January to February$$
Park fees never change ($80 flat); lodge rates sit mid-range between the holiday peaks.Shoulder
34 and 29 mm
- January 30.7° day, 21.2° night 35 mm over 8 wet days
- February 32.2° day, 21.4° night 29 mm over 5 wet days
Month by month
Best time to visit Tsavo
Late June to October is the pick, peaking in September and October when the bush thins and game crowds the waterholes. January and February are a hot, dry second window. April is the month to avoid.
If you only want the answer
June to September. June here is genuinely rainless, 2 mm on the thirty-year average, against 83 mm in December. Nothing concentrates animals like water that has stopped falling.
- January: Shoulder, 35 millimetres
- February: Shoulder, 29 millimetres
- March: Green season, 61 millimetres
- April: Green season, 50 millimetres
- May: Shoulder, 42 millimetres
- June: Prime, 2 millimetres
- July: Prime, 2 millimetres
- August: Prime, 3 millimetres
- September: Prime, 12 millimetres
- October: Shoulder, 17 millimetres
- November: Green season, 66 millimetres
- December: Green season, 83 millimetres
Prime
Dry but hot
Shoulder
Green season
Bar height is average rainfall, the figure above it is the daytime high. The $ signs show what a night in the park runs in that period.
The year, season by season
The periods below are how this park actually divides its year, with thirty-year climate averages against each month. Averages hide bad years: a dry January still happens, and so does a wet July.
March$
Long rains begin; the coast crowd thins and lodge deals appear.Green season
79 mm
- March 31.9° day, 22.0° night 61 mm over 11 wet days
April$
The wettest month; the cheapest beds of the year for those who come anyway.Green season
100 mm
- April 31.3° day, 22.0° night 50 mm over 8 wet days
May$
Rains tail off; green-season pricing holds a little longer.Shoulder
30 mm
- May 29.6° day, 20.7° night 42 mm over 3 wet days
June to August$$$
The long dry and the European summer land together; book the waterhole lodges ahead.Prime
3 to 8 mm
- June 28.7° day, 19.2° night 2 mm, and rarely a whole wet day
- July 28.2° day, 18.2° night 2 mm, and rarely a whole wet day
- August 28.4° day, 18.3° night 3 mm, and rarely a whole wet day
September to October$$
Superb viewing before the short rains; rates ease outside the holiday weeks.Prime Shoulder
15 and 26 mm
- September 29.6° day, 18.9° night 12 mm, and rarely a whole wet day
- October 30.7° day, 20.1° night 17 mm over 2 wet days
November to December$$
Short rains, then the Christmas coast crowd; late December prices jump at the lodges.Green season
106 and 119 mm
- November 30.1° day, 21.0° night 66 mm over 14 wet days
- 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.
Tsavo weather: 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.