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You do not choose the month. The month chooses the country.
Work forwards from the date you are stuck with and the shortlist writes itself.
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| Month | Best for | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| January | Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar | Hot, dry and excellent. Calving begins in the southern Serengeti. |
| February | Tanzania, Kenya, Zanzibar | Peak calving in the Serengeti; the best month of the year on the coast. |
| March | Kenya, Zanzibar | Still good, getting hotter, rates soften towards the end of the month. |
| April | Rwanda, Uganda | The long rains begin. Green, empty, cheap, genuinely wet. Some camps close. |
| May | Rwanda, Uganda, green-season bargains | The wettest month in much of East Africa. Dramatic and very quiet. |
| June | Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana | The dry season begins. Botswana’s flood arrives in the Delta. Prices rise. |
| July | Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana | Migration herds reach the Mara. Peak everything — book six to twelve months ahead. |
| August | Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana | The busiest month. Extraordinary game, highest prices, and you will share sightings. |
| September | Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania | Our favourite month for a honeymoon: peak game, marginally fewer people than August. |
| October | Kenya, Botswana | Still dry and excellent, and the last of the peak rates. |
| November | Kenya, Zanzibar, Rwanda | Short rains: brief afternoon storms, very low rates, hardly anybody there. |
| December | Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar | Excellent. The Christmas fortnight is the most heavily booked of the year. |
If your date falls in the rains
April and May are the long rains, and pretending otherwise helps nobody. Three honest options:
- Rwanda or Uganda. Gorilla trekking runs all year. Rain makes the forest muddier and the trek harder, not impossible, and the lodges are excellent.
- Go anyway, at green-season rates. Thirty to forty per cent below peak, empty camps, spectacular skies and real rain most afternoons. For a couple who do not mind weather, it is the best value in African travel.
- Delay the honeymoon. Two or three months later costs you nothing but patience, and more couples do it than admit to it.
The month we recommend most
September, if you have a choice. Peak dry-season game, the migration still in the Mara, slightly fewer people than August, and the coast is good. It is also the month that books out earliest, which tells you something.
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