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Home to one of the most spectacular safari experiences on the continent

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Part of the Serengeti ecosystem – definitely one of Tanzania’s must-see places – the landscape of this 829,200-hectare UNESCO World Heritage Site ranges from short-grass plains, grazed by dazzles of zebra and large herds of wildebeest, to placid crater lakes and volcanic peaks wreathed in cloud.

The famous Ngorongoro Crater — one of the new Seven Natural Wonders of Africa and the feature from which the NCA takes its name — is the world’s largest inactive and empty volcanic caldera, formed 2 to 3 million years ago. Around 25,000 large animals live in the 30,000-hectare crater, including lion, black rhino and elephant. 

Spend a day on safari in the crater, pausing for a special lunch in the bush. Visitors can also hike up the Olmoti volcano, trek down to the Empakaai Crater lake (where pink flamingos flock in the shallows) or visit a Ngorongoro village to learn about Maasai culture. 

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Matemwe beach dhow sailing
Migration serengeti wildebeast
Mobile tent exterior migration serengeti
Zuri beach palm tree

The Crater: A Diversity and Abundance of Wildlife

A great moment in a traveller’s life: Winding up the forested flanks of the long-retired volcano, up to its very rim, and suddenly, 2,000 feet below, a stunning, world-unique view of the great caldera, undiscovered until 1892.

The Ngorongoro Crater is one of our solar system’s greatest geographic ornaments, a gorgeous natural Eden the size of 75 Central Parks, home to 30,000 free-roaming animals. All-in-all, a superlative safari destination. And, as geologic masterpieces go, Ngorongoro has had quite a career. It’s been a gigantic peak, perhaps a rival of Kilimanjaro, and, after it blew its snowy top in what must have been a rather impressive explosion (our forefathers over at the nearby Olduvai Gorge, busy getting their humanoid act together, probably saw it), Ngoro­ngoro spent many millennia as an alternately quiet and occasionally bubbling lava lake. Now in an extended pacific mood, the crater is about as close as we’ll ever get to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World —which, it must be said, lacked the creature comforts of our luxury lodges, not to mention the ease and comfort of descending to the crater’s lush floor for some of Africa’s finest safari gameviewing.

Things we love about, and love to do in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area

  • Reveling in the world-uniqueness of the 100-square mile crater, standing on its grassy floor realizing that a couple of million years ago we’d be stuck in a fierce volcano with thousands of feet of rock over our heads.
  • Watching hippos galumph in waterholes, wondering, like Peter Matthiessen, how the huge beasts could have found their way into the crater.
  • Horsebacking and mountain biking on the crater’s lush slopes, based on the idyllic Manor at Ngorongoro, followed by a vitalizing swim in its pool.  
  • Standing on the deck at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge on the crater’s rim, looking 2,000 feet down at elephants ambling and beautifully designed zebras flowing across the acacia-dotted landscape.
  • Breathing in the pure air of the African highlands. “It went to my head like wine,” Isak Dinesen wrote, “I was all the time slightly drunk with it.”
  • And, as William Hazlett said, “In travelling we visit names as well as places,” so we stop to enjoy just being in a place with such a magically evocative name: The Ngorongoro Crater!

How did the hippopotamus find its way up into the Crater Highlands, to blunder into