Book a Luxury Safari on a Budget

If you’re like many travelers, you prefer luxury vacations where you can enjoy one-of-a-kind experiences, which is exactly what you’ll get on an African safari. One of the great things about choosing a safari for your next vacation is that, with the right tips, you can easily book a luxury trips — even if you’re dealing with a tight travel budget. Find out how you can book a luxury safari on a budget so that you can enjoy a high-quality vacation at an affordable price.

Plan for the Off-Season

As with any popular travel destination, the best way to save money on your trip is traveling during the off-season. If you’re interested in a luxury trip to Africa but don’t want to break the bank, booking your holiday for the low season is the best idea.

When we talk about low and high seasons in Africa, what we’re discussing is the amount of rain. The high season is the highest time of year, which means there will be less vegetation and easier game viewing.

The low season is the greener, wetter season, and because of the increased rain, this time of year doesn’t draw as many travelers. Because there will be fewer tourists, prices will be a lot more affordable, making it easier to book luxury experiences for an excellent price. Also, while there will be thicker vegetation, you should still be able to see exotic animals on your vacation.

Choose a Self-Drive Safari

If you’re interested in going on a luxury safari on a budget, one of the most effective ways to save money is by booking a self-drive safari. Instead of booking a guided safari tour, which can get expensive, you can find an affordable rental car and drive yourself around Africa.

Before you book your self-drive safari, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. For example, the ease with which you’re able to drive yourself around depends on the country that you visit. In some countries, such as South Africa, driving yourself around should be very easy, as there are major roads that are well-maintained. In other countries, you’ll need to navigate remote, bumpy trails, which can be difficult, especially if you’ve never visited Africa before.

Work With the Right Company

Although there are several ways you can save money while booking a luxury experience for your safari, your best option is working with the right safari travel company. If you’ve never been on a safari before, booking a trip on your own can be tricky, and you may end up paying a lot more than you should.

Working with an experienced safari company means you’ll have access to the best safari activities, and you should also be able to find great deals on your trip. You can even get advice about what activities you should book and which aren’t worth the time or money.

If you’re looking for a high-end holiday, booking a luxury safari is an excellent idea. With a little preparation and the right advice, you should be able to book a trip filled with exciting experiences while staying within your budget.

 

Plan a Safari with Your Older Parents

One of the best things about being an adult is becoming friends with your parents and being able to go on vacation with them as equals. If you’ve been wanting to thank your parents for a lifetime of love and support by treating them to a vacation, then you should consider booking a once in a lifetime trip such as an African safari.
Going on a safari with your parents is an experience than none of you will ever forget, especially if you’re careful about booking your vacation. If your parents are a little older, for example, you want to make sure that you’re reserving a safari that they can enjoy safely. Here is some advice for booking a senior’s African safari where you and your older parents can create memories that will last for a lifetime.

Think About Health

Everyone needs to consider their health before booking an African safari, but this issue is especially important for older individuals. Before you book your next safari, you need to think about your parent’s health and how comfortable they are with physical activity.

For example, many older people have trouble walking for long distances, and if your parents have mobility issues, then you may want to avoid a walking safari. Avoiding safari areas with a high risk for malaria may also be a good idea, as older people can have trouble dealing with this disease.

Talk About Everyone’s Interests

Your goal when booking a senior’s African safari is to plan a vacation that both you and your parents will enjoy. Before you start making reservations, you should sit down with your parents to talk about what they’re looking for out of their vacation.

What type of vacations do your parents normally prefer? Are they the type of people who are always up for adventure, or is relaxation more their goal? Not every safari is perfect for every traveler, so you want to make sure that your trip includes a mixture of activities that will be enjoyed by both your parents and yourself.

Be Prepared for an Emergency

While everyone hopes that their vacation will go off smoothly, unexpected emergencies are a fact of life. Before you leave for your safari with your parents, you need to make sure that you have a plan in place for dealing with an emergency if one occurs.

Buying traveler’s insurance, for example, is a good idea. With the right insurance plan, you can avoid losing money if you miss your flight and will be covered if you or your parents need medical attention on your vacation.

