Tanzania in January puts the migration herds on the short grass plains around Ndutu, with the calving under way. Those plains stay firm enough to drive across while wetter corners of the northern circuit are going soft. That combination is the whole case for the month.
It holds because of the Ngorongoro highlands. They are high enough to take the moisture out of the air coming in off the Indian Ocean, so the plains on the other side get what is left. A 2021 paper in the International Journal of Climatology puts the north west of the Serengeti at around 1,200 mm of rain a year and the south east at around 400 mm, and names that rain shadow as the cause.
There is a date in the month as well. 5 January is the last night of our peak rate and 6 January is the first night of the lower one, so the first week and the rest of January are two different trips at two different prices.
Going on safari in Tanzania in January
A safari in Tanzania in January is built on concentration. Everywhere else on the circuit the month works against you, because standing water lets animals drink wherever they happen to be and they stop gathering anywhere you can predict.
The southern plains are the exception, and water is not the reason. The herds are there for the grass and for the birth season, so you are not searching a wide area for scattered animals. You are inside a herd that reaches past the horizon, watching what hunts it.
Days start early because the heat does. By the time the light is up the calves are already moving with the herd and whatever hunted overnight has not gone far. Our guide to the best time to visit Tanzania sets January against the other eleven months.
Where the great migration is in January
On the short grass plains of the southern Serengeti and around Ndutu, which is inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area rather than the national park. There is no fence on that boundary and the animals cross it without noticing.
They are there to give birth. A 2018 paper in Scientific Reports puts the calving at close to 500,000 calves in about three weeks, near 24,000 in a single day at the peak. That peak falls from late January into February. Our own published figure for the migratory wildebeest population in the ecosystem is around 1.5 million.
People book this month for what follows the births. A newborn wildebeest is on its feet within minutes and can keep up with the herd within days. Not all of them make it. Cheetahs hunt by sight on open ground, which makes January the easiest month of the year to watch one work. The full timing is on our wildebeest calving season post, and our Great Migration calendar sets out where the herds are in each of the twelve months.
Early January and late January are not the same trip
Early January is the build up. The herds are gathering and grazing, the first calves are appearing, and the plains are filling rather than full.
From about the third week the calving becomes the event rather than the preview. If the births are the reason you are coming, the second half of the month is the better half, and it is also the cheaper half. Those two do not usually line up.
What you will see besides the wildebeest
Plenty, and none of it depends on the migration.
Lion, leopard and cheetah. Our camp at Soit Le Motonyi in the central eastern Serengeti has all three resident in every month of the year, so they are there whether the herds are or not. Down on the southern plains in January the cats are working the calving herds, which is why so much of the predator activity that month happens in daylight and in the open rather than in cover.
Elephant and buffalo. These are the two Big Five animals you can more or less count on. Elephant herds pass the Lake Burunge corridor in Tarangire daily through the year, and buffalo graze in large herds in every park on the circuit, the crater floor included.
Black rhino. The hard one. The Ngorongoro Crater is the single place on our routes where you have a real chance, and it wants a full day and a guide who knows where to look. Nobody should promise you a rhino, in January or in any other month.
Everything else on the plains. Zebra and gazelle move with the wildebeest. Around Ndutu you also get giraffe, impala, elephant, dik dik, spotted hyena, bat-eared fox, genet, jackal and wildcat, with flamingos on the soda lakes.
A January route that takes in Ndutu, the crater and the central Serengeti gives you a realistic run at all five of the Big Five, with the rhino as the one that is never certain.
Weather in Tanzania in January
Rain in January usually comes as a short afternoon or evening shower. Longer spells happen, and they are the exception rather than the shape of the month. It is not the long rains, which start in March and soften the roads badly by April. January is a dry pause inside a wet season rather than a dry season of its own, so some years it barely rains and some years it rains more than the averages suggest.
