I’m so excited that our trip to Kenya is only 2 months away! We’ve had many wonderful trips over to go on safari, and I am so excited that 2015 holds yet another opportunity to gawk at African animals.
PS: Has anyone seen meerkats successfully? If so, please tell me where!
There are many options when you plan a safari; too many options. And since going on a safari (unless you are backpacking) is not an inexpensive proposition, you want to be sure that you are getting what you pay for and will have exactly the trip that you want.
There are two really big choices you need to make initially: who to go with, and when to go.
Who to go with: Initially, I had considered organizing all the arrangements independently. However, with many of the small tented camps, you run into problems: many safari operators already pre-book these far, far in advance. I get it–this gives the camps guaranteed income, and since there are a limited number of luxury, boutique, small camps in each location, operators ensure they are getting exactly what their clients will want. However, for an independent traveler, this means that unless you use an operator, you aren’t going to be able to book. This isn’t the case for all camps, but it definitely is the case for many.
Instead, I opted to plan an independent itinerary (including lodges/camps, transfers, and activities) through an operator. I started with three different operators–all well known in the safari space. I emailed them both with our general requirements (i.e. length of stay, number of people), camp preferences, where we wanted to visit, etc.
Here is what I considered:
- Price
- Inclusions (i.e. game drives, sundowners, etc.)
- Camp/lodge size
- Camp/lodge quality
- Location (in conservation areas, secluded, etc)
- Mode of transfers
- Reviews of camps
- Reputation of operator
- Ease in dealing with.
In the “luxury” realm, you can quickly get into really, really high priced properties. With private butler service, individual plunge pools, etc. We don’t need this and don’t want to pay that much–but we do want small, nice camps with excellent food. Yes they are still luxury, but not over the top.
Ultimately, I selected Natural Habitat. They use two camps which suited our needs in/near both Amboseli and the Masai Mara. They have a great reputation, and put together a competitively priced 9 days for us, including internal air transfers to the camps from airstrips. They were also one of the most responsive in emailing back and forth.
The other operators I requested quotes from were either too far on the luxury side, or too high priced and used huge hotels rather than lodges (and yes, you can book those on your own for far, far less). Natural Habitat also is known for conservation. If eco-friendly is important to you, definitely consider this when selecting an operator.
When to go: I truly believe there is no “bad time” to go see wildlife in east or central Africa. But different times of the year mean different viewing opportunities, for sure.
You also have to consider people–while good camps will do their best to find secluded viewing without many other vehicles (often in private conservation areas), the Masai Mara is known for being crowded, particularly during the height of the migration. That we wanted to avoid.
So we considered the following, to choose our dates:
- Temperature.
- Rainfall.
- Migration.
- Green-scape versus dry-scape (big benefits of dry grasses, some things are much easier to spot)!
- Babies (animals, that is).
- Cost.
- Availability of lodges.
- When you can go!
While it almost always cools down at night, days can be hot in eastern Africa, so if you are sensitive to heat, you may choose to go during a cooler season. Ultimately, we opted for shoulder season–June. This will hopefully allow us to see tons of animals, in moderate temperatures with minimal (but not on) rainfall, without the crowds of the peak of the migration. It was also a convenient time for us.
Warthogs, here we come!
