Reviews: Safari in Ngorongoro Crater

"A day in the Ngorongoro crater is amazing - the crater is huge, awe inspiring and descending to the crater floor presents another world.

The wildlife is abundant and relatively easy to find.

Our guide Lazaro was excellent, and very flexible in understanding our interests and taking the time to explore them" Read more about this whole safari

"We were happy to be on the way down early. The road is exciting, a bit dusty in dry weather.

The crater drive was fantastic. Anafi is very smart and was very excited to share all he knows. We were fortunate to have him with us.

We had breakfast and lunch in the crater. It is a unique experience not to be missed." Read more about this whole safari

"Rowland was a fabulous guide. We learned so much from him. He picked us up for an early start to the day and it was worth it. We had both breakfast and lunch in the crater. We saw so many animals and learned so much from Rowland. He was patient and willing to answer all our questions and waiting for sightings.

He is a dedicated NOMAD guide!

Rowland also played a huge part in the new plan to take us to our next camp by vehicle rather than air. We appreciated his willingness to drive us eight hours and mix in a game drive along the way! We saw another leopard! Success all the way around!" Read more about this whole safari

"It is a long drive to the camp, as it is situated on the northeastern rim near the Lemala mini gate, which is absolutely worth it as you have a head start the following morning getting to the crater floor itself, taking at most 15 minutes to get there. Later, hundreds of vehicles descend on the crater during the day, so it becomes very crowded.

As more vehicles showed up, it became necessary to keep closing the windows which became a pain. Nurdin explained that many tourists take in the Ngorongoro Crater as a drive through event. Meaning these tourists were coming from the Serengeti or Arusha and drove to the national park on their way to the day’s end destination. We think this contributed to heavy, fast-moving traffic and very dusty conditions. We did see lots of animals and for the most part it was very enjoyable, although we were stuck for over two hours once as everyone wanted to see the rhino. You could see about half of him from behind a tree and from a considerable distance. There was no way to move as a single lane dirt road became a parking lot with trucks parked every which way. This was not fun.

Animals:
Buffalo - multi - 10+
Eland - multi - 5+
Elephant - multi - 10+
Giraffe - multi - 10+
Hippo - multi - 10+
Lion - multi - 10+" Read more about this whole safari

"We were in good hands with our guide, Mul. He was a very good driver and a very informative guide. He advised us that the best plan was to set off early, have breakfast in the crater and return to the lodge for a late lunch - this way we would avoid the crowds that arrive at lunchtime. This was absolutely the right advice.

It was a relatively short drive to the entrance and we were one of the first vehicles to enter. The steep drive down was thrilling - it definitely felt as though we were entering a different world, which on that day was quite cool! Within minutes of reaching the bottom we stopped and there, in the middle distance, was a black rhino, moving away from us. We both had excellent views through our binos - we had seen them before at closer range at a waterhole in Namibia, but it felt special to see one here in its natural habitat.

I think we spent almost six hours moving round the crater, appreciating its huge size; the steepness and completeness of its walls (very difficult to convey in photos!); and the variety of scenery within it. We saw plenty of animals, always appreciated even when we have seen them before. We particularly enjoyed seeing some elephants with longer tusks; hippos rolling over in a shallow pond with their little legs momentarily waving in the air; zebras gathering round rocks, contorting themselves to get an all-over scratch; and some magnificent male lions.

Our most notable viewing was of a lion, which had caught a wildebeest, being attacked by a pack of at least twenty hyenas (after they had banded together to chase away his brother who might otherwise have helped him). It was quite brutal, and at one point Mul said he feared for the lion, which was bleeding quite badly. However, after a long battle the hyenas appeared to retreat, probably because the lion had bitten several of them. We left optimistic that the lion would be OK. We were very privileged to witness this battle of nature, particularly since there were only two other vehicles with us.

On a calmer note, we had lovely views of birds, particularly crowned cranes, pelicans, ibises, storks, flamingos and beautiful Kori Bustards.

We had a very pleasant breakfast by a quiet lagoon and afterwards continued our unhurried and still quiet drive. As Mul had predicted, it changed dramatically after about midday - there was an increasing number of vehicles and every time one stopped there were another ten within seconds. Many stopped with no consideration for others wanting to go past, so it all became rather chaotic.

We were happy therefore to make our way to the exit road, where it all quietened down again. We had a lovely drive up with entertaining views of elephant families on the way. A final view down from the top into the very special world we had visited. A great experience.

In our opinion, staying at a lodge within easy reach of the entrance is essential to enjoyment of Ngorongoro.

Just an extra note about Mul's driving skill in getting us back to the airstrip the next day. We woke to thick fog, which persisted all the way until we started the descent to the entrance gate. So Mul had 2 hours of driving with very limited visibility, on a road with steep drop-offs and which was liable to be slippery in the damp, with an almost continuous stream of vehicles coming the other way. He did brilliantly. The number of vehicles we passed, and the sheer chaos at the entrance gate among those yet to enter reinforced how lucky we were to stay at Entamanu Lodge. Thank you, Mul." Read more about this whole safari

"The safari in Ngorongoro Crater was great." Read more about this whole safari

"Excellent" Read more about this whole safari

"We LOVED the Ngorongoro Crater and wish we could have spend more time here. It was amazing to see giant herds of so many different types of animals, lions feeding on a fresh kill, and being lucky enough to spot rhino's too!" Read more about this whole safari

"The crater was a magical experience and we enjoyed our two days of game drives throughout the area." Read more about this whole safari

"Recent years have seen increased rainfall which has caused an increase in the vegetation in certain areas and we have lost a few of our regular and favourite photo sites as the animals no longer frequent those areas.

We only had time for a three hour visit so did not explore as much as on previous visits." Read more about this whole safari