The rain shadow takes that uncertainty off the one piece of ground your trip depends on. The southern plains are the driest corner of the ecosystem in any month, so they stay drivable when tracks elsewhere are going soft.
How hot is it, and what will you be wearing
One number would mislead you, because a January day crosses two climates before lunch.
At six in the morning on the Ngorongoro Crater rim you want a fleece, a hat and long trousers. In an open vehicle you want something over your knees as well. You are 610 meters (2,000 feet) above the floor you are about to drive onto, and it is cold up there before sunrise in every month of the year. By nine o’clock, down on the floor, all of it is off and folded behind the seat. Guests are caught out by this more often than by anything else on the northern circuit.
Out at Ndutu and on the southern Serengeti it works differently. Mornings are mild rather than cold, the heat arrives by mid morning, and the middle of the day is hot on open plains with no shade to drive into. Nights are warm enough that most people sleep with the tent flaps open. Karatu, up on the escarpment, is between the two and cooler than either after dark.
Zanzibar and the coast follow their own rules. Hot and humid at three in the afternoon and still hot and humid at three in the morning, because there is no altitude there to lose the heat to overnight.
January and February are the warmest stretch of the Tanzanian year. If you want station records rather than description, the Tanzania Meteorological Authority publishes them.
Why the grass is short, and why that matters
The same rain shadow is why the plains carry short grass instead of tall. Less rain and volcanic ash soils produce grazing that is low, mineral rich and open, and a nursing wildebeest needs exactly that.
For you it means sightlines. A cheetah on the southern plains in January is visible from a long way off, because there is nowhere for it to be hidden. The woodland parks work the other way in the same month.
The two halves of January
| 1 to 5 January | 6 to 31 January | |
|---|---|---|
| Our rate band | Peak | High |
| Double or twin at Karatu, per person per night | $144 | $130 |
| Double or twin in the central eastern Serengeti | $280 | $247 |
| Calving | First births, herds gathering | Building to the peak from about the third week |
| Vehicles at a sighting | Holiday traffic, the busiest week of the month | Fewer, and fewer again through February |
| Availability | Tight, booked months ahead | Easier, except on the plains |
Rates are per person per night, full board, for two people sharing, and they cover your tent or cottage and your meals. Park fees and game drives are charged separately.
The first five days carry the tail of the Christmas and New Year holiday, so they are the most expensive nights of the year and the fullest. From 6 January the rate steps down at the three properties that run seasonal bands, and the traffic thins, while the wildlife gets better rather than worse. Gnu Ndutu Camp keeps one rate across its whole season, so nothing changes there on that date. It is the only point in the calendar where the price falls and the spectacle rises in the same week.
Getting there and getting around
You fly into Kilimanjaro International Airport, which serves the whole northern circuit and is about an hour from Arusha. Everything after that is a drive, unless you choose to fly one leg.
The circuit is compact enough that you are not spending your week in the vehicle. From our lodge at Karatu it is 20 minutes to Lake Manyara and an hour to Tarangire. The Loduare gate is 30 minutes away and the crater floor about an hour. Arusha to Karatu is about two hours over 130 kilometers (81 miles) of paved road.
The long leg is the one out to the calving grounds. Ndutu is about two and a half hours from Karatu, past the crater rim. It is about two hours off the rim itself, about two hours from the central Serengeti and about five hours from Arusha.
Driving or flying to Ndutu in January
You can fly that last leg instead. Coastal Aviation flies a scheduled service into the Ndutu airstrip, about an hour and five minutes from Arusha or half an hour from the Lake Manyara airstrip, at $343 one way for an adult plus $32 in taxes and charges. It buys you most of a day.
January is the month when driving it is least likely to cost you time, because the plains are in the rain shadow and the black cotton soil out there holds firm. The wetter months are the ones where a flight starts to look like insurance. If you do fly between parks, check the luggage limit before you pack, since it is lower than your international allowance.
