Safari Company Recommendations

I guess the pertinent question would be how much do you want to spend?

You’re right. We do not want to go over 20k/person for 14 days or so.

Our group of 4 booked a private safari with Good Earth Tours. It's home base is Tanzania.

I researched for booking a safari in 2019 and Good Earth had the best deal for the best price. Many of European or American tour companies prices were way more expensive. Many were double or triple what we paid. The original safari was to be in 2020, but COVID-19 ended that. We didn't do it until 2022, and Good Earth was nice enough to postpone our tour for two years at the same prices.

We stayed in Nairobi for two nights prior to the safari, which was 8 days and one night in Arusha before our flight home. The safari was in Kenya and Tanzania. We stayed in a five star hotel in Nairobi and in great lodges (more like hotels) in the safari preserves. Two of our nights were in tented camps, with each of us having our own huge tent, placed on a foundation with facilities similar to what you have in a hotel.

Our guides were great, we had separate guides for Kenya and Tanzania. They always found the wildlife by communicating with other guides on the radio.

We planned our safari to see The Great Migration. This happens in late July or early August. Fortunately, we were there in Tanzania at a river with thousands of wildebeests did the crossing of the river. It was AMAZING. Be sure to plan you safari to take place at that time of the year. Frankly, the best part of the safari was in Tanzania (2/3 of our time was in Tanzania).

The safari and tour cost us about $4,500 pp for a total of 10 nights.

There are safaris in South Africa, but my Son, who was on the safari with us, said that the safari that they did in SA was no where near as good as the one we did in East Africa. He said that in SA you go into a smaller park type area that is tiny compared to the Serengeti.

A friend and I went to Botswana in 2003 and had a fabulous trip arranged by Bert Duplessis at FishEagle Safaris
https://fisheaglesafaris.com/

I know it has been a long time, but the company is still in business and still run by Bert and his sons. They arrange custom trips. We traveled to South Africa where we spent 4 nights in Capetown before traveling on to Botswana where we stayed in 3 different camps (12 nights on safari). Fisheagle arranged all the flights between the camps and all our transfers. We found Bert to be extremely knowledgeable. We started by telling him when we wanted to travel and he came up with a detailed itinerary. When the price was higher than we wanted to spend, he rearranged the itinerary (e.g., reduced the number of camps from 4 to 3 to reduce flight costs, etc.).

I would use his company again.

It has been a while sincenI eas on safari and the companies I used for Tanzania have changed hands. But I have followed a company Access2Tanzania for over 12 years. They have an office in the US, but also on Arusha so they are not a middleman. Owner worked in Tanzania for the Peace Corpd and stayed connected ever since. I have a soft spot for companies that legitimately do good works and this is one of them.
Alternatively, safaribookings dot com is a third party consolidator. They have been around at least 10 years. When I was looking, I felt comfortable with their costs and the reviews...but you could also turn around to deal directly with the actual company of interest. It covers all countries, so a good place to start.
Tanzania has 2 routes...the North into the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and several other 'bang for your buck and lesser used, but wonderful parks. Southern route are fly in massive parks. The game drives are part of the lodging fee and usually on a shared basis, but you can pay a supplement for a private vehicle.
It is a little old now, but I found Fodor's Complete Safety Guide useful for describing the country's animals, migrations, weather, best time of year to go. And from there decided what would be a good fit for me. As I went back 3 times in 4 years and also volunteered there, Tanzania was definitely the fit for me.

We did a safari in Tanzania last summer with Nomad. They are definitely more high end, but have a good track record.

Thanks everyone for the recommendations. I will check them out.

I highly recommend Expert Africa. We’ve been to Tanzania twice and Expert Africa was the tour company we used the second time. If you’re thinking of going to Tanzania, Jessica Plumb is a Tanzania specialist with Expert Africa and provided us with excellent service. There are a wide range of accommodations to choose from, which will impact the price. We stayed in non-luxury but nice camps for a very reasonable price.
Edited: Our first trip was to northern Tanzania which was definitely more crowded than our second trip to southern Tanzania. We stayed in Ruaha and Selous in the south. They were both spectacular and formed a nice contrast to one another.

