Comprising wooded hills, open grassy stretches, and massive granite outcrops, the North Serengeti is home to large numbers of resident herbivores including the largest remaining concentrations of elephants in the Serengeti. The woodlands of the North Serengeti make spotting predators more difficult than in Central Serengeti, but lions, hyenas, cheetahs and leopards still make regular appearances during game drives. North Serengeti offers good game viewing throughout the year, but tsetse flies can be an annoyance in wooded areas in the green season from December to March.

Game viewing is at its prime in North Serengeti when the Great Migration is in residence during the dry season. The Great Migration usually reaches northern Serengeti in mid July. The majority of the massive herds cross over the Mara River and occupy the extreme northern boundaries of the park, with a portion of the herds spilling over into the Maasai Mara National Reserve during the height of the dry season. Here they will remain for the duration of the dry season until the rains begin in November.