Destination
The crater has resident wildlife all year; late December to April adds the migration herds and calving on the Ndutu plains.
Written by the Africa Bound Tours team in Arusha · checked · 11 sources
Ngorongoro Crater is a collapsed volcano with a floor of almost 260 km², 610 metres below the rim. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) says more than 25,000 animals live in it, including black rhino, lion, elephant, buffalo and leopard. All of that lives in one bowl about 20 km across, which is why most of our northern Tanzania safaris give it a full morning.
It's a conservation area, not a national park. NCAA runs it, not TANAPA. Since 1959 it has been a multiple land-use area where wildlife and semi-nomadic Maasai pastoralists share the land, as UNESCO's listing explains. The whole area covers 8,094 km² of highland, crater and plain between the Serengeti and the eastern arm of the Great Rift Valley.
The crater also stays put in a way the Serengeti doesn't. Animals can walk in and out over the rim, but NCAA says the wildlife is there all year, so you aren't chasing herds. Tarangire peaks in the dry season; the crater has no off season in that sense. UNESCO calls it the largest unbroken caldera in the world. NCAA dates it to about 2.5 million years ago, when a volcano nearly the size of Kilimanjaro erupted and fell in on itself.
Olduvai Gorge, a ravine 14 km long, where Mary and Louis Leakey spent more than 30 years digging out early human fossils. At Laetoli there are hominin footprints dated to 3.6 million years ago. UNESCO added a cultural listing in 2010 for this record of human evolution.
Empakaai is a second crater, about 8 km wide, with a deep soda lake and flamingos on its floor. NCAA describes a walk down from the rim of about an hour, and roughly two and a half hours back up. Out west, on the Serengeti boundary, the Ndutu plains are the migration's calving ground from late December to April.
Any month. NCAA says the crater stays accessible all year because the roads hold up, and the wildlife is there in every season. If you want the migration as well, come between late December and April, when NCAA puts the herds on the Ndutu plains. That's when we run our calving-season trips.
NCAA's visitor guidelines set the shape of a crater day:
On fees, NCAA's current tariff lists USD 70.80 per adult non-East African visitor for each entry, valid for 24 hours. The crater service fee is USD 295 per vehicle per trip on top. Fees change, so we confirm them when we quote.
By road through Karatu. The main gate is Loduare, 14 km from Karatu town, and NCAA gives the distance from Arusha Airport to the conservation area as 173.8 km. There's an airstrip next to the crater rim and another at Ndutu. Naabi gate, on the far side, links Ngorongoro to the Serengeti.
Ngorongoro is on 18 of our published itineraries. On most of them the crater comes near the end of the safari. We drive in from the Serengeti in the afternoon, sleep on the rim or in Karatu, and go down at first light with a picnic breakfast, as on the 13-day Bush to Beach Safari. After the crater, the trip usually carries on to Lake Manyara, Karatu or Tarangire.
A few trips change the order. The 11-day Great Migration Safari does the crater before the Serengeti. The 10-day Active Safari goes from the crater to Lake Eyasi. Our 6-day Calving Season trip spends a night at Ndutu first. If you'd like more than one crater, or a walk at Empakaai, ask us and we'll build it in.
It's possible, but never guaranteed. NCAA lists black rhino among the crater's big five, alongside elephant, buffalo, lion and leopard. It also notes that black rhino is the only species on its list that the IUCN classes as endangered, so numbers are small. Vehicles must stay on designated tracks, so a good guide and a pair of binoculars make a real difference.
NCAA opens the crater gates at 06:00 and closes the descent gates at 16:00, and driving in the conservation area ends at 18:00. Within those hours your time depends on the trip. Most of ours go down at first light with a picnic breakfast and spend the morning on the floor, then drive on to the next stop the same day.
No. They share a boundary and the same migration, but Ngorongoro is a conservation area run by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, while the Serengeti is a national park run by TANAPA. Each has its own permits and fees. Naabi gate sits where the two meet, and the Ndutu calving plains are on the Ngorongoro side of the line.
Any time of year, according to NCAA, because the roads stay usable and the wildlife stays put. If you also want the migration, go between late December and April, when the herds are on the Ndutu plains. Early starts help in every season: the crater gates open at 06:00, and we aim to be through them soon after.
Not on the crater floor, where NCAA allows only vehicles. Walks are permitted on the crater rim and in other parts of the area, always with an armed NCAA ranger. Empakaai Crater is the classic walk: NCAA describes about an hour down to the lake from the rim and roughly two and a half hours back up.
NCAA's current tariff lists an entry permit of USD 70.80 for each adult non-East African visitor, valid for one entry within 24 hours. Going down to the crater floor adds a crater service fee of USD 295 per vehicle per trip. There are separate vehicle permit fees too. Tariffs change, so we check NCAA's schedule when we quote.
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Arusha 3.37° S · 36.68° E
Who is coming, roughly when, and what you would love to see. Someone from our Arusha team reads every request and replies with ideas and a first itinerary.