Where to go in Tanzania in January
Four places earn your time this month, and they earn it differently. Only one of them has anything to do with the migration.
Ndutu and the southern plains
This is where January happens. The calving herds are here, the ground is firm, and the country is open enough that you spend your time watching instead of searching.
Gnu Ndutu Camp opens in late December and takes its last booking on 31 March, so January is the early part of its season. It has ten tents, two of them family units, near Lake Ndutu on the calving grounds. Entrance, concession and seasonal campsite fees at Ndutu are collected separately by the conservation authority and are never inside the camp rate.
Ngorongoro Crater and Karatu
The crater does not change much between months. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority says its wildlife is there in every month of the year, and the floor supports around 25,000 large animals, which is what makes viewing there productive in any season. Animals move in and out over the rim and enough of them stay. Grass is short, cover is thin, and a sighting is a matter of looking rather than hunting for it.
January adds two things to that. The floor is green instead of dust brown, which changes every photograph you take. And the crater is the one place on our routes where black rhino is a realistic hope.
Karatu Tented Lodge is 30 minutes from the Loduare gate and about an hour from the crater floor, a descent of 600 meters (2,000 feet). That is why we use it for early starts. Our Ngorongoro page covers how the conservation area works.
Tarangire
Tarangire is a dry season park by reputation and the reputation is earned. Its elephants gather along the river once the rest of the country dries out, and in January the rest of the country has not dried out.
What January gives you instead is elephants without an audience. The herds still pass the Lake Burunge corridor daily, because that is where they live rather than where the season has pushed them, and there are far fewer vehicles watching them. The park is green, the grass is longer, and baobab country in full leaf is a different photograph from the same country in September. Birding is better too, because the migrants are in.
Baobab Tented Camp is inside the park on that corridor, so your drive starts at the tent rather than at a gate an hour away, and you are in the park for the first and last light of the day. Tarangire is also the only park on our routes where a night drive operates. There is more on the park on our Tarangire page.
Lake Manyara
Lake Manyara is the half day stop on the same drive, 20 minutes from our lodge at Karatu. The park is about 330 square kilometers (127 square miles) and the shallow alkaline lake covers close to two thirds of it, so the drivable ground is a narrow strip below the escarpment.
The groundwater forest at the entrance is fed by springs rather than by rain, so it is green whatever the month is doing. Flamingo numbers move with the lake level, which moves with the rains. In January the migrants are in and it is one of the better birding mornings on the circuit.
What else you can do in Tanzania in January
A game drive is not the only thing on the circuit, and January is a better month for most of the alternatives than the dry season is.
A balloon over the calving plains. Balloon flights launch over Ndutu from late December to mid March, which makes January one of the few windows in the year when you can float over the herds rather than drive through them. The central Serengeti and Tarangire fly year round. A flight is from $599 per person and covers the transfer, an hour in the air and a champagne breakfast on the ground. Children under seven cannot fly. Our hot air balloon page has the detail.
Walking. January and February are two of the better months for walking, because the ground is firm and the highland routes are not yet soft. A bush walk is $80 per person for two to three hours and a half day is $180 per person for up to six hours, and they leave from the Serengeti, from Tarangire, from the crater rim and Empakai, and from Karatu. Our walking safaris page sets out where each one goes.
A night drive in Tarangire. Tarangire is the only park on our routes that allows one, so it is the only place you will see what the bush does after dark. It is $94.50 per person plus a $59 per person activity fee to Tanzania National Parks, for two to three hours after sunset.
Culture and coffee from Karatu. Our lodge there is 45 minutes from Lake Eyasi, where the Hadzabe hunt at first light and the Datoga work iron by hand, and it is 15 minutes from Karatu town with the coffee estates toward Oldeani beyond it. These are the days that do not depend on an animal turning up, which is worth something in a green month.
