Safaris: Tanzania & Kenya $2000/day vs. South Africa $200/day

From what I have read in my research on safaris, one of the differences is you can drive yourself around a huge park like Kruger and not see animals because you don’t know where to find them, whereas if you’re on a tour they are going to know where to take you.

Most of the cash goes for the higher end lodgings, and some of the better safaris are fly-in only. I think having a driver/guide who knows the area plus and is prepared to react should a JUMBO come charging out of the trees is pretty good value.

I went to South Africa and Botswana with the safari portion in Botswana. I think the main thing you are missing is the guide. The guides we had were really experts in tracking the wildlife and making sure that we saw a wide variety of wildlife. If you go to Kruger and self cater, I’d look into arranging for a guide.

We did a safari that was virtually ”all inclusive” and our price included wonderful accommodations, great meals, fly-in and out, etc. I went back in 2003 and the price was significantly lower than what you quote. Just out of curiousity, I checked one of the three camps we stayed at in Botswana (Mashatu) and the prices for the luxury villas are about what you quoted, but the prices to stay in the tent camp (which is very nice) is $540/ person and includes guides and meals. https://mashatu.com/rates/

I just did the self drive in Kruger a month ago. Spent 3 nights (2 in Oliphants and 1 night in Lower Sabie). I loved diving around on my own and the ability to stop wherever I felt like. However, I did see a lot less of the big cats (lions, cheetahs, leopards) than I’ve seen in other places like Uganda (Murchison falls, Queen Elizabeth NP) or Etosha in Namibia. A part of it could be that S Africa has lots of rain over the last 1.5 years and hence the animals are spread out since there seems to be lots of water. I think one also needs to have the social media groups so you can be up on the sightings and can react quickly if you are in the vicinity.

Places like the Serengeti and Ngorongro Crater seemed to have huge amounts of cats but also cost a lot more.

If you look at appropriate newsboards, you will see that there are FIT East Africa travelers who go year after year. You have not constructed the appropriate comparison. I don't mean to advocate one way or the other, but besides knowing where to look for animals, there is also the issue of hotel quality, food safety, and personal safety. This is not like choosing between Madrid and Lisbon.

That’s a pretty significant price difference, but it may not be that large after you add in all cost items.

The other thing I would be thinking for myself is that the guides have the training to be able to see and notice animals - maybe a twitching tail out of place - while my eyes would not know how to notice that. So I do think I would see more animals with a guide, not to mention species of birds, that I would not catch on my own. And I haven’t ever been but I think that in some places, lodge vehicles have traverse rights to go off-road, whereas you wouldn’t - and have radio contact with other guides to share the animal finding. I am not a guide nor do I play one on tv, but I have watched a number of years of daily safaris online operating out of the Sabi Sands and the information I have gotten from a guide looking for animals talking to the camera live instead of guests is phenomenal.

If I were trying to make a decision, I would be tempted toward some sort of combination. But then choosing location is a whole other difficulty!

We were self drive Kruger in 2018. 16 days. Drove over 1100 miles at 10-20mph. Saw everything. And then some. Dawn to mid afternoon driving, short rest, back out to get back by the time they lock the gates.
Was great. Would do it again. Will do,it.
Guides use the same roads as the public. Their Ada at age is a the radio. They can call on others to come to see the lions.
All sightings are serendipity. Near and far. We sat for hours by waterholes.
Would like to try East Africa. Of course.

Treemoss brought up what might be another difference. It sounds like in Kruger, vehicles stay on the roads. In Botswana, we were in open land rover type vehicles and thus there were many times when the guide took us off the road.

Thanks for all of the comments. I will process and reply.

For the 2 who have done a self-drive in Kruger, any advice about cost, vehicle type, groceries and cooking, animals seen per hour, etc?

Also, I believe Etosha in Namibia also allows self-drive and self-catering. I’ve read it’s primarily a passive experience where lodging is perched near waterholes lit up all night.

Have been to Africa twice on safari. The first time we did a 3 day safari in Kapama, South Africa. A fenced, private reserve in a shared vehicle. It was ok. It was very affordable and offered a taste of the safari experience. However, to me, it didn’t feel authentic because even though you could not see the fence, you knew it was there. I knew I wanted to go back and wanted to stay in bush camps where you could hear the animals at night.

