Is the Ngorongoro Crater worth the fee?

Between the conservation area fee and the vehicle descent fee, a single day in the crater adds several hundred dollars to a trip. It is a fair question whether that is money well spent.

The case for: 25,000 large animals inside 260 square kilometres. It is the most reliable big-five sighting in Tanzania and one of the few realistic chances of seeing black rhino. The setting — a 600-metre caldera wall on every side — is genuinely unlike anywhere else.

The case against: it is busy. By mid-morning in high season a lion sighting can draw twenty vehicles. The floor is not wilderness in the way the Serengeti is, and you cannot get out of the vehicle except at designated points.

Our view: go, but go down at 6am when the gates open and come back up by early afternoon. The first two hours have both the best light and a fraction of the traffic. Treat it as a half-day rather than trying to extract a full day from it.