The Custom Designed Safari
Safaris and Expeditions specializes in building customized itineraries for what we consider "real" safaris. Our strength is to recommend the best options available taking into consideration your interests and your budget. We rely on our own personal Africa safari experiences and contacts. Booking a "real" safari can be a lot of work with many hours of research required and much patience, as there is a huge choice of options. You cannot always believe the marketing hype, so getting advice from people with experienced can make a big difference.
A "real" safari offers a glimpse into the african wilderness; encounters with wildlife - often on foot or at least in open vehicles and a close to nature environment. When we say close to nature - there are many options, but clearly, spending your nights in a tent with just a layer of canvas between you and the wilderness is a must. Wilderness camps are not protected with barriers or walls and you may be lucky enough to have an elephant pick acacia seeds off the roof of your tent, or a lion eyeing nearby wildebeest in the moonlight from the cover of your tent verandah. These experiences can be mixed with more conventional comforts of a lodge from time to time. If you want to rough it and experience hunting with the bushmen while overnighting in a lightweight tented camp for a night or two - so much the better.
Or should you consider a "Package Holiday"?
Much of what you find published in brochures distributed by high street travel agencies, are package safaris. Most of these are set departures that follow the conventional routes to the most publicized destinations. They are often massified, and may therefore have attractive prices. Its not always obvious that booking such a trip can result in your joining the "7-day standard monday departure" with 30 other guests. Of course - that does not mean they don't offer an exceptional product, just that this may not be exactly what you had hoped for when you started looking for a safari.
