We are thinking of taking our kids on a safari this spring. School vacations in the US, however, occur in April, which seems to be the low season in Tanzania. Is game viewing less successful during this period, or is this a particularly rainy season? Basically...is this a reasonable idea?
Thanks for any general or specific advice.
My impression is that you can find successful game viewing at any time of year. In April, the Great Migration (which is typically of great interest to travellers) can be found in the very southern portion of the Serengeti. A map is at this link: http://www.audleytravel.com/index.php/features/greatmigration/gm-map/ (and every time I google it to answer this question I find a different map! This one is pretty cool, though, and I have bookmarked it this time).
April is the rainy season, and from what I read (I went during dry) the grasses can be higher (harder to see certain animals) and the animals could be more dispersed because there are more water sources (fewer water sources means animals are concentrated in certain areas in the dry season). I don't know, but it seems like if you go where the migration is, you'd still have viewing success. I don't know if the rainy vs. dry season advice applies equally to northern circuit parks and southern parks, also.
For Ngorongoro it probably won't make a lot of difference as it's a small area anyway, so animal density is hight. For Srengeti it may well be that it's harder to spot anymals because of grass and more water. Also some tracks may be unpassable in the wet season, but a good driver/guide should know where to go to make the most of it.While it doesn't usually rain all day long, you could be unlucky and have loads over a short period of time.
The obvious advantage of going in low season is that the tourist density is also going to be lower than in the dry season, which can be a big bonus, especially in Ngorongoro. Also, in case you were thinking of a loidge Safari, prices are considerably lower in low season.
Hi,
We were in Tanzania last year during april, wet season. We were very lucky as when it rained it mainly did so at night. We visited the serengeti, whcih was amazing. We saw the "big 5" but the migration was the highlight for me. The drivers know where to go for the different times of the year it sems anyway. It was also good as there wasnt many tourists about, well according to our driver, so its a little bit more of an adventure. Because it was low season we were able to bargain for a good deal when we arrived in Arusha and set off the next day. We did a lodge safari as you never know with the rain, but it was the same price more/less as a camping safari in high season......cant exactly remember but we went with Bobby tours and they really looked after us :-)
Enjoy