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Why you’ll love safari in Africa
Off the scale good
If you haven’t yet been on a proper safari, then you’re in for a real treat. At its best, a safari can be a genuinely deep and life punctuating event.
But organising a great safari is not straightforward, it needs to be done with care, precision and expertise. That’s where we come in.
As we help you plan your safari, we will consider the flow of every single day, to ensure that everything works perfectly and, even more importantly, to facilitate the spontaneous emergence of truly special moments.
We always warm first timers that this safari thing is addictive.
You will fall in love.
Diversity of experience
There are so many different types and styles of safari. At some point you will need to decide exactly where to go and what to do.
For example, a safari in the Okavango area of Botswana is based out of fabulously remote camps deep in the bush. It is a very pure and hypnotic wilderness experience.
By contrast, a safari in Serengeti region of Tanzania is a much more diverse experience, equal parts of epic wildlife, majestic volcanic scenery, authentic tribespeople, farms, villages and towns.
We will guide you through the options and make sure you find the perfect trip.
So very easy
First time visitors to Africa are often nervous about travel. But the reality could not be more different.
When you travel with us, even on a long and complicated trip, you need barely refer to your paperwork. You will be looked after like royalty from one end to the other by lovely, helpful and diligent local people.
There is virtually no crime, no risk, no drama. If you can get to Africa, the rest is a piece of cake.
All you need to do is relax and slide into your trip, make sure that you get the most out of every single moment.
Superb camps and lodges
Over the decades, our lovely friends in Africa have managed to take hospitality to extraordinary levels.
The camps in many areas have become incredibly stylish, comfortable and superbly hosted.
And yet, through considered design and a zero footprint approach, they have managed to retain the character of authentic and remote outposts, the perfect blend of earthiness, authenticity and indulgence.
This is really is another level of existence.
A truly deep experience
You probably know people who have been on safari and raved about how good it was. But, until you’ve done it yourself, it’s impossible to fully understand.
There is something primaeval about spending quality time in the bush. It connects you with something deep within your soul. It has the power to refresh, reset and redefine our lives.
We will help you avoid the watered-down and fake stuff. There’s plenty of that around and it can be fiendishly difficult to detect.
We will ensure that you cut through to the real deal. A genuinely authentic safari.
A conservation success
We started our company back in 1999, with the express intention of helping save the wildlife of Africa. We are proud to say we have helped to deliver that mission.
Over the intervening decades, the revenues from conservation tourism have increase more than tenfold, the land under protection has more than doubled and almost all of the main wilderness areas are now secure and prospering.
Safari is expensive, but you can be reassured that your money is going in a good direction and that your contribution will be deeply appreciated.
We’re all ears!
Which country should you visit?
Tanzania
Set pm the East Coast of Africa, Tanzania is a truly remarkable place, the richest and most diverse safari country, with far more than its fair share of Africa’s crown jewels, including Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.
This is the place to head if you are looking for a truly diverse African experience, usually an overland journey, with equal parts of epic wildlife, majestic volcanic scenery, authentic tribespeople, farms, villages and towns.
It’s also top of the list if you want to combine safari and tropical beaches.
In all honesty, Tanzania alone is worth several trips.
Kenya
Also on the East Coast of Africa, Kenya is the second most visited safari country on the continent, a place of great diversity, with popular reserves including the Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo and Samburu, as well as some much more remote wilderness areas and an extensive tropical coastline.
Unfortunately, the better known reserves in Kenya can get very busy in core areas, so we need to tread carefully to deliver a quality safari.
If you looking towards the upper end of the budget range, then trips can be remote and fabulous. But if you are looking for value, you are probably better off looking at Tanzania or countries further south.
Botswana
Moving to the south of the continent, Botswana is widely considered to offer the highest quality safari in Africa.
The experience is not as diverse as Tanzania, but the remoteness and purity of the bush experience is unsurpassed.
If you are looking for either an easy vacation or a deeply immersive wilderness experience, this is the place. We just need to be careful about the very high prices during the Jun-Oct dry season.
Botswana is great in combination with Victoria Falls, the Cape or the tropical beaches of Mozambique.
South Africa
South Africa is by far the most popular location for safari. It is a vast and incredibly diverse country, with far more highlights than could ever be included in a single trip. Most people start with a combination of safari in Kruger and time in Cape Town and the Cape Winelands.
