Serengeti National Park

A once in a lifetime experience

We assembled a 14 day trip to Tanzania through a wildlife photographer and Essential Africa as the tour operator. Our group was 6 photographers plus our local guide Ally and Karine Aigner (photographer) for the entire trip. Given their experience they set up 4 days in the southern Serengeti and then 8 more in the northern Serengeti at a total of 3 different camps. The flat plains of the south was very different from rolling hills of the north and the Mara River. Generally there is more wildlife in the south during February than in the north but we certainly did not lack in sighting in the north and in one area near the Kenya border we witnessed a herd of several thousand animals. The limitations of the Serengeti National Park are that you must stay on the trail with your vehicle so we spent much of our time in the Ngorongoro Preserve to permit off road adventures. The advantage to this was also minimizing contacts with other vehicles and the disruption multiple vehicles have to the wildlife. In the northern camps we saw no more than 3-4 other vehicles each day in comparison to the south where you can have a dozen vehicles around a leopard sighting. We always left at 6 am and stayed out until the park closing at 6:30pm with a short stop back at the camp near lunch unless we were traveling a good distance and then we brought along lunch with us. Our first camp was a tent camp and once you get used to the bucket showers it was really quite comfortable. The northern camps were permanent camps, had superb accommodations and all three had excellent service and food. Weather was generally excellent with rain only as a short part of two days. The bush plane flights between camps were an added adventure that was a blast but a little tight on space if you are large. All members of our party totally enjoyed the adventure and other than short bouts with tse tse flies there were really no complaints at all. In terms of wildlife we had a huge number of sightings and saw most major species with the exception of rhinos (OK we saw one about a mile away) and many opportunities to photogragh all of the large cats from very close up. Hard to ask for more than that. Simply put it was a fabulous trip that was superbly planned and run.

A vast wilderness where at some points you can see the curvature of the earth.

A vast wilderness where at some points you can see the curvature of the earth—grass plains that extend to the horizon.
Serengeti National Park is one of the gems of the world, a vast wilderness populated by all the animals that you expect to see in East Africa. My party and I were there in Mid-January. We got to see the incredible migration of wildebeest and zebra coming down from the North to the great plains of the Serengeti. The came to the water in the Hidden Valley area, thousands of thousands of animals; quite a spectacle to see. If you love wildlife and nature, the Serengeti is a must destination. We also saw many leopards in the Serengeti’s tree lined river valleys. It is also a great birding destination as well.
We stayed in the Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge, which is centrally located in the vast Serengeti ecosystem. I had a beautiful view of the southern Serengeti from my room. The people at the lodges are very friendly, and our Wildersun guides were excellent—extremely knowledgeable not only about the wildlife, but also knowing where to position the vehicle for the best photography. For, I am a nature photographer, and I came to see and photograph the birds and wildlife. I loved every moment of my stay, for I love the earth and its wildlife. Every moment is unique and special in nature, and that’s especially true for Serengeti National Park.
With my photography, I try to capture the sacredness and individual spirituality of each species. You can see some of my African photographic work from this trip on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/brucefinocchio/
I really did well with lions, and I have a blog post you might enjoy reading on the Ndutu lions at https://brucefinocchio.wordpress.com/
The Serengeti one of the jewels of natural world, and a must destination for anyone who loves wildlife and nature.

Best safari location ever!

We booked our flights from the Netherlands ourselves and traveled with a private guide, Augustin Adventures (excellent!). Serengeti was the highlight of our Holiday. You see so many animals and have a much closer feel to nature than in other parks in Africa. There is a great variety in scenery, and the quantity of animal sighting is unbelievable! If you love this kind of holiday, Serengeti is a must! Be convinced by my photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/joco_knoop/sets/72157642333540703/

Serengeti is a well preserved piece of our original world

Serengeti takes you back to what earth was before the human beings started exploiting it. Serengeti is unspoiled nature, a place where the animals still are free to wander without threats from human beings. We saw all kinds of wild animals, including the big five! Wildlife is intensive, a lot of animals from all kinds of species. Our guide ha profound knowlegde about animals, the migration, the nature and more. Transport was good, but the roads were hard fore the tires. The highlight was when we saw a lioness hunt alone and kill a Buffalo.

