Tsavo Kenya Where to stay

Month by month

Best time to visit Tsavo

Late June to October is the pick, peaking in September and October when the bush thins and game crowds the waterholes. January and February are a hot, dry second window. April is the month to avoid.

If you only want the answer

June to September. June here is genuinely rainless, 2 mm on the thirty-year average, against 83 mm in December. Nothing concentrates animals like water that has stopped falling.

Prime Dry but hot Shoulder Green season Bar height is average rainfall, the figure above it is the daytime high.

The year, season by season

The periods below are how this park actually divides its year, with thirty-year climate averages against each month. Averages hide bad years: a dry January still happens, and so does a wet July.

January to February

Shoulder

34 and 29 mm

  1. January 30.7° day, 21.2° night 35 mm over 8 wet days
  2. February 32.2° day, 21.4° night 29 mm over 5 wet days

March

Green season

79 mm

  1. March 31.9° day, 22.0° night 61 mm over 11 wet days

April

Green season

100 mm

  1. April 31.3° day, 22.0° night 50 mm over 8 wet days

May

Shoulder

30 mm

  1. May 29.6° day, 20.7° night 42 mm over 3 wet days

June to August

Prime

3 to 8 mm

  1. June 28.7° day, 19.2° night 2 mm, and rarely a whole wet day
  2. July 28.2° day, 18.2° night 2 mm, and rarely a whole wet day
  3. August 28.4° day, 18.3° night 3 mm, and rarely a whole wet day

September to October

Prime Shoulder

15 and 26 mm

  1. September 29.6° day, 18.9° night 12 mm, and rarely a whole wet day
  2. October 30.7° day, 20.1° night 17 mm over 2 wet days

November to December

Green season

106 and 119 mm

  1. November 30.1° day, 21.0° night 66 mm over 14 wet days
  2. December 29.1° day, 21.2° night 83 mm over 17 wet days

Climate figures are Open-Meteo climate normals, 1991 to 2020, measured at -3.2, 38.5. Prime, shoulder and green are worked out against this park's own year, not a fixed threshold: the four months with the least rain, the four with the most, and the rest in between. Full charts on the weather page.

Two rainy seasons, two dry ones

Tsavo is genuinely semi-arid, taking only 555 millimetres of rain a year across two wet seasons: the long rains from March to May, peaking in April, and the short rains in November and December. Between them sit two dry windows, and those are when you want to be here.

Temperatures barely move: highs of 28 to 34 degrees all year, lows of 17 to 21. The altitude is low, so days are hot and nights merely mild.

One thing worth knowing about rates

Lodge seasons do not match weather seasons. High season is usually July to October plus a festive peak around Christmas, with green-season rates from April to June. Satao Camp drops from $243 to $135 full board in April, Voi Wildlife from $128 to $95. If you can tolerate wet roads and thicker bush, April and May are half price.

Sources

Where to go next

Wildlife What you can expect to see in each season Entry Fees What a day inside costs, whatever the month Getting There Flights and roads change with the season