The best month for the Great Migration
There isn't one. There are six, and they're each good at something different. A month-by-month read on where the herds actually are.
The migration is sold as an event and experienced as a weather system. The herds are always somewhere; the question is only whether that somewhere is dramatic, crowded, or both.
July and August are the river crossings, the images you have in your head. They are also the most-booked weeks in East Africa, and the Mara triangle in August has more vehicles than wildebeest at some crossings. If crossings are non-negotiable, book fourteen months out and accept the company.
“The permit buys you a morning. Everything else you do buys you the odds that the morning is the one you'll talk about for ten years.”
January and February put the herds in the southern Serengeti for calving. Half a million calves in three weeks, and every predator on the ecosystem within walking distance. It is, honestly, better wildlife viewing than the crossings, and it is quieter.
The shoulder months, late May and early November, are the designer's secret. The herds are moving, the camps are half price, and the light after the short rains is the best of the year.
Writes for The Passage about the parts of a trip that don't fit in a brochure. Available to design yours.