Which camps are open in Tanzania in January
Four of our five properties are open in January, and each one has ten tents or cottages. The four are Mawe Tented Camp in the central eastern Serengeti, Baobab Tented Camp inside Tarangire, Karatu Tented Lodge on the escarpment and Gnu Ndutu Camp on the calving plains.
Mawe Tented Camp is open all year at Soit Le Motonyi in the central eastern Serengeti. That matters in January. The cats are where they always are while the herds are down on the southern plains, and the drive between the two areas is a game drive in its own right. Baobab Tented Camp inside Tarangire and our lodge at Karatu are open all year as well.
The closed one is Gnu Mara River Camp at Kogatende in the northern Serengeti, which we open on 1 June and close on 15 November for the Mara River crossings. Only two of our five properties are built around the migration, and that is the other one. The three that are open every month of the year are not, which is why a January route does not depend on where the herds have got to.
What a January safari costs
Three things carry the cost and it is worth seeing them apart before anyone quotes you one number.
Accommodation. Our camp rates are full board, per person for two people sharing. A double or twin at Karatu Tented Lodge is $144 per person per night to 5 January and $130 from 6 January to 28 February. The same room at Mawe Tented Camp is $280 and $247, and inside Tarangire it is $256 and $218. Gnu Ndutu Camp is the exception. A double or twin there is $286 per person per night from the day it opens to the day it comes down, with no 6 January step, because one rate applies across the whole season.
The game drive. A full day in a private 4×4 with our own guide and fuel is from $300 per vehicle, not per person.
Park fees. These are paid per person for each 24 hour period to the authority in charge of the area, and they are outside both of the figures above. January is inside the Serengeti peak window, so a non resident adult is $70 a day before 18 percent VAT, which is $82.60 paid. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority charges $70.80 per adult including VAT with no seasonal split, plus $295 per vehicle for the crater descent. Tarangire is the park where the official sources disagree, at $50 on the tariff schedule and $70 on Tanzania National Parks’ own park page, so we use the park page figure and suggest you confirm it. Lake Manyara is about $50 plus VAT, near $59.
Serengeti fees do not fall until 15 March, so January pays the same as July there.
What seven days in January adds up to
Our seven day trip is $4,360 per person for two people sharing, with a private vehicle and a guide throughout. Park fees are outside that figure, and so are international flights and your visa.
On a route with two nights at Ndutu, one crater day and two Serengeti days, those fees come out roughly like this, per person.
| Fee | How it is charged | Per person |
|---|---|---|
| Ngorongoro Conservation Area, three days | $70.80 per adult per 24 hours, Ndutu included | $212.40 |
| Crater service fee | $295 per vehicle, one entry within 24 hours | $147.50 |
| Serengeti, two days | $70 plus 18 percent VAT per 24 hours | $165.20 |
That is about $525 per person, so budget near $4,900 before flights and visa. Fees are charged per 24 hour period, so your own number moves with your entry and exit times, and the Ndutu concession and campsite fees are quoted with your dates. Our five day trip is $2,114 per person and the nine day is $5,605, both for two sharing, and the whole picture is on our Tanzania safari cost page.
Before you travel
Most visitors apply for the visa online before they fly, and a single entry tourist visa allows a stay of up to 90 days. Fees depend on your nationality, so take the current one from the official site. Our post on how to obtain a tourist visa walks through it.
Malaria is present across northern Tanzania in every month, and January is the part of it that matters to you, because a wet month means more standing water and more mosquitoes than the dry season. Talk to a travel clinic well before you fly, and pack repellent and long sleeves for after dark. Whether you need a yellow fever certificate depends on the countries you pass through on the way rather than on Tanzania alone. Bring insurance that covers medical evacuation.
Birding in Tanzania in January
January is the peak month for migrant arrivals. Palearctic species escaping the northern winter are here in numbers on top of a long resident list, and wet ground brings waterbirds to Manyara and the crater floor that are not there in August.