While we’re on the subject of medical attention, you should think about going on safari near a major city if your parents have any ongoing medical issues. Traveling near a large city means you’ll have quick access to a medical facility if there is a situation that needs immediate attention. Taking the time to plan for emergencies means you’ll have a much safer, more enjoyable safari with your parents.

If you’re thinking about going on a senior’s African safari with your parents, keep this information in mind so that everyone has a great trip.

Some Simple Tips for Booking a Safari

If it’s finally time for you to go on your next vacation, you want to make sure your trip is as filled with fun as possible, which is why you should consider booking an African safari. Choosing a safari means having a truly unique vacation experience where you’re able to enjoy word-class activities and unforgettable sights.

However, if you’ve never booked a safari before, there are several factors that you need to keep in mind so that you can have the exciting holiday that you deserve. Take a look at these tips for booking a safari that will help you choose a trip that’s filled with thrilling activities you won’t find anywhere else.

Think About Your Expectations

Almost everyone has their idea of a perfect vacation, and keeping these expectations in mind is the best way to book a safari that meets your precise needs.

For example, if your primary goal on safari is seeing interesting animals, then you need to make sure that your trip includes a destination here you can see the Big Five up close and in person. On the other hand, if you prefer vacations that include physicals activities such as hiking or bungee jumping, then you need a safari that will take you to some of the best hiking spots in Africa.

Before booking a safari, you should sit down and make a list of your expectations for your trip. Once your list as finish, you can use it as a map for booking the vacation of a lifetime.

Budgeting is Key

While there are many issues that you need to factor in when you’re booking your safari, your budget is the most important. Although you want to be sure that your safari includes your most desired activities and destinations, you also want to control your costs as much as possible.

Spend a little bit of time thinking about how much money you’re willing to spend on your safari. Once you have a rock-solid budget in place, you should talk with a safari expert to decide which activities are within your spending limit. Even if you’re working on a tight budget, you should be able to go on a safari that’s filled with outstanding activities and locations.

Choosing Travel Time and Partners

Another important factor to consider before you book your trip is what time of year you’ll travel. The time of year you go on safari will impact your prices, your activities, and the crowds you’ll encounter. The weather is great throughout the year in Africa, but if you want lower prices and thinner crowds, you should pick your trip for the low season.

You also need to decide if you’re going to travel by yourself or with a companion. Traveling with someone else can guarantee you have someone to share your safari experience and that you’ll be able to reminisce after the trip is over. On the other hand, traveling by yourself means you’ll never have to debate what activities to choose.

If you make sure to consider these important factors, booking a safari should be quick and easy, and will guarantee you a fantastic vacation.

Serengeti’s Endless Plains

If you are coming the first time to Serengeti, this is like one of the biggest adventures of your life. The Serengeti National Park is located northwest of the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation area and is one of Tanzania’s most well known parks in the Mara and Simiyu regions. It was an Austrian, Oscar Baumann, who visited the area in 1892 as one of the first Europeans and you can find his recordings in his personal scrapbook about northern Tanzania. One of his major impressions was that this is an endless land that is reflected in the name Serengeti that is derived from the Maasai word “siringet” meaning “the place where the land runs on forever”.

We were heading into the Serengeti with our proven Toyota Landcruiser based safari vehicle and it felt great to be riding such a massive and robust truck while being out in these endless plains.

This park covers more than fourteen thousand square kilometres of mainly grassed plains, savannah, riverine forest as well as woodlands. The park continues in Kenya where it is called the Maasai Mara National Reserve, which we will describe in another post.

In the south of the park you find almost treeless grassland and this is the wildebeest breeding area during the wet months from December till May. They are sharing this area with zebra, gazelle, waterbuck, buffalo, impala, elephant and hyena and of course you can find also the usual predators. The Serengeti is very well known for the great migration that starts after the breeding season having animals move to the north where the herds arrive in Kenya in late July and August. In November with the start of the short rains the whole migration starts moving south again.

