Private Safari
Fair Trade Tourism
July 3, 2019
Family Safari
July 5, 2019
The word safari is Swahili for "to journey", and we feel that there is no better example of a journey than that of the self discovery experiences and what better way than to have a private safari guide throughout this journey to discover more.
A luxury safari in South Africa is a truly wonderful experience, but if you want to get the most from your safari a private safari elevates your trip to a whole different level. The key to a superior private safari experience is the quality of the private safari guide. At Tailormade Africa we are privileged to have Cameron Pearce as our private safari guide.
The benefits of having a private safari guide are almost endless. Cameron will take care of any snags that you may encounter along the way, leaving you to relax and fully enjoy your trip. You will never have to worry about flights and connections, best routes to travel, dietary requirements, what the best places are to visit or how much to tip the local staff, just to name a few.
All of our safari options work with lodges that offer you the opportunity to experience the bush without the issue of overcrowding, ensuring a much more intimate safari. Private reserves are incredibly strict when it comes to the number of vehicles at any given sighting which means the animals themselves are less disturbed than in a more public park, and this allows you to witness truly genuine behaviour.
The safari lodges that we support will all have a maximum of six people to a vehicle as standard, however, when booking your own private vehicle, which means everyone gets a ‘window’ seat and the attention of your guide! We believe however that when you book a private vehicle for your safari portion, it takes the whole safari experience up a notch and provides you and your loved ones with the chance to explore the bush at your own pace.
Even though the lodges we support tend to have a maximum of six per vehicle, the guides will still need to ensure each couple or group on the vehicle has the opportunity to enjoy their safari based on their own interests. For those of us who are particularly keen on birds, for example, we are more than aware of people who are not quite as interested in LBJs and more into the ‘big stuff’ which is quite a shame if your eyes are in the skies a lot!
Having a private safari guide means that you can explore the bush with your specialist in your own time, and if that means ticking off over a hundred species of our feathered friends in one day or sitting with a family of elephants at a watering hole for two hours, it’s entirely your choice.
When you have a private safari vehicle and guide, you can tailor your safari experience to precisely what you want. And by that we mean, if you’re looking for that perfect camera angle, your private guide can accommodate you to your heart's content without the worry of other clients on the vehicle. The guide’s attention will be entirely focused on you, and if you want to stay out a little longer, then you can!
If you feel a little like mixing up the agenda and doing a walking safari instead of a drive, you have the flexibility to do so. And best of all – you can pick whichever seat you want on the car so your experience of the bush is totally unimpeded!
Private vehicles do come with an additional daily cost, however, in our opinion this really does add an extra dimension to your safari and the flexibility is certainly worth the extra pennies. A luxury safari is going to blow your mind and you certainly won’t feel let down if you decide not to opt for the private vehicle as six to a car is still incredibly private!
We also love the idea of getting to know other like-minded travellers and those shared experiences can truly earn you friends for life. To this day we have couples who have met on their safari and now travel together, and it’s a beautiful thing to witness. That said – if you can splash out a little more on that extra privacy then why not? Shotgun whichever window seat you prefer!
