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Month by month

Amboseli in October

October is the end of Amboseli's long dry season. The game is still concentrated on the swamps, the heat is building, the first migrant birds arrive, and the short rains can break in the last days of the month.

If you only want the answer

October brings about 17 mm of rain and 28.1°C days, and the short rains may start late in the month. Game viewing is still excellent, and it is the last month of high season: rates drop at every lodge that publishes its seasons on 1 November. Our climate data files October as shoulder; for wildlife it is still one of the best months of the year.

Amboseli weather in October: hot, with the rains on the horizon

October averages 28.1°C in the afternoon and 17.4°C at night, with about 17 mm of rain, an approximate figure scaled to the station's measured annual mean. KWS's management plan describes the long dry period as running from June to October or November, so the short rains may arrive in the last days of the month or hold off until November.

The heat is back. Open-Meteo's archive for 2015 to 2024 puts recent October afternoons at about 30°C, so plan the long drives for the morning and late afternoon.

The last month of high season

Every lodge that publishes its seasons ends its high season on 31 October. On 1 November Tortilis Camp drops from $715 to $491 per person sharing, Ol Tukai Lodge from peak ($650 per double room on full board) to high season ($580), and Tawi Lodge's bands from peak to low. Porini Amboseli Camp falls from $855 to $585 per person sharing, all on 2026 cards.

Safarilink's high season also ends on 31 October. From 1 November only its 07:15 flight from Wilson operates until the high season returns on 16 December. If your dates can slide by a week, a stay that straddles the end of October and the start of November catches late-dry-season game at the start of the lower rates.

Late-dry-season game and the first migrants

The herds stay on the swamps until rain gives them somewhere else to go, so the concentrations of September largely hold into October. KWS's management plan notes that from October to December the local birds are joined by migrants such as European storks, which makes October the first month of the best birding season.

Kilimanjaro is still clear at dawn on about one morning in three on modelled cloud data, the third-best month of the year after September and August.

Sources