Serengeti National Park vs Maasai Mara National Reserve

Serengeti National Park vs Maasai Mara National Reserve. It’s the most common question among the travellers who wish to enjoy the best of East Africa. They mostly sometimes find themselves in crossroads to choose between the two famous national parks in Africa that is Maasai Mara and Serengeti. In most cases, it’s a very challenging decision to take hence making others decide to visit both parks at the same time.

Comparing Serengeti National Park vs Maasai Mara National Reserve is more complicated since one is a complement of the other. They both have good similarities and few differences and such complications make it hard to reach into a conclusion. This article is purposely to highlight the best of the two parks for easy decision making when planning for your African trip. It is sometimes the best decision to use our combined safaris to visit the best African national parks.

On the first place, the Serengeti Ecosystem combines both Maasai Mara national reserve found in Kenya and the Tanzania famous Serengeti national park. The Mara-Serengeti ecosystem covers an area of around 30,000 square Kilometres, this includes even private protected areas and game reserves. The endless plains of Serengeti stretch from the Southern Serengeti that is the Northern Ngorongoro crater that ends across the country boundaries to Kenya Masai Mara. The Serengeti Ecosystem encompasses a wide range of different habitats with short grass and dotted Acacia trees, hilly Kopjes and woodlands as one approaches the South of Masai Mara.

From the West of Serengeti towards the African largest freshwater lake that is Lake Victoria to the Maasai Mara the landscape changes to more forested Acacia woodland. It’s here where one can find all the 16 species of Acacia species distributed according to the variation and type of the soils.

Wildlife of Serengeti National Park vs Masai Mara national reserve

Both of the protected areas are gifted with wildlife with much or almost all in common. In fact, most of the animals visible in Mara are also seen in Serengeti. The habitats are a home of a vast array of wildlife in large numbers. The Serengeti ecosystem has over 3000 lions, 1000 leopards, over 8,000 hyenas hence making the guests to enjoy the predator views during their game drives.

Both of the parks are famous with the seven natural wonders of the world and the largest live animal migration on planet earth called the wildebeest migration. The annually circular movement of these Genus contributes much to the development of tourism in Africa. The lively crossing of millions of wildebeest, thousands of Zebras and hundreds of other grazers like topi, antelopes, Gazelle and others.

The parks are the home of the wildebeest migration that starts annually from July to August when the wildebeest cross the Mara River from Serengeti to Masai mara and later in October they cross back from Maasai Mara to Serengeti. During this era, more predators are attracted to the event scene as they look for the prey to feed on making the action lively and experiential

Despite the fact that its hard to compare and make a final decision which park to visit between Serengeti national park vs Maasai mara national reserve, the fact is Masai Mara has more resident game than Serengeti making it easy to view the animals throughout the year as opposed to Serengeti where the seasonal migration affects game viewing as animals follow the climatic conditions of the area.

Safari experience

In fact, any of the two parks give you the best true African wildlife experience which is a one-time life safari experience. You will see all the big African big 5 in a very short time during your game drive, the animals are plenty as the landscape adds an advantage to see animals at close and long-distance. 4×4 safari vans or Land cruiser with the open roof is required for the best safari experience. Night and walking safaris are restricted inside the parks but can be done in the game reserves around the parks.

The safari experience is also determined by the tour operator and experienced driver-guide you are using through all Africans are more hospitable and warm welcoming. Their experience at the parks will guide you to choose what is the best time to visit Serengeti national park vs Maasai mara national reserve. This will help you choose which park to go depending on the available time you have for the holiday.

In conclusion, Serengeti national park vs Maasai mara national reserve is more uncomparable since they offer almost the same safari experience but only determined by good timing. Maasai Mara can have an upper hand for guests who have a short holiday and working on a tight budget since one can use a small time to view much. While on the other hand, Serengeti is great for guests who have more days in the holiday as the park is large and have wonderful neighbouring back up from other prominent parks like Ngorongoro crater, Lake Mayara and Tarangire national park.