By air
Kilimanjaro (JRO), ~4 h by road
Africa · Tanzania
Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
A crater full of wildlife
Getting there
Best time to visit
June to October — dry
Don't miss
The Ngorongoro Crater
The Lerai Forest
Lake Magadi
The Olduvai Gorge
Things to do
A crater game drive
Maasai villages
The Olduvai Gorge
Where to eat
Sources: Photo: Jantjeerkamp at Dutch Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
What to pack
Warm layers (it is cold at the rim)
A quieter corner
The Empakaai crater's flamingo lake
Questions travellers ask
When should I plan a trip to the Ngorongoro Crater?
June to October, when it's dry. Pack warm layers, as it is cold at the rim.
What does a Ngorongoro Crater game drive cover?
A crater full of wildlife, plus the Lerai Forest and Lake Magadi. Also visit Maasai villages and the Olduvai Gorge.
Is there a hidden gem around Ngorongoro?
The Empakaai crater's flamingo lake. Back on the rim, meals are at the lodges.
How far is Ngorongoro from Kilimanjaro airport?
About 4 hours by road from Kilimanjaro (JRO).
About Ngorongoro Crater
- Mountains
Where it is
The Ngorongoro Crater is a huge volcanic caldera in the Crater Highlands of northern Tanzania, west of Arusha, its floor about 600 m below the forested rim and wide enough to hold grassland, a soda lake and swamps.
History
The crater formed when a large volcano collapsed on itself between two and three million years ago. It became part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in 1959, where Maasai herders live alongside wildlife, and the area, which includes Olduvai Gorge, one of the most important sites for the study of human origins, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
People
The Maasai live throughout the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, speaking Maa and herding cattle, goats and sheep, while the Iraqw farm the highlands around Karatu, and the Hadzabe, among the last hunter-gatherers of East Africa, live near Lake Eyasi to the south.
Known for
- Game drives on the crater floor
- Black rhinos and lions
- The flamingos of Lake Magadi
- Olduvai Gorge
- The Empakaai Crater
Did you know?
Ngorongoro is often described as the largest unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera in the world, and it holds one of the densest concentrations of large mammals in Africa.
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.