Serengeti National Park

Great wildlife, beautiful, vast scenery on offer and some amazing camping memories.

I travelled to Serengeti NP in June of this year with my girlfriend as part of a tour of Tanzania organised with "I Dream of Africa" safaris. We stayed for two nights in the public camp grounds in Serengeti as part of this tour.

The journey to Serengeti was quite comfortable with paved roads all the way from Arusha to Ngorongoro and only the last part of the journey is on gravel roads. The scenery on this final leg of the tour does make up for this though and it is interesting to watch the local Maasai tend to their cattle or catch an early glimpse of migrating zebra.

On arrival, there are some small shops at the main gate to pick up some last minute snacks or drinks, but beware that the prices here will be higher than in Arusha or other smaller towns on route. At the main gate, there is also a small hill which is worth the climb just to get an idea of the vastness of the park.

Our first taste of the park was on our way to our camp ground. We took the long route there to take in some of the wildlife and scenery on offer. There are plenty of animals to see and even on this first step inside the park our guide spotted a pride of lions resting on some of the rocks that dot the landscape.

The public campsite is well maintained and cleaned daily. The toilets and bathroom facilities are clean but do not have warm water. However, given the weather and climate there it is nice to cool off from the 30 degree heat in a cold shower. The campsite is obviously not as comfortable as lodges nearby, but do offer the opportunity to stay inside the park. There are a number of advantages of this, first is waking up early in the morning and having giraffes and zebras outside your tent, it also allows you to be in the centre of the park for game drives early in the morning without travelling too far and finally it is was great to be able to sit in our campsite and watch the sunset over the vast plains.

During the game drives that day we were lucky to spot all of the big cats and get great views of lions and elephants. This was mostly down to our guide, Christopher, who had the ability to spot leopards and cheetahs from about 300 meters away with his naked eye at ease. The park does have an abundance of wildlife and you do not have to travel too far to see something interesting or beautiful that will make you call at the driver to stop for a moment. We were lucky that our guide was very friendly and patient with us and also had the knowledge to answer any of our questions.

Overall during our game drives there the wildlife viewing was excellent. June is a quieter time of the year for tourists and wildlife viewing, as it is just the very start of the dry season. However, we were fortunate to see a wide variety of animals and birds. Just to note though that although the park is very big, if there is something interesting to see, expect there to be a few trucks around it and be patient if you want to get up close.

I would recommend anyone that plans to visit the Serengeti to plan at least two nights in the park. The vast size of the park means that it cannot be explored even in that time and the variety it provides means that no game drive will be same there.

Great wildlife experience

A fantastic place with vast amounts of animals even though it was still the dry season. We saw many lions including cubs, leopard, black rhino, cheetah elephant, giraffe, hippo, impala, warthog, ostrich, hirack. eagles, vultures, hyena, jackal, gazelles etc. Great accommodation and beautiful scenery with no big crowds. It doesn't get much better.

Beautiful and diverse in its scenery

Beautiful

Wonderful unique amazing photography experience

I loved experiencing/ seeing part of the Annual Migration of Wildebeest, Zebras & Gazelles. Amazing. The wide open beautiful landscape was awe-inspiring.
The resorts in the National Park were fantastic & wonderful refuge after a hot, dusty day photographing the wildlife.

It is soooo big! Only tented bush camps for accommodation and so much game. This is Hemingway country!

The Serengeti delivers on all its promises. The landscape is beautiful and offers animal sightings in abundance, and thanks to its size, the national park never feels crowded. Thanks hugely to our amazing guide, we saw all the big cats, both far away and very close, along with a lot of other animals, including pretty much all kinds of gazelles and antelopes.

My favorite of all the parks visited for the animals we saw everywhere, including a serval cat, and the beauty of the landscape. Many varieties of colorful birds that were easy to photograph.

Impressive landscape, wide variety of wildlife, unique grasslands and close encounters with wildlife, very friendly guides and staff at park lodgings. Very friendly staff and clean lodgings at Kenzan Kisura Camp.

The Serengeti National Park was a highlight of our Tanzania trip, as we got to experience the herds migrating. We saw so much in only 4 days - 35 lions (many in trees), leopards, hyenas, a serval, a few kills and huge herds of elephants, giraffe, zebra and gnu.... as far as the eye could see. It was exhilarating, and you often find yourself alone with no one else around, just the Serengeti plains stretching in front of you.