Ngorongoro Crater

Some three million years ago a volcano the size of Kilimanjaro collapsed in on itself, leaving a caldera 600 metres deep and about 260 square kilometres across. Today the Ngorongoro Crater floor is a self-contained world of grassland, swamp, forest and soda lake, holding roughly 25,000 large animals — the densest concentration of large mammals anywhere on earth.

The crater is the most dependable Big Five day in Tanzania. Lion, elephant, buffalo and leopard are all resident, and the crater offers one of East Africa’s best chances of seeing the critically endangered black rhino in the wild.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area around the crater is a UNESCO World Heritage Site of extraordinary cultural depth. Maasai communities graze cattle across its highlands as they have for generations, and Olduvai Gorge — one of the world’s most important archaeological sites, where early hominid footprints and fossils were unearthed — lies within its boundaries.

We time crater descents for early morning, when the light is soft and the floor is quietest, and we choose lodges deliberately: crater-rim properties for the view and the early gate, or Karatu farm lodges for value and charm. Accommodation in the area runs from premium luxury lodges to comfortable tented camps.