Best Time to Visit Kenya for Safari: Weather, Parks & the Great Migration

June to October: the dry months

From June the long rains have usually finished, and over the following weeks seasonal pools dry up and the grass is grazed down. Animals move towards rivers, swamps and permanent waterholes, and short grass makes them easier to spot. Around the Mara, July averages 16.6 mm of rain against 135.4 mm in April. In Amboseli and Tsavo the change is even sharper: June to September average between 1 and 15 mm a month, so the plains turn dusty and elephants gather at Amboseli's swamps.

July and August are the busiest months of the year at Amboseli, Lake Nakuru and both Tsavo parks, and the Mara's entry fee doubles on 1 July. October is quieter: Amboseli had about half its August visitors in October 2025, and the herds are usually still somewhere in the Mara. It is also the month when the dry season starts to break. The short rains often reach Samburu and Ol Pejeta during October, and the Mara and Amboseli get a little more rain than in September.

June: the best-value dry-season month

June gives you most of what makes the dry season good, for less. The long rains have usually finished, and the plains are drying out around the Mara, Amboseli and Tsavo. Parks are still well below their peak: Amboseli had about 26,100 visitors in June 2025 against about 49,000 in August. The Mara's non-resident adult entry fee was $100 a day until 30 June in 2026, before rising to $200. The catch is the migration: in some years the first herds are in the Mara by late June, and in others they arrive in July.

November and December: the short rains

These months are very different from park to park. Around the Mara the short rains are modest, about 74 mm in November, and the plains turn green again. Around Amboseli and Tsavo, November and December are the wettest months of the whole year: about 172 mm in November near Amboseli and 119 mm in December near Tsavo, more than their April totals. Rain usually comes in afternoon storms, and game drives still run, but tracks in Tsavo can close after heavy rain. If your trip is in these months, a Mara and Lake Nakuru route usually stays drier than a southern one.

January and February: warm and fairly dry

After the short rains most parks have a warm, drier spell. It is the driest part of the year around Lake Nakuru (29 mm in January) and in Amboseli and Tsavo rain is back down to about 30 to 40 mm a month. Around the Mara it is wetter than June to October, at 67 to 79 mm, but far drier than April. The Mara's lower entry fee applies, and Amboseli had fewer than half its August visitors in both months of 2025. Tsavo East is the exception: it stays fairly busy in January and February.

The migration is not in Kenya then. The herds are calving on the short-grass plains of the southern Serengeti in Tanzania, which is a reason to add Tanzania to the trip, and not a reason to be in the Mara. Our Kenya vs Tanzania guide covers that combination.

March to May: the long rains and the green season

The long rains usually start in March and peak in April, when the Mara area averages 135 mm and Ol Pejeta about 187 mm. Vegetation gets thicker, wildlife disperses more widely and many park roads need a 4x4, as Kenya Wildlife Service warns for this time of year. In return the landscape is at its greenest, and these are the quietest months: Amboseli had about 11,600 visitors in May 2025 against about 49,000 in August, and Tsavo West had about 3,200. The landscape is green, migrant birds are still around, and game drives go out in the rain, which tends to fall in heavy afternoon bursts.

May is often kinder in the south than in the Mara: near Amboseli and Tsavo it averages about 30 mm, against 92 mm near the Mara. Averages are only averages, though. The Mara had around 140 mm in April 2026 and only 21 mm in May 2026, according to one camp's own rain gauge.

The migration is a year-round loop of wildebeest and zebra between Tanzania's Serengeti and Kenya's Masai Mara, following rain and fresh grass. The Mara Conservancy, which manages the Mara Triangle in the west of the reserve, describes the Kenyan season as usually starting in June or July and going on until November. Its monthly reports show how much that moves from year to year.

In 2025 the herds started entering the Mara on 6 July and the first crossing into the Triangle came on 25 July, followed by several days of large crossings. Heavy rain from 9 August flooded the river and sent most of the herds back into Tanzania within days. In 2026 the first animals crossed the Sand River into the main reserve on 28 June, and August stayed mostly dry. The Conservancy counted about 200,000 animals in the Triangle by mid-August; after a storm on 17 August most of those moved back across the border, and the Conservancy expected many to return. Its reports cover only the Triangle, so they do not show what happened in the rest of the reserve.

So July to October is when the herds are usually somewhere in the Mara, not a timetable for river crossings. Give the Mara three or four nights if crossings are the goal, and expect some waiting by the river. The other parks on a multi-park trip are not part of the migration, and their resident wildlife, such as Amboseli's elephants and Lake Nakuru's rhinos, is there all year. The Great Migration guide follows the herds month by month.

Temperature changes more between parks than between months. The Mara and Lake Nakuru sit high, so the days are mild and the mornings are cold in every month. Tsavo and Amboseli are lower and hotter.

In the Mara the warmest days are in February, at around 27 °C, and the coolest in July, at around 22 °C, so month barely changes what you wear by day. What catches people out is the early drive: at about 9 °C and in a moving vehicle with the roof up, it feels colder still, so bring a fleece, a hat and gloves in any month. These are averages, and a warm spell or a cold snap can push any day outside them.

Game drives are in closed safari vans or 4x4s with a pop-up roof, so rain does not stop you watching wildlife. What it changes is the grass, where the animals are and how the tracks drive, which is why the rain figures above matter more than the temperature.

Kenya sits on the equator, so the day is about 12 hours long all year: 12 hours 2 minutes in June and 12 hours 12 minutes in December at the Mara. Sunrise and sunset barely move, so morning and afternoon drives start at about the same time in every month.

The 2026 short rains

For October to December 2026, the Kenya Meteorological Department expects above-average rain across most of the country as a strong El Niño develops, with a risk of floods and roads being cut off. If you are travelling in those months, leave a spare half-day between parks and ask your operator about road conditions before each transfer. We will update this note when the season is under way.