We just returned from Tanzania and Uganda. We stayed in mobile safari camp in the Serengeti and yes, not gonna lie. It wasn’t cheap. But, you get what you pay for. We also had a private vehicle. We did the northern safari circuit. The Ngorogoro crater was also fantastic. I just love safari and I can’t afford what we just did again, so I would be inclined to try a self drive in Kruger or somewhere else.

BTW, you can drive yourself in the Tanzania national parks. It’s just that they are huge and you better know where you are going. Even if you stay on the roads, easy to get lost. In fact, we came across some folks who lived nearby in Arusha driving their own car, who needed help finding out how to exit the park.

FYI: Tammy and TTM mentioned a private reserve experience adjacent to Kruger, kind of a hybrid experience on private land abutting Kruger, which is all-inclusive lodging and meals and including guides and drives similar to a safari tour but cheaper and with guaranteed sightings. Mentioned were Sabi Sands and Kapama. Some people combine a reserve experience with Kruger to be sure they see all the types of animals if they can’t find them on their own in Kruger.

It's a lot to process but I am feeling a little foolish that I did not know that self-drive is available everywhere. Here are some interesting links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPMbmn71a7A

And this place is a business but they are free with sharing knowledge on how to do it yourself. https://www.roadtripafrica.com/tanzania/travel-guide/serengeti-national-park

Clearly the high park admissions are a big part of the reason that Tanzania is so much more than South Africa. For example just transiting Ngorongoro to get to Serengeti is about $200 each way.

We had a 9 day tour in Kenya and Tanzania that included 8 days of safari. It was a private tour for four persons. The lodgings were top rated and it was virtually all inclusive. Our guides were excellent.

Cost for the safari was about $4,500 per person. This comes to about $500 a day per person.

The wildlife was amazing and we saw all the big seven except the rino which is frequently hard to find.
I can't imaging doing a safari on your own. My Son did a safari in South Africa at Kruger and enjoyed it but thought the East Africa safari was much better.

We saw thousands of wildebeests in massive herds, as well as seeing the yearly river crossing by the herd in Tanzania. That was special. We saw scores of lions and in some places they were only about 10 yards from our vehicle. We say leopards and cheetah as well as many more species, in their own habitat, not a fenced in area.

Also, our lodging was in amazing hotels, all but two nights (we were in tented camps-there were still cool, since we would hear the animals outside out tent at night). We didn't have to self do anything but show up in the morning and had wonderful meals, including box lunches in our vehicle while on a game drive.

Yes, some safaris can cost $2000 a day, but I shopped around and found a highly rated company (Good Earth Tours) for far less.

Yes, some safaris can cost $2000 a day, but I shopped around and found a highly rated company (Good Earth Tours) for far less.

You are right, there are local companies that are in the $500 range, thanks for the reference. I asked a couple people, one who did a Kenya safari and one who did a Tanzania one, and both paid the $1000/person rate with different companies.

We just completed nearly 4 weeks in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana both in parks and preserves. The main thing a guided tour will provide besides all of the amenities are the guides and trackers. Not only can they track and find the animals on their own, but they are in communication with the other guides in the area and they know where the various animals are located and where they are moving. A self drive in Kruger would be a great drive and cheaper, but you are going to be confined to what you see on the road. In the Sabi Sands Reserve which offsets Kruger we were able to go off road with both our guide and tracker to see various animals up close. Well worth it.

Tom (OP),
This is how it may go in Kruger. You drive for hours, nothing. Then a rhino, two rhinos, and farther 2 more, then more. Or, you are on the paved road heading back and it is 3pm. Hot and sunny, animals in the shade. Well, not all, there is a leopard walking parallel to the road. In mid afternoon.
Elephants, all over. Plenty of giraffes. You see one giraffe, you will we 3-7. Water buffalo in herds on the road. Ostriches. Hippos wherever there is water.
I’d say we saw 30+ rhino throughout our stay. Sometimes only 50 feet from our car. Some with babies.
It is all chance and the more time you have, the more chance.
There are so many miles of roads in Kruger, you are very often the only one around.
At all the rest camps, they have map boards where people post the sightings and where.
We drove average of 12 hours a day. That is what you are there for, animals. Kruger is not a cultural experience, not so great for food, OK for accommodations. The real thing is the animals. The only thing.
So you get to drive around Yellowstone, see herds of bison. Pretty exciting. Maybe a bear. If lucky, wolf. And of course, elk. Nice.
Kruger is Yellowstone on steroids. Both in variety and numbers.

