Everyone asks about the crossings, so let's start there: the herds usually reach the Mara in July and linger through October, and the river drama peaks in August and September. If a crossing is the picture in your head, that is your window — book a year out, because the world has the same idea.
But the Mara is not a three-month destination. January and February bring the calving season's spill-over and superb predator action on short grass. The April–May long rains empty the lodges and price the conservancies kindly — and the storms make the best photographs of the year. June is the quiet overture: the grass high, the migration gathering, the crowds not yet arrived.
Our honest advice sits in the conservancies bordering the reserve. Fewer vehicles at a sighting, night drives, walking — and on our journeys, they pair beautifully with golf in Nairobi on the way in: Muthaiga or Karen one day, the Mara airstrip the next.
— Shelagh Harker