The best time to visit Masai Mara

In the Mara you do not choose weather but price and wildebeest: from July to October the herds are here, crossing the Mara river, and the reserve charges €173 per person per day; from January to June it is €86, it is dry from January to March, and the lions, leopards and cheetahs are here all year. Anyone who must see a crossing pays double; anyone who wants a safari goes in February.

The Mara has two rainy and two dry seasons, but a traveller cares about one thing only: where the wildebeest are and what the gate costs. Below is month by month, with both.

The wildebeest and zebra herds enter from the Serengeti in July, cross the Mara river in August and September at a few known places — with crocodiles waiting — and go back south in October. In that period the reserve charges €173 per foreign adult per day, the camps are full and booked since winter, and thirty vehicles stand around every crossing. The weather is dry and cold in the morning — at 1,600 metres a July morning is around ten to twelve degrees, so you get into the open vehicle in a jacket.

When to goAnd where are the herds from November to June?The best time to visit Serengeti →

The short rains stop in December, the grass dies back and the savanna opens: lions, leopards and cheetahs are seen as in summer. There are resident wildebeest — the Mara has its own herd that does not migrate — just no river with crossings. Entry is €86, the camps have space and prices without the August markup. For anyone to whom the safari matters more than one spectacle, this is the better half of the year.

BudgetWhat the same three days cost in February and in August:What Masai Mara costs →

The long rains: downpours every afternoon, mud, tracks in the reserve that close, and vehicles that get stuck. In return it is green, empty and the cheapest of the year, with camps halving prices or closing. The animals are the same, only in the tall grass after the rains they are seen from fewer places. Not for a first safari; for anyone who has been and wants the Mara without anybody, yes.

Month by month

If you only get one — February — or September if a river crossing is the goal

Nothing, except being there. The herds cross when they want, at a few places along the Mara river, and guides with radios know where they gather — but not when they will go. You wait for hours on the bank with the engine off, and sometimes in three days it does not happen once, and sometimes three times in one morning. Anyone coming for a crossing plans at least three days and a camp by the river, not by the gate. Anyone coming for the Mara does not have to wait for anything.