Some notes on Kruger:
- Lots of different accommodation types in the different camps - the ones with views sell out early and hence one needs to plan well in advance and book the types you want. We ended up staying in 3 different types of accommodations:
- Night 1 - Oliphants - basic Rondovel hut for 2 with a partial view down below
- Night 2 - Oliphants - bungalow with 2 bedrooms for 4 - much nicer and spacious but in the interior of the camp
- Night 3 - Lower Sabie - Tent - this was actually a stand alone structure with a tented roof on top of the structure - had a small kitchen and dining area separate from the bedroom. Interior so no view
- Daily conservation fee in Kruger - with the strengthing of the $, this came out to be about $26/person/day - which is a whole lot cheaper than what one pays in Tanzania

• Navigation - I downloaded the KrugerExplorer app ($12) - which has the details about all the H & S roads and general descriptions of what you may find on the roads (but this can be hit or miss) that you are allowed to drive on (I believe H is the tarred roads and S are the gravel roads)

• Food - we did not do the self catering since there are restaurants in each of the camps - food is decent with beer and wine available. All in all food was v cheap if going from the US - generally about $40-50 for 4 people (4 meals, including a couple of deserts and 1 alcoholic drink)

• Picnic areas - scattered in different areas of Kruger where you can get out of your car and stretch and in some areas buy food or rent gas/stoves to cook if you are self catering

Car Rental - I rented from Sixt in Joburg almost 6 months in advance. Got the biggest vehicle I could - a small SUV - in total including tolls, I paid approx $950 for 13 days.

Game Drives in Kruger:
Besides doing the self drive, we also signed up for game drives offered by the camps. We did an early morning drive (5-8am), and evening drive (5-7:30 PM) and a night drive (8 -10 PM). However, these were in large vehicles - animal sightings could be hit or miss. The ones out of Oliphants were not that memorable while on the evening drive from Lower Sabie we came across quite a few Rhinos. Each of the game drives was priced around $30

Other NPs:
- Etosha (Namibia) - I'm pretty sure you can self drive - You are right, the camps are situated around waterholes that are lit at night - this allows you to go and sit there in the middle of the night and watch the drama play out between animals. We spent a half hour watching a back and forth between 5-6 elephants and 1 Rhino. While the waterholes are great, you can and should also drive the vast expanses of Etosha - lots of zebra, giraffes, elephants, springbok, etc to see

• Murchison Falls & Queen Elizabeth (Uganda) - did this with an operator a few years ago - lots of wildlife and also allows for boat rides. Did 1 boat ride on the Nile towards the falls. Did another afternoon boat cruise on Lake Albert. Would highly recommend boat cruises - relaxing - great animal watching and one can enjoy a beverage of your choice. Overall, Uganda was very cheap compared to Tanzania - only downside was no Rhinos in the parks

Arnold, we went to Uganda to trek with Mountain Gorillas( which was fantastic), but realized there is so much more there we would like to see. Can I ask the name of the tour operator you used and how long ago you went?

Diveloonie -- Our trip to Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya (Nairobi only) was in 2017 (5 years ago).

In Uganda we used Red Chilli Tours which is a budget operator - they customized the trip for our needs and we were very pleased with them. Our tour was for 5 nights and 6 days - pick up in Kampala, 2 nights in Murchison Falls NP, then 1 night in Fort Portal (the drive from Murchison falls to Queen Eliz NP was about 9 hours so needed a rest stop), 2 nights in QENP and then drop off at the Rwandan border post rather than returning to Kampala.
Along the way, we stopped at a monument marking the Equator, and also visited a wildlife sanctuary where we hiked to see a troop of chimpanzees.
We were just 2 of us in a 11 seater van which was modified with the roof being opened when needed which allowed for great game viewing - it wasn't like the open safari vehicles you get in E Africa which are only good for in the park excursions and not good for long distance driving. Our driver was great and v knowledgeable and willing to stop wherever and whenever (I am a bird watcher so constantly want to stop). He/they also set up the boat excursions and went out of his way to walk us through right up to the Ugandan border checkpoint when we were leaving.
Cost - I believe it was around $900 per person which was a little higher due to our request to be dropped off at the Rwandan border - this required the driver to spend another night before returning to Kampala.

