Kenya or Tanzania?

The short answer

If you have three or four days, or you are travelling between July and October, Kenya's Maasai Mara is the simpler choice: it is reached by road from Nairobi in a morning, and in those months it usually holds the migrating herds. If you have a week or more, or you are travelling between December and March, northern Tanzania — the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater — is hard to beat. With ten days or more, you can do both.

How they compare

• —Gateway: Kenya safaris start in Nairobi (Jomo Kenyatta International Airport). Northern Tanzania safaris start in Arusha, served by Kilimanjaro International Airport.
• —Short trips: our 3-day Maasai Mara safari leaves Nairobi in the morning and reaches camp in time for an afternoon game drive. The Serengeti is further from Arusha, so a 3-day Tanzania trip spends more of its time on the road.
• —Migration timing: the herds are usually in the Mara and northern Serengeti from July to October, and on the southern Serengeti plains for calving from late January to March.
• —Signature sights: Amboseli's elephants beneath Kilimanjaro and the open Mara plains in Kenya; the Ngorongoro Crater floor and the scale of the Serengeti in Tanzania.
• —Entry: Check Kenya eTA eligibility and Tanzania visa requirements for your passport and route. Non-exempt visitors also need the applicable mandatory inbound insurance. Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar have distinct provider and exemption rules, determined partly by your first entry point.
• —Cost: see our safari cost guide — park fee structures differ, which is why a short Serengeti trip usually costs more than a Mara trip of the same length.

Doing both in one trip

Our combined circuits cross between the Maasai Mara and the Serengeti at the Isebania border, or between Nairobi and Arusha, so you can follow the same ecosystem across both countries. Border days involve formalities and a long transfer, so a combined trip works best at eight days or more.

Ask for the full day-by-day programme and check which nights are spent in each park. Several nights in one place usually beat a string of single-night stops.