Fantastic park with varied wildlife and diverse landscape (Serengeti National Park)

Member Name: cawatkins10

Product:	Serengeti National Park
Date:	19/06/09 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of animals to see and so big you could drive around for weeks and still not see everything

Disadvantages: Due to the large space you don't see things sometimes for an hour or two so children may be bored

We visited Tanzania in February of this year and did a tour around various National Parks. The Serengeti was one of the last on our itinerary and we had two days within the park itself staying at the Seronera Lodge.

Facts about the Serengeti
The park covers 5,700 square miles of grassland, plains and savannah and is on the boarders of Kenya and the Massi Mara Game reserve. It is split into three regions; Central Serengeti, The Western Corridor and The Northern Reaches. Most Safaris concentrate on the Central Serengeti region which is mainly made up of the more familiar grassy plains.
Every year the migration of over one million wildebeest and zebra migrate from the Serengeti into the Massi Mara, it is an awsome sight and one not to be missed.
The Park is home to many animals, lions, leopards, cheetas and elephants to name a few as well as many birds and plant life. There are a massive 1.5 million wildebeest alone as well as 200,000 Zebras and 350,000 Gazelle.
One of the main draws to this particluar park is the varied bird life and (even thought not keen bird watchers ourselves) we certainly found them an interesting species to watch out for.

Accomodation
Within the park and on the park boarders there are various lodges and camping sites for you and your safari group to stay at. These vary in price from $650 per night up to $1000 per night. I would recommend staying inside the park as it adds to the experience of the trip. You never know if you might wake up and find a lion sitting outside your window.....

Our experience
We travelled from Lake Manyara National Park to the Serengeti which was a long drive so we had an early start at 7am. We were able to do some sightseeing from the afternoon at about 2pm when we arrived until dusk. On that first outing we saw Hyena, Jackal and part of the migration into the Massi Mara which was an absolute thrill. The noise in incredible and you cannot explain it, you just have to see it to believe it.
Over the next few days we also managed to see a lioness with three cubs who our guide told us were probably only a few weeks old. We felt so privilaged to be able to see these animals in their natural habitat and we watched them suckling from mum until they all calmly walked away, we could have happily watched them for hours on end. We also saw a mother cheetah with her four (slightly more grown up) cubs who were playing and rolling around with each other as well as two seperate leopards who are very hard to spot in the wild due to their natural shyness. One of the main sights we saw was an attempted lion kill which our guide said we were very lucky to see. I was quite glad that we didn't actually get to see the kill and that the warthog that she was chasing managed to get away as I'm not sure that I could have watched it.....

Summary
This wasn't our favourite park on the trip (that was Ngorongoro Crater) but it was definitley up there with the best and not only has some amazing animals to see but also some of the most amazing and most diverse landscape you will ever encounter.
We loved the Safari and cannot wait to go back again at some point, it's just such a shame that it is one of the most expensive holidays you will go on in your lifetime.

Summary: I would go again in an instant - if I had the money!