Hope this helps.

I have self driven in Kruger, staying in the park, not at one of the swanky places just outside. We saw plenty, but we have also been on fully guided safaris in Tanzania and Sri Lanka and there’s no comparison as to what you get to see, particularly if you are interested in birds and fauna. I have also self driven in Namibia, but not in Etosha.

As with most safaris, you need to plan when to go - just before the rainy season is ideal as the animals congregate near to the water holes. We learnt that trying to spot anything between 10am and 4pm was pointless, as there’s nothing around.

All parks charge entry fees. In Kruger, if you stay in the park, then you can pay to go on early morning and late evening organised drives, which is the most productive part of the day. Staying in the swanky places outside doesn’t get you this access. You can’t drive round the park yourself at night. Even within Kruger, there are different price points for accommodation. We had to book ours nearly a year ahead to get what we wanted. You have to be wary of self catering - monkeys raided our fridge.

We took a 12 day safari in Tanzania - the current cost of that is €500 pp/day fully inclusive. The group is limited to 6 people in one vehicle. Great quality accommodation and a variety of habitats including the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti.

How do you all discern whether these tours are -for lack of a better word- “ethical”, regarding local sustainability and conservation?

As an aside, the charging of very high fees is also questionably ethical, especially when there is a different price for foreigners that is 20x what locals pay. I know people say the high fees support the animal habitat or a historical site when it happens for those types of places, but in a corrupt country there is always the doubt that the money instead supports a property in Mayfair for a govt official.

Seems to be true at Ngorongoro, https://www.ncaa.go.tz/pages/education-fees about the higher rates, 12-14x higher.

monkeys raided our .....

Had that happen to me in Indonesia with a zippered pack, ended up going hungry for most of a day.

We stayed at Kruger Park Lodge back in 1997 for 7 days. We drove into the park daily taking different route each day.. We saw tons and tons of animals. The only one of the big 5 we didn’t see was the Rhino. We met a S African couple at the resort restaurant who saw everything but elephants. We did a night safari tour with them outside of the park at a private reserve. At that time, there were many options to take resort tours too. We also enjoyed driving to places outside of the park like Graskop, God’s Window, Bourke’s Luck Potholes and Three Rondawels.
It is important to go before the park greens up because once leaves and vegetation bloom in the spring, you can’t see animals in the bush.
We went in July and it was perfect. It was cool in the mornings but sweaters came off by noon. We reserved again a few years later but cx and booked the Galapagos.

AMann, before our safari I asked to make sure that they never have hunters staying there. I live in the land of let’s kill animals so I am very cognizant of this!

We did the Galapagos on a Celebrity cruise in April/May and it was great, but our safari in Kenya and Tanzania was more impressive.

The only bad thing about our safari were the terrible roads in the game preserves. Bouncing around in our 4 X 4 all day did a job on our backs. Still, it was worth it.

@geovagriffith-our guide called the terrible roads African massage!

Yes, our guide did as well, but it DEFINITELY did NOT massage our backs in a POSITIVE manner.

How do you all discern whether these tours are -for lack of a better word- “ethical”, regarding local sustainability and conservation?

We had very informative discussions with our guides at each lodge. Two things came out of the conversations. 1. They know how many Rhinos there are in the area and they will not tell you that number for the Rhinos' protection. The answer was the same in both S. Africa and Botswana. 2. If a poacher is found in the area, the rangers have the authority to shot on site and will do so. After seeing some photos of a Rhino with its horn cutoff and bleeding profusely, I have no problem that tactic.

As for the cost of the lodges, all of the lodges in both countries were in the "boonies". The two in Botswana in the Okavango Delta and you cannot get to them except by plane and boat. They have about +45 personnel at each camp. They are on duty for 60 days and off for thirty plus annual leave etc. Their lodging, food, travel etc are going to be included in your cost. The cost is what it is.

I appreciate all the responses.

It’s come down to an early retirement South African independent adventure, timed around the late winter (August) Namaqualand wildflowers but to include the Cape generally, Kruger, and other other sites in Namibia and Zambia.

