Organizing your own East African Safari ?
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| African Big5 Safari friends |
This BLOG post is to help you understand and to give you TIPS so that you will have an Amazing East Africa Safari.
As you can see in the photo above is a few friends on an East Africa Safari discussing all the wonderful sightings they saw in the Masai Mara in Kenya while enjoying some pre-dinner drinks next to an iconic camp fire.
Okey enough of that, what is the most important thing for you to know when planing you East African Safari?
Accommodation because if you don't have accommodation where will you over night? Did you know that most of the good accommodation is normally booked out up to 6-9 months ahead? Yes that's right and if you don't have a confirmed booking the National Parks will not allow you to enter unless you state that you are only a day visitor. The bad news is that if you do manage to get your accommodation you need to know that you will be charged the rack rate and if you go to a lodge directly to see if they have accommodation you can expect to pay about 20-50% more than the rack rate and this become really expensive.
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| African Safari in a Mini bus |
The next important thing will be your transport.
You will have about 4 different options when it comes to booking your transport. Maybe I should just mention that most of the Lodges in East Africa does not have there own Game drive vehicles and for that reason you need to organize it yourself. Luckily there are more then a hundred companies that offer these services but I will come to that later on. What are the differences between these vehicles????
Firstly and also the cheaper option will be a mini bus, they are great in the dry season and also for smaller groups or small families but they have bunk seats in it and that are not so comfortable on the long roads and yes there are plenty of it.
Secondly will be the 4x4 minibus- same as the first option but just ad a all wheel drive which makes this a better option than the first and are only about $20-$30 more than the first option per day
Thirdly you get the Custom build 4x4 Land Rovers which is again about $50 more per day than the second option but much better as these are real 4x4 and can handle anything that comes their way but the negative of these Land Rovers are their leg room or shall I rather say the absence of it, this you can use during any season.
Fourthly and lastly you can ask for a 4x4 Land Cruiser and they will cost you the same as the Land Rover but here you will have bucket seats and enough leg room as well. All of these options normally have pop up roofs so that you can stand up straight to capture those beautiful African Safari memories that will last you for a life time.
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| a Leopard trying to hide from African Big5 Safaris |
BUT MOST IMPORTANT ABOUT YOUR VEHICLE HIRE
DON'T hire the cheapest out there !!!!!!! And I can't say this enough, WHY???
The average price for a vehicle is about $250-$350 per day and yes there are "companies" who charge less but you need to know that is very small companies who doesn't have backup and this means if you have a breakdown you are doomed, it has happened so many times that we drove in East Africa and then you see a broken down vehicle with clients in it and they will tell you they have been sitting there for hours as the driver tries to fix the problem but what happens if there is no backup and you're in a no mobile reception area and to get another vehicle in from the nearest City which in most cases are about 5-8 hours drive from there. That's why I say pay more and yes you will still get a breakdown but at least there will be a backup vehicle in the National Park which means you might only wait a hour or so for it to arrive. Please do your own research before booking with a company !!!!
Park fees
The average National Park fees per person per day is about $80
Very very important, PLEASE read this !!!!!!!
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| a Professional Guide/Driver of African Big5 Safaris |
Guides and or Drivers
There are many guides and drivers for an East African Safari but less than 20% are real guides and drivers.
Your guide will make or break your African Safari.
Why do I say this???
For most guides and drivers this is just a job, picking up clients taking them to the Lodges and the National Parks and tell the clients a little bit of the wildlife as they themselves is not that interested in it as it is the norm for them.
If you really want to have an AMAZING African Safari make sure you get a Guide/Driver with a passion for birds, why birds?? Birds are a great indicator of danger and if you want to see a lot of Cats then this is the type of person you want in your vehicle, one of my driver knows more then 450 species of birds and he can mimic their calls as well. The only downfall of having such a guide/driver is that all the other guides try and phone him to found out where the wildlife is.
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| Mt Kilimanjaro with African Big5 Safaris |
BORDER CROSSINGS
Please also take not that the East African Safari companies do not cross borders with their vehicles and this means if you want to do a East African Safari in both Kenya and Tanzania you will need more than one African Safari company.
East African Car rentals
If you were considering hiring a 4x4 from Avis, Budget,,,,, Don't do it !!!!!!! You are setting yourself up for a disaster, "Cops" will pull you over and they will find a reason to give you a "SPOT" fine, also known as "tjo-tjo" or we call it bribery.
Booking an East African Safari yourself VS Booking through us, African Big5 Safaris
I think as you read through this post you might have realized that to book an East African Safari might be easy but to book an East African Safari that will provide you with all the knowledge and passion is a total different thing and yes if you want to have an awesome East African Safari e-mail me and lets get you sorted ASAP.
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| Photo of Wildebeests and Giraffes on an African Big5 Safari |
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