit found only a handful. Our guide, Peter, told us later visitors would find hundreds of vehicles and an occasional traffic jam near an especially interesting animal. Don't let that stop you. You'll be goggle-eyed focusing on the animals.
Photographers should take their longest telephoto lenses ((I used my 150-600mm zoom the most), but there are many occasions, as when a lion
Read more pride or elephant walks right in front of your vehicle, that a normal or wide angle lens is essential. The rhino is the rarest animal (we were very lucky to see seven) and keeps its distance. so even with a 600mm I couldn't fill a frame.
If possible find accommodations on the rim. Think hard before spending big bucks for a room view into the Crater, because it's often obscured by mist and clouds. We loved our stay at the Rhino Lodge--excellent food, comfortable, rustic rooms, attentive staff, and exceptional service. When we had three flats in our own Land Cruiser and needed assistance driving up from Serengeti, Rhino Lodge sent us a Land Cruiser and two guides to shepherd us up the last two hours after dark. (Cost? $25) The manager and his wife met us and kept our dinner warm.
Rhino Lodge also arranged a Land Cruiser, excellent box lunch and guide (Peter) for our day trip into the Crater, and it was a day all of us will treasure forever. Nothing like a knowledgable, friendly driver/guide, a pop-top for viewing and ten hours watching thousands of animals in a habitat they chose to live in.
Be prepared for very cool and damp weather on the rim and even in the Crater early and late--down sweater or Polartec and a rain jacket will do--and a light shirt for the warm, sunny days.
Male avatar icon Davide Manicardi Italy flag IT       Visited: August 2012 Reviewed: Jul 12, 2015

Email Davide Manicardi  |  35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 4 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5

so big variety of animals in a limited zone.
so easy to see rare animals because the different guides coperate with each other

Male avatar icon JD~PHOTOGRAPHY Canada flag CA       Visited: May 2015 Reviewed: Jun 28, 2015

35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5

A remarkable conservation area with numerous numbers of species from leopards and lions to herds of elephants.

Male avatar icon gordopuggy United States flag US       Visited: May 2015 Reviewed: Jun 22, 2015

35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

Long Views and Unique Landscape

5 / 5 5 /5
4 / 5 4 / 5 5 / 5 4 / 5
What makes the Ngorongoro caldera (technically it's not really a crater) stand out most from other safari parks in Tanzania that we visited (Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti) is the landscape. Because the park is mostly inside a gigantic collapsed volcano with sides over 1,000 feet high, it's different than other parks that simply "begin" somewhere with a set of gates. Climbing into the caldera, you go climb up through a cloud forest with very limited visibility (at least in late May, when we went.) Rising up over the rim, the clouds suddenly give way to sweeping views across the caldera, which is breath-taking. You can't help but try to picture what the explosion 1.5 million years ago must have been like, throwing chunks of granite the size of office buildings as far away as Kenya. Once on the caldera floor, there are only trees around the edges, so your views are flat and clear for miles, which has its advantages and disadvantages. Animals are all visible from
Read more far away, but so are the other trucks. rarely did it feel crowded (again, late May is very early in the season, and we were told that in high season it would be much, much worse). At that time of year, we saw only a few lions and at a great distance. Tarangire and the Serengeti had many more lions, often in the more abundant trees that are missing from Ngorongoro, so the caldera wasn't the place for big cats. Your best photo opportunities in the caldera will be for wide landscapes, or for very long animal shots, if you have the lens for it (600mm would've been nice). Zebras and wildebeests are often right alongside the road, but the few rhinos or lions you might find will often be a half mile away or more. All caldera roads were dirt, there were no private vehicles leaving the roads, and there is a very nice, albeit popular, scenic lunch spot by a hippo lake, with rest rooms. The caldera is probably a must-see place, but only in combination with another park that has denser trees and more big cats, like Tarangire.
Avatar icon Terry Divyak Visited: November 2014 Reviewed: Jun 15, 2015

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5

Ngorongoro Crater was one of my favorite places to be in Tanzania. We stayed on the rim in the Serena Lodge and the stars at night were brilliant and I was lucky enough to have a full moon night while there too. The amount of wildlife in the crater was almost mind boggling with scenes looking like the garden of eden with many species of animals all gathered together.

Male avatar icon nore2025 United States flag US       Visited: January 2015 Reviewed: Jun 9, 2015

Email nore2025  |  20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5

One of the seven natural wonders of Africa. The crater is amazing and a must see when you are in Tanzania.

Male avatar icon Gaston Maqueda Canada flag CA       Visited: November 2014 Reviewed: Jun 9, 2015

Email Gaston Maqueda  |  35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: over 5 safaris

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5

Excelent, excelent, excelent but a little bit expensive.