East Africa will have to wait, but for when older when a tour is a better choice.

A last note to me since not a tour person generally: the tours advertised in the US like university alumni tours, or say National Geographic, run double the cost of identical tours one can source locally.

@Tom, so you are doing South Africa? If you are doing the cape, some suggestions. Do go to the cape of Good Hope. Stay at Grootbos Nature Lodge and learn about the fynbos plant and it is one of the 6 Floral Kingdoms in the world. We would love to go back!

One thing for folks who are looking for an intro to Africa to consider is an Overland tour. It gives you more than a safari and a good introduction to places. There are tons of tour operators with various tours covering lots of sites in lots of countries. One can even do a 40 day trip from Cape Town to Nairobi. This also works well if you are a single traveler and don't want to spend for an exclusive safari.

I believe there are 2 types of Overland trips - one is more geared for the backpacker crowd (stay mainly in tents) and there is also accommodated tours (B&Bs) which cost more. I am an independent traveler and have only done 1 organized tour which was an Overland tour - 20 days from Cape Town to Victoria falls. I used Nomad Africa and recommend them - though there are lots of other operators to consider.

Link to their tours https://nomadtours.co.za/tourfinder/
Cape Town to Vic Falls tour description - https://nomadtours.co.za/this-year/cape-town-to-victoria-falls/

I just returned from Kenya 3 days ago and am happy to chat/share my experience if OP or anyone else has questions. I'm a bit confused by what's meant by "tour." We were not on an organized tour at all. I would highly recommend checking out Gamewatchers and the Porini Camps--eco-tourism, private conservancies adjacent to the national parks which means you basically have the place to yourself, and they partner with the Maasai community to provide employment, etc. It was incredible, the trip of a lifetime, and nowhere near $1k/person/day. It was about half that.

Rachael,
Our tour included a day and night in Nairobi with a city tour, then an 8 day safari, which a committed guide/driver (separate guide for each country), hotels, meals, admissions to parks, etc. Our safari was done in a 4X4 vehicle with a pop up roof, that allowed us to stand up in the vehicle and take photos. We had long game drives in the Masai Mara (Kenya) and Serengeti (Tanzania) and other parks in Tanzania.

Not sure what kind of safari you had?
Where did you lodge? We had first class hotels or for two nights tented camps.
Where did your meals come from?
Did you had a guide and how large was your group.

When I researched safaris, I found one budget safari where you had to bring your own sleeping bag. I can't imagine where you would camp in the Masai Mara or Serengeti staying in an insecure tent.

Thanks Rachel for the info on the private reserves just like the ones near Kruger.

Seems like there are 4 basic options in all African countries:

• Independent visit to national park, cheap in Kruger (it’s set up for it), expensive in Tanzania or Kenya where a person needs to learn how to perch a tent on top of a rented Safari vehicle and drive long stretches on terrible roads, Uganda and Namibia experience in between but more similar to Kruger.

• Independent visit to private refuge, avoids actually entering national parks which can have entry and transit fees of $100/day, animal sightings guaranteed because the host property knows its terrain. Well known around Kruger, also exist in Kenya, maybe exist everywhere.

• Locally sourced tour operator, you just have to get there.

• US based tour, through a travel agent, university alumni club or similar, the most expensive option but includes airfare.

Tom, you mention ”tours”, but a variation of this is to use an Africa specialist travel agent to build a custom itinerary. This is what we did. The agent put together the stays at the various safari camps and arranged the transportation between the camps.

Our safari company was Good Earth Tours, a Tanzanian company and it was great.
It's prices ran from one-half to one-third many US based companies offered.

I was confused by the term "tour" as well. We were not on a tour, although companies do tours where you are sharing your vehicle with others on the tour. It was a private safari, in our own vehicle with just us and our friends. We had the same guide with us for all three of the camps we stayed at. We did Tarangire, Ngorogoro, and Serengeti. The owner of the camps is Nomad Tanzania and I arranged it all through them.

Blockquote

Rachael,
Our tour included a day and night in Nairobi with a city tour, then an 8 day safari, which a committed guide/driver (separate guide for each country), hotels, meals, admissions to parks, etc. Our safari was done in a 4X4 vehicle with a pop up roof, that allowed us to stand up in the vehicle and take photos. We had long game drives in the Masai Mara (Kenya) and Serengeti (Tanzania) and other parks in Tanzania.

