Ngorongoro Crater

Back to Tanzania

Three million years ago a volcano the size of Kilimanjaro collapsed in on itself, leaving a 260-square-kilometre caldera with walls six hundred metres high. Today the Ngorongoro Crater shelters some 25,000 large animals on its emerald floor — the closest thing Africa has to a lost world.

Highlights

This is the only place on the continent where you can realistically see the Big Five in a single morning. The crater holds one of Africa’s last viable black rhino populations, some of its biggest-tusked elephants, and lion densities found nowhere else. Flamingos crowd the soda lake at the centre, and Maasai herders still walk their cattle along the rim as they have for centuries.

Best Time to Visit

Game viewing is extraordinary year-round because the animals rarely leave. June to October offers the clearest skies; the green months of November to May bring fewer vehicles and beautiful light. We always enter at dawn, before the day-trip traffic descends.

Where to Stay

Nothing compares to waking on the rim itself at andBeyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, where butlers light fires beneath chandeliers and the world’s greatest wildlife arena lies two thousand feet below your bath.

The crater stars in our Ngorongoro & Calving Season Safari — or see all our Tanzania journeys.