The Great Migration, explained: where the herds are in each month

The migration is not an event. It is a slow clockwise loop that the wildebeest, with the zebra and gazelle, walk every year around the Serengeti ecosystem, following the rain and the grass. Where you should be depends entirely on when you travel, and the famous river crossings are only one chapter.

December to March: the southern plains

The herds arrive on the short grass plains around Ndutu in December and stay while the grass is sweet. From late January to early March they calve, half a million calves in a few weeks, and the lions, cheetahs and hyenas of the south work through the daylight hours. For watching predators, this is the best time of the whole year, and the grass is short enough to see it.

April to June: north and west

As the plains dry the herds move north west through the central Serengeti and into the Western Corridor. In late May and June they reach the Grumeti river, whose crocodiles have waited a year. The Grumeti crossings are smaller than the Mara's and far fewer vehicles watch them; June is our favourite month to send people there.

July to October: the Mara river

By July the front of the migration is at the Mara river in the far north, and from then until early October the herds cross and recross it as the rain moves. This is the footage everyone has seen. A crossing cannot be booked; you wait on the bank, sometimes for hours, and a full day at the river gives you a fair chance. Two days gives you a good one.

November: south again

The short rains pull the herds back south through the eastern Serengeti towards the plains, spread out and moving fast. The central Serengeti is good in November, and cheaper than August.

What we tell people

If your dates are fixed, tell us and we put you where the herds are. If they are flexible, decide what you want to see: the calving for drama and predators, the Grumeti for quiet, the Mara for the crossings. All three are on the site as trips with real prices.