Lodges in Northern Serengeti  : The Northern Serengeti offers a chance to escape the crowds: this region of the park – wedged between the Central Serengeti and Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve to the north – is remote and relatively inaccessible, which means it sees fewer visitors.

Travelers who make it to this corner of the Serengeti will be rewarded with gorgeous landscapes of green rolling hills, granite outcrops and acacia woodlands dotting open savanna, incredible wildlife, and most importantly, massive herds of wildebeest and zebra making the dangerous crossing of the croc-infested Mara River during the Great Migration in June and July and again in September, October and November. This sector of the park is also home to the greatest concentration of elephants in the Serengeti, as well as good numbers of lions, leopards, cheetahs and hyenas and diverse resident animals such as giraffes, topi, eland and hippos.

Lying in the park’s northeastern corner, the remote Lobo Valley is a particularly beautiful part of the park, encompassing open plains, rolling hills, dramatic kopjes and woodlands. It’s known for large elephant herds and the second-largest lion pride in the Serengeti, and it’s not unusual to spot lions, leopards and cheetahs on one game drive.

The Lobo Valley is also home to year-round resident game such as giraffe, hartebeest, topi and buffalo, while the herds of the Great Migration pass through the valley in July and August, moving north and then returning on their southwards journey between September and November.

Outside of the park’s boundaries to the east and bordering Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the Maasai-owned Loliondo Game Controlled Area is nearly a third of the size of the Serengeti itself. This private concession is an important wildlife corridor and the herds of the Great Migration pass through here on their southwards march from Kenya in November and December.

The benefit of staying in lodges in the Loliondo is seeing all of the wildlife of the Serengeti but with the activities that are not permitted in the national park: night drives and off-road driving. Lodges also offer walking safaris and cultural activities with the Maasai.