Can't imagine there is a better park than the Serengeti

Last August I did my first Safari and visited the Serengeti with my wife and my 2 children (12 and 10)
We were in one word: overwhelmed! Never saw such a number of wildlife (number of animals as well as diversity). It was if I was live in a National Geographic documentary. Our guide Jamal showed us many different kind of animals and explained their behaviour. Our children really loved it. So I can recommend everybody who loves to see animals in their natural habitat to visit these breathtaking Endless Plains.

We stayed at Klein's Camp, which was very remote and romantic. The savannah seemed to stretch on forever, with no end in sight. The abundance of game roaming the land was incredible, and we were privy to some amazing encounters with wildlife.

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One outstanding trip that would be hard do duplicate.

This was my third trip to Serengeti ad my second during the dry season. It was without a doubt the best trip I have had there, ever. We saw more wildlife being active than ever before. I shot over 12,000 still images and well over 3 hours of HD Video.

If you want to experience wildlife, Africa and Africa's wildlife, go here.

I have always wanted to see the wildlife in their natural habitat, and I was fortunate to be able to do that. It satisfies something in my soul, and I love it. We saw all the wildlife you can imagine. Elephants, rhino, lions mating, leopard, cheetah, wildebeest, giraffes, zebras, hippos, ostrich, crocodiles - it was heaven on earth. The scenery and weather were excellent, the lodge that we stayed at in the Serengeti was unique, the food they prepared for us was amazing - the kitchen area was so small, and out of that tiny area came some of the most delicious meals that I have ever had the opportunity to taste. Their stove was so tiny, I can't explain it, but it was able to cook things to perfection. Our transportation was better than what we had in Namibia, and our guides were so patient, and knowledgeable, although when one of our group members wanted to know the name of this one bird we saw, and our guide told him, I forget how many times, what the name of this bird was, and the group member couldn't understand him, the guide then spelled it out "B-A-T-E-L-E-U-R", and you could tell by the tone of his voice that he better not have to say it again. (But he also spelled it out several times.) We had three guides, and they were all wonderful, very kind, very accommodating, and we made new friends with them. On our last day there on our morning game drive, we saw on the right hand side of the road a male lion and a lioness. He looked to be dead to the world. Then our guide looked on the other side of the road and we saw another male lion and lioness. They were both sitting down, and the male had his head up, and I got a good shot of his head and eyes. Then he got up and started to walk over to the lioness and started to get on top of her. I though to myself "he can't be about to do what I think he's going to do." And sure enough, we saw them do it 3 times - the expressions on their faces were absolutely priceless!!! We did see a leopard, and this one lady in our tour group, it was her eighth time visiting Africa and this was the first time she had ever seen a leopard. So we were fortunate. And it was an experience never to be forgotten.

A Trip of a Lifetime

The Serengeti National Park was one of 4 parks we visited in Tanzania. The incredible expanse of grasslands is overwhelming and it's teeming with wildlife. We were able to watch a huge pride of lions as the moved into position for the night's adventures. Our guide knew just where to find every animal on the plains. We saw leopards (plural) with their kills in the trees on both days. Cheetah were the first animals we saw as we entered the park - how beautiful! Elephants, giraffe, monkeys, hippos, birds (the Rollers are beautiful), were also everywhere.

The Serengeti Serena lodge was one of my trip favorites. I thought the food was excellent and you really felt like you were right among the landscape as we were. If having two Cape Buffalo right outside your hut is not enough excitement, you're just jaded. The service and accommodations were excellent too.

The weather was dry and not too hot. If it rained, we didn't see it.

Our guide and LandCruiser through Leopard tours were first rate. He knew so much and was so gracious explaining the land, the wildlife and the culture of his much loved country.

Simply the best. We saw so many lions within 2-4 meters of our vehicle as well as elephants , but the lions were the most awesome. Unlike other visitors, we unfortunately did not see any lions chasing prey. The number of herds of gnu and zebra was also astounding