Not sure what kind of safari you had?
Where did you lodge? We had first class hotels or for two nights tented camps.
Where did your meals come from?
Did you had a guide and how large was your group.

Blockquote

We spent 4 nights in Nairobi, one with a driver for the day to visit David Sheldrick, the Giraffe Center, Kobe Tough bead factory and a few other little spots.

Our safari was in a completely open-sided Toyota LandCruiser 4x4 (so no need for the pop-up roof). We did daily early morning game drives, usually then a break for lunch and a rest, followed by an evening game drive in the conservancies. We also spent a full day in both Amboseli and Masai Mara National Parks, and those park fees were included (but I preferred the drives in the conservancies by far!) We also did walking safaris at both camps, visited a Maasai village and did a hot air balloon ride in the Mara.

Our lodging was in permanent unfenced tented camps; we did not want lodges or hotels for our safari stay (we did nicer hotels in Nairobi and Diani Beach before and after the safari). All meals and drinks (alcoholic and non) were included and a typical day looked like:

6am wake-up with coffee and biscuits delivered to the tent
8:30-9am breakfast in the bush during the morning drive
1pm lunch
3:30-4pm snack/tea before the evening drive
6:30-7pm sundowner drinks and snacks
8pm dinner

Yes we had a driver and a guide in each camp (we stayed in two different camps). My husband and I were traveling together, and at Porini Amboseli it worked out that we had private drives our entire stay of 3 nights. At Porini Mara, we were with another group of 3 folks for the game drives--they don't put more than 6 people in one car and though you could pay additional to ensure you had a private vehicle, we opted not to as it was just the two of us and we wanted to meet people and share the experience. If we were traveling with another couple of with our parents, we may have paid to ensure it would just be our group.

Rachael,
I used the word tour since we had one day and night in Nairobi and a tour of that city and the 8 day safari started the second day.
We did fly in one day early and pay for the hotel, so we could recover from the jet lag.

Our safari was in a 4X4 with four persons, all family. We had our private guide/driver (separate one for Kenya and Tanzania).

We did not camp, stay in a tent like I did in the Army. We had top hotels and tented lodges.

Still, in many ways our safari was similar to yours in that we did game drives every day. We thought the game was a bit better in Tanzania than in Kenya.

To be honest, I wouldn't consider what we did "camping." I am not a camper, much to my husband's dismay. :) We stayed in permanent canvas tents on raised platforms with flushing toilets, hot showers, regular beds, etc. Maybe you could call it "glamping," but I think even that is a bit of a stretch!

Thanks, I appreciate that. :)

Late to this thread, but we did a private, guided safari in Namibia, and it cost nowhere near $2000/day. My brother did a self-drive trip in Namibia, but did do some guided game drives. (Some places, such as Erindi, require that you go with their guides in their vehicles.)

Note that Etosha is HUGE, and there is much more to see than what one sees at the couple of waterhole lodges. That said, something that is different about safaris in Namibia, vs East Africa, is that the animals tend not to travel in large herds, and, during their winter (our summer), which is the dry season, animals do tend to congregate at waterholes. But we saw animals not at waterholes in Namibia, too, including zebras, giraffes, ostriches, oryx, springbok, kudu, wildebeast, desert-adapted elephants, a black rhino, and two white rhinos.

I was very glad to be with our guide on more than one occasion. For instance, when we got a flat tire (roads are better in Namibia than in many other African countries, but there are still places with sharp pieces of rock sticking out). We didn't have to worry about changing the tire ourselves. Also, when we saw the black rhino and the desert adapted elephants, our guide knew how avoid agitating the animals, how to read their body language, and what to do about it. In contrast, a self-driven vehicle with several tourists in it had been attacked and overturned by a black rhino a couple of days before. Also, we would never have spotted the black rhino without our guide's sharp eyes, and we would never have found the desert adapted elephants, which were in a dry riverbed that our guide drove into. He also knew how to drive in the dunes and not get stuck.

