The Algernon family is going to go on an African Safari. The only questions for now are:
a) Where should we go? Which countries / animal preserves have the best safaris?
b) When should we go? Is there a particular time of year that is best?
Are there any Dopers out there with personal experience? How about friends? Or even friends of friends.
Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.
Two words: Botswana and Tanzania. I would avoid the big parks of South Africa and Kenya unless you like hundreds of tourists, paved roads, and no off-roading allowed.
Search online for the best times. We went to Tanzania in December/January, which is when the migrations are going on. Thousands of wildebeest, zebra, cape buffalo, etc., and the attendant predators abound. Go by road (hire a Landcruiser and guide) from Arusha to Lake Manyara, then to Ngorongoro Crater; on to Oldupai Gorge, then to the Serengeti. It’s all spectacular and you are only limited by your budget. There are beautiful hotels near Lake Manyara (up on the edge of the rift valley), and also up on the edge of the Crater, with spectacular views.
We went to Botswana in about June/July. It was pretty chilly in the mornings, but you don’t want to go during the rains. We saw lots of wildlife, staying at Mombo Camp, King’s Pool, Jeribe Island (if you like birdlife) and ending up at Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side. The Zambeze River tends to get very low in the dry season and the falls actually dry up. Timing is tricky, since you don’t want to hit it during the rains, but not during the really dry times, either. Travel to the camps is by small plane. We flew into Jo-burg, then to Maun, which is the safari jump-off point.
All of these locations are easily searched on the Internet. Make sure you have a reputable guide service, such as Wilderness Safaris, and you can’t go wrong. They offer accommodations from spartan to extremely comfortable.
These were the two best vacations of my life. We completely lost track of time, saw unforgettable scenery and wildlife, took hundreds of photos, ate like kings, slept like logs, and had world-class guides.
One note on photos. Don’t skimp on your camera. Small point-and-shoot cameras are nearly worthless. Get yourself a digital or film SLR with a decent telephoto - at least a 80-300mm zoom. I shot with a 210mm and had good luck, but a longer lens would have been better. My second safari I had a 300-600 and did somewhat better. A movie camera would also be beneficial, as it’s impossible to capture the sweep and scope of Africa with a still camera. Keep in mind that for the safaris that require air travel, you are severely limited in baggage.
I’m envious of your upcoming trip. Words cannot describe the experience you will have, and you will never forget it. In fact, you will probably dream about it long afterward.
I went with my Grandmother in April for 3 weeks, several years ago, through the National Trust. It was a great trip and I’d thoroughy recommend it–but it was a trifle pricy–$10K min per person, and that doesn’t count the airfare to Africa and back or the three best days of our trip–from a seeing wildlife perspective. Average age of people on trip~60.
The weather we had couldn’t have been better–warm, but not icky hot. Victoria Falls has the most water flowing over it in April, and we stayed on the Zambian side in a brand new luxury hotel, because of concerns about Zimbabwe’s political stability. It is my understanding that the Zimbabwe side used to be the most developed, but they have lost a lot of tourists, especially in groups, to Zambia, probably permanently due to those issues with political stability.
We spent several days in Cape Town, and saw the surrounding countryside. Then we took a train ride on Rovos Rail across South Africa.
For the wildlife safari part of the trip, we spent part of a day at Hoedspruit Wild Dog and Cheetah Project–neat, but kind of like a very large zoo.
Then we spent at day at Mowana Safari Lodge in Chobe National Park (Botswana)–nice, but a little generic.
The three best wildlife days were at Khwai River Lodge and Savute Elephant Camp. We reached both of them by flying “light aircraft”–hold 6 people, counting the pilot. One could drive, at greater risk and inconvenience and much larger portion of time. We had early morning and late evening game drives, plenty of elegant food, and the most luxurious tents (with running water and electricity) I ever expect to stay in.
My grandmother says she saw more and better and closer wildlife in Kenya and Tanzania when she went on a trip there which culminated in climbing Mt. Kilamanjaro, but take that with an appropriate grain of salt, it had been twenty years, and her mind is no longer what it used to be.
If I could go back, I’d spend several days in Cape Town, take Rovos Rail from Cape Town to Tanzania (I think that’s the right country, its a three week ride on the train) and then maybe take a day or two to go on a safari like I did before. This trip is not in my budget for the forseeable future.
Oddly enough, I just got a brouchure for the trip I took. Hmm, wonder what happens if I Google its title? Southern Africa’s Great Rail Journey
The dates on the brochure are not the same as the dates on the website, but it may give you some more information/ideas. Still, I repeat my disclaimer from above, I can’t imagine a better trip across Africa, but I can imagine a less expensive one, a shorter one, or one which allows more interaction with people from Africa.
Oh, I forgot that I was going to respond to the comment about cameras. I had a decent camera with not a huge amount of zoom. I took lots of pictures. I then put the best together in a scrapbook. By judicious cropping (sometimes generous cropping) and labeling pictures appropriately, you get a lot more “Wow, you saw a leopard” and a lot less " Nice grass, Eureka". If I had a chance to go again, I’d probably splurge on a digital camera, but I didn’t have one and didn’t want one then. Digital cameras have gone from being infrequent to ubiquitous in the time since I was there.
I have to disagree with Eureka in one regard. Two or three days on safari is normally nowhere near adequate. We spent the entire three weeks in the bush at the various camps and enjoyed every second of it. The tent camps are plush, with en suite bathrooms (unless you choose to stay at a trail camp). They announce meals by beating on a drum. Unfortunately, now I salivate every time I hear a tom-tom.
Just avoid Uganda during 1999.
