If you are planning to spend your holidays in Tanzania, you cannot leave the country without having a taste of the balloon safari in the Serengeti and its wonders. One of the most frequently asked questions we get is: “What is the best time for a balloon safari in the Serengeti?”.
Well, the month or period at which you decide to visit the national park depends greatly on your availability and what you would like to see. Here are some tips on how to pick the best time for your hot air balloon safari.
Once again, there is no limited time frame for a hot air balloon safari in the Serengeti. All throughout the year, our team will take you to majestic destinations where you will be able to spot the indigenous wildlife of the Serengeti, as well as its rivers and kopjes. However, some periods are more prone to hazardous weather conditions.
For your own safety during those times, our team will get in touch with our pilots to decide whether to reschedule or cancel the outing if they deem it dangerous.
We would thus recommend that you schedule your hot air balloon safari in the serengeti at the beginning or middle of your stay in Tanzania, with enough time to reschedule it in case of unfavorable weather.
Cancellations due to weather conditions, though quite rare, are 100% refunded, but you wouldn’t want to miss this experience of a lifetime. As Terms and Conditions do apply, get familiar with those before your trip.
In light of this, there are some recommended months around the year that are deemed the best for balloon safari in the Serengeti due to the pleasant weather. This period is known as the ‘Dry Season’ stretching from the end of June to October. This period is also said to be the best for the sighting of animals around waterholes and rivers.
If you are eager to spot some cute cubs, January to March is your season. With relatively low risks of bad weather, you will spot wildebeest calves, lion cubs, elephant calves, and more. Animals usually gather in the southern plains of the Serengeti during this short period where they give birth and feast on the green grass during the Wet Season.
However, if calving represents a beautiful spectacle, it also serves as a reminder of the natural food chain. Calving often attracts predators, such as cheetahs and lions, to the plains where they prey on young, defenseless herbivores.
This period is also an amazing point for amateurs of the fauna. The Wet Season, also called the Green Season, is the perfect time to enjoy the lush green landscapes of the Serengeti and its burgeoning acacia trees.
A hot air balloon Safari in the Serengeti will offer you an unbelievable view over this cycle of life and an opportunity to take it all in. Photography enthusiasts will also have the chance to photograph the wildlife and landscape from an angle they never could before.
If you want to witness the great wildebeest migration, also known as the Serengeti migration, there is no specific time to visit the plains, but rather specific areas.
The migration is a dynamic cycle movement across the Serengeti all around the year. From November to December, the herd of wildebeest arrives in the southern plains of the Serengeti. They will remain there until March before moving north around April to find greener pastures.
By May, the herds form columns of wildlife along the Moru Kopjes towards the north, guiding thousands of wildebeest, gazelles, and zebras.
Around June, the herd will either keep on its way north or split with a group moving to the west. Through July and August, the group will resume north through the center of the Serengeti.
The most spectacular and documented part of the migration happens around September when the Wildebeest cross the Mara River on their way.
Our balloon flights in Kogatende, the northern part of the Serengeti, fly over the Mara River. Our passengers have been fortunate to witness the crossing of wildebeests through the river from the sky.
This site is truly unprecedented, with hundreds of animals jumping into the river to get to the other side, often finding death in the jaws of the Nile crocodiles. After this experience, the herds somehow move back south in unison by October. They follow an almost straight path down the eastern side of the park until they reach their starting point around November.
This cycle repeats itself year after year with slight variations. A hot air balloon Safari in the Serengeti allows you to track this migration process on their quest for food and fresh water.
It can thus be said that there is no specific time to witness the Great Migration and the native wildlife of the Serengeti. The view will vary from period to period, but the experience is undeniably one of the greatest shows you will have the opportunity to watch. A Hot air balloon Safari in the Serengeti is the perfect way to explore this magnificent land in all its beauty year-round.