If you are interested, my report on our safari is here: https://www.safaritalk.net/topic/17676-namibia-a-midsummer-tourists-dream/#comments

The cost was N$ 49 740.00 in 2017 (which was about $3750 US at the time) for 11 nights/12 days for the two of us (i.e. not each) (and, yes, it was 12 days. We were on safari practically from the moment we left the airport until we arrived back at the airport).

Included:
· Isuzu 4x4 Double Cab vehicle with full vehicle insurance (seats 3 passengers plus guide)
(We had the option of choosing a larger Ssafari vehicle with 7 seats and big windows and pop up roof for game viewing. This would have been more expensive and wasn't really necessary for 2 of us, since one of us could sit in front and the other, in back, could move to either side.)
· Fuel for tour
· Guide (24 hours there for you)
· All accommodation (Mid class lodges (which were very luxurious to us--we could have chosen different classes of accommodation for more or less $.))
· Most dinners and breakfasts (except not dinners in Swakopmund)
· All National Park Fees entrance
· Welcome package
· Fridge on Car
· A/C on Vehicle
· Bottle Water on vehicle for duration of tour
· Passenger liability insurance

Excluded:
· All flights
· Meals not stipulated like Lunch (average you can work on N$ 120 pp/d if need to) (Except our guide made us lunch one day--a delicious braai in the dry riverbed while we were searching for elephants. Oh, AND he brought us sandwiches on our arrival day.)
· Medical and travel insurance
· All activities except when stipulated.
· Any Drinks at lodges or on tour. Except water on Vehicle

Route
1. Arrive Windhoek
2. Kalahari Bagatelle area
3. Sossusvlei area
4. Sossusvlei area
5. Swakopmund coast
6. Swakopmund Coast
7. Damara land
8. Damara land
9. Etosha area
10. Etosha area
11. Erindi Private game reserve
12. Fly out Windhoek

Hi -

We got back from Botswana (with a side trip to Zambia via Namibia to visit Victoria Falls) last weekend and Laura is entirely right I think in so far as a guide is invaluable for negotiating the roads - softest of soft sands and deep fords/swamp crossings - plus they have the inside info on where best to see the wildlife, even if they get it from their in-4 x 4 radios. Our guide was sensational, his knowledge and tracking abilities were phenomenal. They guy also worked hugely hard every day,

Our safari was in the Chobe and Moremi National Parks, under canvas for six nights. By the reading of the above I’d say we were roughing it - non flushing ‘long drop’ toilets and outdoor bucket showers (within a tiny modesty tent) and our tents were on the ground - we had camp beds in them, so not properly roughing it! - and as we camped in three separate places the camp crew took them down and put them up again in each new location. Dining was alfresco, and simple but tasty food, and there were camp fires to drink a beer round, survey the spiral arm of the galaxy and generally smell slightly of wood smoke thereafter.

The safari was only the half of it, as we also stayed on a houseboat in the Okavango Delta for three days and in a riverside hotel in Livingston for a couple of nights to see the Victoria Falls. We booked through Explore, a U.K. based adventure travel company, but I’ve been on trips with them that have included Americans, so there must be a way of booking on their trips from the States. Plus Explore subcontracted the entire African end through a Botswana based company, Wilderness Dawning Adventures. That said, thoroughly recommended, and cheaper than many of the prices I see quoted above, although definitely more basic!

Ian

Just a comment on the last couple of threads regarding folks comparing the prices. Tanzania is, by far, the most expensive country in Africa to do a safari. Nambia, Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, all of those countries are cheaper by far. I don't exactly know why, but I surmise that Tanzania is supposed to have the most abundant wildlife and they have the most famous wildlife parks, like Serengeti and the crater. And if you want to do tented camps, those actually cost more than the lodges or top hotels.

OK, BB. Now I want to do what you did! I will have to see if I can talk my brother into it!

I highly recommend it, TexasTravelmom.

Yes, safaris are found in places other than Kenya and Tanzania, but if you want to see the Great Migration, you must go to East Africa.
We did see thousands of Wildebeests and were there when they crossed the river in Tanzania. It was special.

For anyone that is interested, my husband and I make vlogs of our travels for our family and friends on our YouTube channel (it isn't monetized). I'm not allowed to post the link, but we have a few videos done from our recent trip to Kenya that I'm happy to share; just PM me if you'd like it. :)