July: Peak Season Everywhere

July is peak safari season across the whole continent, and for good reason. The Great Migration reaches the northern Serengeti, and the year's most dramatic spectacle begins: hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra massing on the banks of the Grumeti and Mara rivers before plunging past waiting crocodiles. Cool, dry, virtually rain-free weather concentrates wildlife at rivers and waterholes, so game viewing is superb everywhere, from Amboseli's elephant herds beneath Kilimanjaro to leopard along the Seronera Valley.

And it is not only East Africa. Botswana's Okavango Delta reaches peak flood in July, opening its channels to mokoro canoe safaris just as the surrounding country dries out. Kruger delivers its best Big Five viewing of the year, and the dry forest trails of Rwanda and Uganda make this prime time to trek to the mountain gorillas.

Expect chilly early mornings (game-drive dawns can dip toward 10°C, so pack layers) plus the golden, dusty light photographers dream about, and the year's biggest demand: the best camps in the northern Serengeti and Masai Mara sell out six to twelve months in advance.