The circuit also holds the grey breasted spurfowl, a Serengeti ecosystem endemic, and the Tanzanian endemics rufous tailed weaver and Ashy starling. Those do not depend on the season. A private vehicle matters more for birding than for anything else, because you can spend twenty minutes at one acacia without anybody losing patience.
Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar in January
Kilimanjaro is inside the same dry gap between the rains, which makes January one of the more settled months on the mountain, with clear days and good views from the higher camps. Warm at the base means little at altitude, because the summit is below freezing in every month. We are not a trekking operator, so we would point you at a specialist and take over the day you come down.
Zanzibar in January is hot and humid, with the best underwater visibility of the year. The island is fullest and dearest in the first week for the same reason the mainland is. We have no property on the islands, so a beach extension is a partner hotel we arrange and name before you book anything.
What to pack for Tanzania in January
Layers first, and the reason is the crater rim rather than the plains. A fleece and a light rain shell cover both ends of the day.
The January additions to our usual list are insect repellent and binoculars, the first because it is a wet month and the second because the migrants are in. Neutral colors still apply, and so does the luggage limit if you are flying between parks. Our safari packing list covers the rest of the year.
Tanzania tours in January
A January route goes south. That is the one structural difference from a dry season trip, where the nights go north.
Five days takes in Tarangire, the crater and the Ndutu plains and gets you to the calving with time to spare. Seven adds the central Serengeti, so you have the resident cats at Soit Le Motonyi alongside the herds in the south. Nine covers the central and southern Serengeti without a day that is only driving. Every route is on our itineraries page.
Who Tanzania in January suits, and who it does not
| If this is you | January |
|---|---|
| A wildlife photographer | Yes. Short grass, open ground, green backgrounds instead of dust, and predators hunting in daylight where you can see them |
| On your first safari | Yes. The animals are concentrated in one place, so you spend the week watching rather than searching, which is not true of April or May |
| A couple | Yes, from 6 January. Lower rates and fewer vehicles at a sighting once the holiday week is over |
| A family who wants to see baby animals | Yes, with one caveat worth reading twice. Half a million calves are born on these plains, and predators take some of them in front of the vehicle. Decide in advance whether your children want to watch that |
| Trying to avoid dry season crowds | Yes, after the first week. The first five days are the busiest of the month, and the Ndutu camps book out early whatever you do |
| Set on dry, open, dust-colored country | No. January is green, and the woodland parks carry longer grass than they do in September. June to October is your month |
| Uncomfortable in humidity | Partly. The plains are hot by mid morning and the nights stay warm, and Zanzibar is humid at every hour of the day. The crater rim and Karatu are the cool half of the circuit |
| Here for a river crossing | No. Those belong to July through October in the north, and our camp up there is closed until 1 June |
The two rows worth arguing with are the family one and the humidity one, and both come down to the same thing. January gives you a wet season month with one dry corner in it, and the dry corner is where the animals are.
January or the dry season?
This is the real choice for anybody deciding between January and a month like July or September, and it turns on which spectacle you want.
The dry season gives you visibility. Grass is short and brown across the whole ecosystem, water is scarce so animals gather at what is left, and sightlines are long everywhere rather than only on the plains. From July the herds are in the north and the Mara River crossings are possible from about August. It is also when most of the year’s visitors come, which means more vehicles at every good sighting and peak rates at every camp.
Tanzania in January gives you density instead. The herds are not spread across 30,000 square kilometers, they are packed onto the southern plains and they are calving. That produces daylight predator activity on open ground at a scale the dry season does not match. The cost is thicker bush in the woodland parks and a real chance of an afternoon shower.
Come in the dry season for river crossings and long sightlines through the whole circuit. Come in January for newborns, hunting cats and a lower rate from 6 January. Neither is the better month in the abstract.
FAQs
6 January is the first night of our lower rate, and Gnu Ndutu Camp is open from late December until 31 March.
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Reviewed by the Mawe Lodges reservations team, Arusha.