The northern part of the park starts changing from pure grassland into open woodlands and hills that span from Serona in the south to the Mara River at the Kenyan border in the north. For humans it is forbidden to live in the park, only the Tanzanian National Parks Authority and some researchers of the Frankfurt Zoological Society (obviously this is a leftover of the famous Grzimek conservation work) and staff of the lodges and hotels in that area have exceptional allowance.

Some of the great camps to visit in the middle of this gorgeous wilderness are the Serengeti Pioneer camp and the Serengeti Migration camp, where you can enjoy delicious meals and drinks while resting from the daily efforts of safari.

I am always surprised of how great the meals are cooked, look like, and taste in these remote parts of Africa and it stays a secret to me how these can be prepared so perfectly.

On top of that there is always a pretty decent selection of wines available that are carefully served if you desire.

During November it is already pretty likely that it can start heavily raining and this happens more or less within minutes and changes the landscape completely.

This is of course always a welcome alternation for all the animals, buffalos or zebras.

And for some zebras that enjoy it a bit too much and are less careful this can be a deadly and last experience, as there are always hungry groups of lions around who only wait for the chance for a great meal.

While death is like always something serious it is a necessary part of the whole lifecycle and something completely natural as you can see when watching the lion cubs happily playing during and besides their meal in the wet and muddy grass of the savannah.

The whole Serengeti offers a really unique and exciting adventure and the time you are able to spend here before moving on becomes always too short.

Learn more about safari tours including Serengeti National Park on our African Safari Tours page with a variety of sample tours.

Peter Tomsu for Roho Ya Chui, Travel Africa

Peter’s African Safari Travel Diary

Waking up this morning in this wonderful place (The Manor) was like a dream. When walking out for breakfast everything had completely changed compared to last evening, it was now a bit cooler and foggy what resulted in nice colours of all the flowers and bushes around.

We had a delicious breakfast in the main building and it was actually very hard for me to leave with so much hospitality offered and while residing in all these beautiful rooms, reminding us of great but long gone times of the last century.

We finally said good bye to the nice people of The Manor and jumped back into our car in order to drive up to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area – the Ngorongoro Crater.

While driving, Ute had the idea to try to visit the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, that is normally closed for day visitors but we wanted to give it a try, because from this lodge one has quite the best view over the crater. While driving towards the lodge we passed by at the memorial place for Michael Grzimek who died here in 1957 while his plane crashed against the crater walls in fog. Michael and his father Bernhard Grzimek had spent their lives working for conservation of the Ngorongoro area.

After a short drive we arrived a the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge and were lucky, as they would let us in for sight inspection.

The crater has an approximate diameter of 30 miles and is the caldera left from an ancient big volcano that is estimated to had a height of around 6000m. Today approximately 25000 large animals live in the crater including the black rhino, buffalos, hippopotamus, zebras, gazelles, impalas waterbucks, impalas, lions, leopards and Tanzanian cheetahs. The large lake in the southwest of the crater is Lake Magadi and gives home to flamingos.

It is absolutely true, the lodge provides a magnificent view over the crater. But also the lodge itself is one of the most beautiful and comfortable places in whole Africa.

We were enjoying the hospitality of Nafue, who showed us happily around and was also not shy to pose for some photos, what beautiful people the locals really are!

Fast forward from this stunning place we visited a Masai camp outside of the crater on our way to the Serengeti National Park. We were not only seeing some original dances but were also shown the interior of one of the huts, a really interesting experience.

Once in the Serengeti National Park we had lunch at the Serengeti Pioneer Camp where we could see the spectacle of a tropical thunderstorm accompanied by heavy rain. The storm lasted for maybe one hour and drained the whole Serengeti in some very welcome water.

Before we reached Serengeti Migration Camp, our final destination of this exhausting but also exciting day, we were lucky to find a group of lions eating their kill – a zebra. This was so special as we could see the cubs play and eat more or less at the same time.

If you would like more information on planning your African safari vacation, visit the safari tours page or contact a representative with Roho Ya Chui today.

Peter Tomsu for Roho Ya Chui, Travel Africa