About choosing

For most people, and we would say so even though every country here pays us the same. Highest density of big cats, widest variety in the shortest distances, easiest logistics, and a coast two hours away.

Tanzania is the better first trip if scale is what you are picturing, or if February and the calving appeal more than the cats.

Somewhere that contrasts rather than upgrades. Mara first → Botswana, or Laikipia and Samburu. Kenya generally → Rwanda or Uganda, where nothing repeats.

Better still, change the form: a mobile camp, a walking trip between fly camps, a boat-based week. That makes a second safari feel like a first one.

The country matters less than a private vehicle, private land, a guide who understands light, and three nights minimum per camp. With those, Kenya and Botswana are both superb; without them, nowhere is.

In Rwanda entirely, in Uganda mostly, in Kenya with longer road transfers and fewer parks. In Tanzania it is difficult and in Botswana effectively impossible — almost everything there arrives by air.

Uganda, then Kenya. But the cheapest country is rarely the cheapest trip: on anything under a fortnight the number of moves matters more than the nightly rate, because the joins are 15 to 25 per cent of the total.

A Africa safari is usually quoted fully inclusive: accommodation, all meals, park and conservancy fees, your guide and vehicle, and transport between parks. Most camps include soft drinks, house wine, beer and laundry.

Not included: international flights, visas or travel authorisation, travel insurance, tips, premium drinks, and extras like balloon flights and spa treatments.

For July to October — the migration months in the Masai Mara — six to twelve months is normal, and the best small camps sell out first. Christmas and New Year book up just as early.

For the shoulder months, three to four months is usually comfortable. Inside eight weeks we can still put a very good trip together, but you are choosing from what is left rather than from everything.

This site is a planning guide. When you send an enquiry it goes to Nomad Africa, our partner travel agency in Kenya, who prepare your itinerary and quote and handle the booking, the payments and you on the ground.

You deal with one team from the first email to the airport transfer home.

No. Sending your dates, getting an itinerary and getting a costed quote is free and carries no obligation. Money only changes hands when you decide to hold space at a camp.