For general information on travelling to Tanzania, visit our Tanzania travel advice page.
Top Travel Tips for the Serengeti
Plan your timing carefully: if it's the great wildebeest migration you want to see then ensure your itinerary matches the movement of the herds.
Book early: well-located accommodation at migration hot spots such as the Grumeti and Mara rivers gets booked up early, often a year in advance.
Choose your activities: morning and afternoon game drives are standard activities and many lodges also offer hot-air balloon safaris but it's only the Serengeti's adjoining private reserves that list activities such as night drives, horse-back safaris and guided bush walks.
Meet the Maasai: cultural interactions with the resident Maasai people are often part of the Serengeti travel experience - work with your travel consultant to ensure your engagement is genuine and beneficial to the local community.
Expect visitors in peak season: many areas of the 15 000 km² Serengeti are largely unvisited throughout the year but migration highlights such as the June/July Grumeti River crossings attract large visitor numbers.
Go private: if it's exclusivity you want then head for one of the Serengeti's private conservancies - the limited-bed accommodation is excellent, game viewing as good as the main park and more safari activities are offered.
Arusha Airport: the gateway to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara and Tarangire is set just outside the town of Arusha itself but you'll need to get there via Kilimanjaro International Airport, located about 50km away, itself a flight from Dar es Salaam, Nairobi or Europe.
Note that international flights often arrive at Kilimanjaro Airport late at night, so an overnight in Arusha is usually necessary before setting out the following morning by charter flight into the reserve.
Game drives in the Serengeti and its private conservancies are conducted in open-sided 4X4s.