Best time to go on safari

Once the rain replenishes the water sources, animals disperse. However, the rainy season may also bring migratory birds and baby antelope and wildebeest – which, in turn, attract predators. You’ll also encounter fewer visitors at this time – and find great deals on lodges, camps and tours, though some accommodation in remote areas may close for the rainy season.

Some parks – such as Tanzania’s self-contained Ngorongoro Crater – enjoy fantastic wildlife year-round, while sights such as the Great Migration and the flooding of the Okavango Delta are highly seasonal. Click on the interactive map below to discover the best time to go on a safari in your chosen destination.

Bruce Taylor, founder of our supplier Sunway Safaris, describes his favourite time in Botswana: "I enjoy the green season, from December to April, because there's no dust. The beauty of the rains in Botswana is that they’re generally late afternoon thunderstorms that come rolling through then pass on, so you can still have gloriously sunny days. The rain cools things down a bit, there are a lot of young animals around and all the migratory birds are in the Okavango – they’re spectacular."

Amanda Marks, from our supplier Tribes Travel, explains why the best time to visit Tanzania may not be when you think it is… “Most people think of the migration as from July to October, whereas in actual fact it moves constantly. You have it from December to March in the southern Serengeti – you can find the wildlife there quite easily. They tend to give birth at the beginning of the year, then move north and west, though they are more spread out so it’s not such a spectacle. Then from July to October they are in the very north of the Serengeti.”