There is a huge choice of safari accommodation, right across the price spectrum, including some of the best lower cost options in Africa, so this is often the place to head on a lower budget.
However, South Africa is a much more developed country than those further north and the safari experience can feel significantly less pure and wild.
Zimbabwe
Also in the southern part of Africa, Zimbabwe is best known for the Victoria Falls, but also offers some of the most earthy, authentic, heart-pumping safari on the continent.
If you are looking for a short safari of 3-5 nights, then Hwange has some great value options.
Otherwise, Zimbabwe is a relatively high-priced location, which appeals most to experienced Africa travellers, who appreciate the extremely high levels of safari guiding.
The walking safari can be truly extraordinary.
Zambia
Set in southcentral Africa, Zambia is a delightful backwater, best known for the Victoria Falls, but with a handful of superb safari reserves.
The camps here have a reputation for intimacy, authenticity and a pleasantly homespun feel, many with a marked leaning towards walking safari, which is always a good sign.
Zambia is a mid-to-high price safari environment, which tends to appeal most to experienced safari travellers in search of new frontiers and first timers who are specifically looking for somewhere unusual for their safari.
Join the gang!
Is Africa the place for you?
Seasonality
It is impossible to overstate how important seasonality is to a savanna safari trip.
The month that you choose to travel will greatly affect where you should go, what you will see, how much traffic you will encounter and how much you will spend.
In the linked article, we divide the year into five periods. The first two, the Jun-Oct dry season and the Nov-Dec early green season, cover probably 95% of all trips. The other three periods cover the more complicated Jan-May period, when conditions change fast, but which contain some real hidden gems.
We will always take full responsibility for your trip being perfectly constructed around the seasonality.
Duration
For most people, the length of their core safari in Africa is limited by budget, as this is almost always the most expensive part of a trip.
Ideally, you would spend maybe six to ten nights in the bush, split between multiple camps, but that can be reduced to as little as 3-4 nights if necessary.
On top of that, you can combine with some fabulously diverse, but thankfully lower cost locations, like Victoria Falls, Cape Town or the tropical beaches of the Indian Ocean.
Most Africa trips end up in the range 12 to 28 nights.
Budget
Tailor-made safari trips most commonly fall in the range USD 5000-20,000 per person, excluding your international flights.
There are cool trip options across the price range and we are more than happy to work with at all the different budget levels.
If you are hoping to spend towards the lower end, you should perhaps start by looking at safari options in South Africa, the Hwange area of Zimbabwe and Botswana during the Jan-Mar late green season.
At the middle and upper end of the range, there are great options in all countries, mostly getting progressively more remote, more luxurious and more reliable as you head upwards.
Family safari
Many of us here at ATR have travelled extensively with our own kids, so we know for a fact that safari is great for families.
This is the kind of trip that guarantees to generate memories that you will share for the rest of your lives.
However, there are significant health issues to consider in most safari areas, so we need to proceed with caution.
Most dry season safari is ideal for kids of 12 years and older, eminently feasible for kids 8-11 years and potentially viable from 6-7 years old. If your kids are 0-5 years, then it’s probably best to stick to the non-malarial areas of the Cape, then progressing up into Namibia as they get older.
Honeymoon safari
Safari is an inherently romantic experience that can be endlessly tailored to suit you.
We have been helping guests to build awesome honeymoons for many years. We have intimate knowledge of some of the wildest and most romantic places in the world.
Perhaps the most important piece of advice is to be yourselves. Please don’t feel it is necessary to fit into the usual romantic tropes if they’re not for you. Just focus on having a great trip.
We very much understand the importance of these trips, we know that your honeymoon needs to really hit the heights and be a truly life-punctuating experience.
Luxury safari
On safari, luxury means different things to different people.
The most conventional meaning is that the accommodations are extremely comfortable, with elevated levels of hospitality. This is relatively easy to deliver, there are lots of luxury lodges.
However, simply inserting more luxurious lodges into your trip is no guarantee of a better safari. In fact, the opposite can be true.
For us, the hallmarks of a truly high quality safari are a suitably slow pace, wonderful remote locations, superb safari guiding, exclusive and intense wildlife interaction, precisely tailored experiences and considered attention to detail. We can do that.
Paws for thought
Sample Trips
All our guests travel on tailor-made adventures, but here are some popular trip shapes to get you warmed up