When I compare prices and quality from different tours, I always do an evaluation of quality and price.
For quality, I compare online reviews and recommendations from other travelers that I know. Also, I compare offered hotels and other lodging.
Then I make my own rating on a scale of 1-10.
For Price, I break down each tour for cost per day and consider if I have to purchase any meals or not.

When evaluated our Good Earth Tour, it was the cheapest per day, yet managed a rating near the top. Not Abercrombe and Finch level, but not far. Of Course, A & F was three times our price.

I did find a really inexpensive safari for under $1000, but it required you to bring your own sleeping bag. Sorry, that was way to low n the scale for me. Also, I would never want to stay in an Army tent in the Serengeti.

It might push the upper limit of your budget, but we've been longtime fans of And Beyond (CC Africa many years ago). They do offer some less expensive options and small groups as well. We did tented camps in Botswana with just five people and loved it.

We used Tracking Namibia Safaris and had a great experience. You can read my trip report about my experience with them here: https://www.safaritalk.net/topic/17676-namibia-a-midsummer-tourists-dream/#comment-229174

One thing to note is that Namibia, having a lot of desert, tends not to have the huge herds of animals some countries have (e.g. as in the Great Migration), if that would be a concern for you. However, during their winter/dry season, a variety of animals are drawn to the waterholes.

https://www.safaritalk.net/topic/17676-namibia-a-midsummer-tourists-dream/#comment-229174

20k per person! Who are these people?
We did 16 nights self drive in Kruger. Stayed at 7 different camps and also a three day walking safari in the park. Saw the big 5 repeatedly. A plethora of animals. Many times all alone to see them.
Our total cost including airfare for two people was $6600.
If you can do 20k per person then you can afford to look for safaris through a travel agent. Not on this website. Let them do all the work. With 20k pp I would think you would be luxury all the way. Animals too, but certainly everything impeccable, lodging and food and amenities.

We used Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) last year. Their small-group trips average 13 to 16 people per group, not overcrowded. Prices are much less than $20,000 but value is very good. We had established camps with buildings and private bathrooms/showers, no tents. The game drive guides were excellent, and it was all a great experience.

I just noticed your budget! Wow! We spent far, far less than that for a PRIVATE safari with Tracking Namibia. Mind you, we chose to be booked into "mid range" accommodations (which seemed very luxurious to us). We could have spent more by choosing luxury accommodations.

Highly, highly recommend Gamewatchers which is based in Kenya. We did 4 nights in Nairobi, 7 on safari in their Porini camps and then 4 more on the Kenyan coast at a beach resort all through them and it was perfect.

I too recommend Expert Africa. In 2019 I did a short safari with them as part of a larger trip. The camp and just as important the guides were great. This was at a fly in camp on the southern route. Expert Safari had reasonable prices and very good communication.

20K per person is a lot especially for 14 days. If you are still looking, take a look at Rhino Africa out of Cape Town. They were recommended by a friend of ours and they did an excellent job.

20K is more than four times what we paid for our safari that was first rate.

From what I saw while in Kenya and Tanzania in the game areas, most people are in off road vehicles that are similar. Occasionally you would find a larger vehicle where people sit exposed (but higher up from the ground). Our lodgings were all first rate.

The main reason a safari would be more expensive would be paying to fly into the game drive areas. We stopped a couple of times in Tanzania at a small airport were some people flew directly into the game drive area without driving from a large city like Nairobi or Arusha.

That OAT trip that included Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (plus we were in a small boat on a large lake that bordered Tanzania, and we reached out and touched grass that was growing in Tanzania) included several flights to and from game camp locations, as well as a 3-night “cruise” on Lake Kariba, water that feeds into Victoria Falls, where we also stayed. Again, far less than $20,000 and only 13 people, besides our guides.