Actually, I’m not sure that I’d disagree–though it all depends on what you are looking for. If flora as well as fauna fascinate you, spending time in and near Cape Town is a must–there are plants there which grow no where else in the world. The trip I took also had a significant dose of African history: Robben Island, Kimberley, etc. I was underwhelmed by our tour of a winery–they make wine the same way in BlauKlippen as they do in the Finger Lakes of NY.
On the other hand, I was told that while we were in Chobe we would see so many elephants that we’d get sick of them. Didn’t happen. Didn’t happen even after I spent the next several days looking at wildlife from the various safari camps, either. Might have happened if I’d spent 3 weeks on Safari—but I’ll probably never know. Certainly elephants weren’t the only form of wildlife I saw–and I’m pretty sure Chefguy saw a wider variety and more sheer numbers of animals. And one of my companions mentioned that she wished we had enough time at the camp for her to skip one or more of the game drives in favor of going swimming in the pool or sleeping in in the morning or checking out the Camp’s suppply of videos, books and magazines on wildlife.
At any rate, thoroughly as I enjoyed my trip, I do recall my reaction when I was invited. “Eureka, would you like to go to Africa with me? Don’t worry, the tour will be staying in the civilized parts of the country”
“But, if I go to Africa, I think I’d rather see the uncivilized parts.”
I saw some civilized, and some uncivilized parts, and had not lost my fascination with the wildlife when we had to go home.
We lived in Uganda for a year (97-98) and actually stayed in that camp when we went on one of our three abortive attempts to trek for gorillas. Uganda has a few decent game parks, but it has become more and more dangerous to travel in that country.
Eureka: We went to Chobe also and were disappointed by it in large part. It’s one of those game preserves where you aren’t allowed off the road and you end up with 40 people all sitting and staring at three flea-bitten buffalo. It was the low point in an otherwise terrific vacation. Well, no, actually the low point was when my wife fell coming down the steps at the Voortrekker monument in SA, and ended up traveling back to west Africa in a cast.
I couldn’t disagree more. We did a week in South Africa and had a fantastic time.
When we went 3 years ago (things may’ve changed since then), S.A. was still using the Rand, while most other African countries were pricing things in the US$, so SA was a lot cheaper, for starters.
True, if you only stay in Kruger, you are going to get tons of tourists, but there are plenty of nature reserves that are closed except to agencies and packages. We went in July (their winter) and were by ourselves for a lot of the outings. South Africa is where Europeans go during the winter to stay warm–there is a lot less touristing going on in the summer. Also, summer’s a better time to go because it isn’t the rainy season, which means the animals have to get up and go search for water, making them easier to spot.
We used this travel agency and had a fantastic time–plush 5-star accomodations, all meals provided, friendly guides and waitstaff throughout, and absolutely no problems with bureaucracy. We visited several different cites, with two extended safari outings every day, over the course of the week, and except for a leopard, we saw the Big 5 as well as myriads of other animals.
Just make sure you give yourself a day or two beforehand to adjust to the jet lag. Most routes go through Europe, so it’s 18+ hours on a plane each way ordinarily.
My trip went from Atlanta non-stop to Johannesburg, then to Cape Town for a total of 18 hours on a plane. Coming back, it was 18 hours from Jo-burg to Atlanta, plus I had two additional flights on either side just to get to and from those endpoints.
Incidently, I saw leopards–close enough to be cool, not close enough to be great pictures, but never saw a rhino, so that’s the animal missing from my big five.
I did the same camps plus a couple of other spots during a 10-day trip in early 2001 - the best vacation I’ve ever done. Through a combination of improbable circumstances it cost me just $1600. I’d be hard put to make the case that it wasn’t worth 10 times that much.
I concur with the advice that South Africa is very worthwhile, even though a bit more crowded. I did Kruger Park on a previous trip and hope to get back some day.
One piece of advice would be to get some good binoculars, and to take an interest in birds. Southern Africa is one of the best places on planet Earth for birds - it would be a terrible pity to go there and miss their splendor.
Chefguy nailed it. If you can only go to one place, make it Mambo Camp in Botswana. It is impossible to describe how amazing it is. Either you have experienced it or you haven’t. You can see some incredible things in South Africa too but Botswana blows it out of the water.
Good feedback everyone. I’m hoping for even more experiential advice, so if any of the readers here have any further information, I’m all ears.
In response to some of the points brought up in the various posts…
… assuming my two twenty-something single children come with, we’ll have four digital cameras, including a digital SLR with a decent zoom (210mm I believe). My son’s camera has a 10x optical zoom so that’ll take us to at least 300mm. Four cameras were more than sufficient for our trips to the Amazon, Italy, and Vietnam – at least one of us managed to capture the scene.
… I have one pair of expensive binoculars and would probably buy another before taking a safari.
… we’re all more interested in the fauna than the flora, so exotic plants hold no appeal.
… the long plane trip is no problem – we’re used to very long flights to distant locations.
… we’d want to be “in the bush” for at least 5 days. I’ll have to check out the various options.
… we’re torn between South Africa safaris and other options. One one hand we’d prefer some other location because my daughter already went on a South Africa safari just this last spring while traveling around the world doing Semester At Sea. On the other hand, she fell in love with South Africa so the rest of us want to experience it too. I have to say the strong positive opinions about Botswana are influential though.
Which is why I said “avoid the big parks”. Actually, any state-owned game park has the same on-road requirements. The smaller, private parks are the way to go. We not only saw the big five (repeatedly), we saw black rhinos in Ngorongoro and chased a wild dog pack outside of Mombo Camp.
As hajario said, Mombo is a gem, sitting in the Moremi Reserve in the Okavango Delta. Its location is the reason I said to go in the dry season.