Ngorongoro Crater

You see a lot of wildlife. And a lot of tourists. Coming down into the crater is of great beauty. Awesome scenery. The animals are almost half tame. In Selous you can't approach a wildebeest closer than 50 or 100 m. Here it sits still on the road as you drive by. Huge agglomerations of wildlife and some pieces of dusty empty plains with just some animals. It's good to get your close up photos. Not to see rare animals. Some birds to see, not too spectacular - except for lunch steeling black kites. Expect to see at least 20+ 4x4 at any time. Everything worth looking at has a group of vehicles around it.

The animals are there, in one compact space. And so are the people. But it is quite unique - the early morning drive to the crater rim is often foggy and wet, and the steep descent an adventure itself. If your time is brief, and you crave instant animal gratification, go here. If you have more time and the inclination - make the bumpy, dusty drive to Olduvai Gorge, request Lucas as your guide, and revel in hominid history.
A warning: There is a fee to enter the Ngorongoro Conservation area. You must pay again if you want to go into the Ngorongoro Crater. And you must pay again to enter the Serengeti. This traveler thinks that is too much paying.

Beautiful place … too many tourists !

Amazing place with so many animals to observe !

However too many jeeps, too many tourists. Some time you feel like you are in an amusement park queuing for a picture … sad impression !

Too crowded for our taste. There were at least 25 vehicles when a Rhino was spotted. Its great for first-timers though.

Again, had to stay on the path and couldn't get close to the animals. Crowded with vehicles.

A fantastic eco-system/ geological feature. Enjoyed our visit and glad we did it. Would not return, far too crowded for our liking, could have been in a safari park in the U.K. Actually saw a speeding safari vehicle collide with and kill a Bat-eared Fox. (Sorry wildlife you certainly deserve better). Stayed at Kitela Lodge, a beautiful facility, we were virtually the only guests staying not sure why. Would recommend, but ensure you leave early for The Crater. We entered The Crater at 07.00 and possibly enjoyed an hour before it got busy.

Amazing but also abit like Disney land, its almost too good to be true! You'll see the big 5 within an hour and the landscape is very dramatic. But its quite poor for birding and also feels abit enclosed and claustrophobic compared to other parks.

So sad that we cannot see rhino on the day we went there

Crater was nice but since we got a 2,5 hours late because they just hired a last minute free lance guide that was not aware of his mission.we did not went to olduvai i had to stuggle for the refund but i got it.

Its hit and miss - and the big five are no way guaranteed

Crowd: It's the year of Corona and the crater is not too crowded these days. At one picnic site, there were about 15 cars for lunch - throughout the park we never saw more than two other cars.
Wildlife: Obviously it was a quite unlucky day, because everyone else seems to have the best wildlife experiences here. We saw one pack of lion very very far away (barely detectable with good binoculars), no other cats, no rhino, one elephant hiding deep in the bush, a few smaller herds and ostriches.. so its no way guaranteed to see anything here. It was a normal day, not too windy, a bit cloudy, in the middle of dry season. There was no obvious reason why there was nothing around, but you have to accept it's just nature. But after a day like that I really don't get the hype.
Scenery: The scenery is very unique though and the views into the crater made the day.