From a personal point of view, a safari with my family and friends is the very best holiday of all. There’s lots to do and see, plenty to keep younger members of the family interested (looking out for lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants or giraffes will keep anyone alert for an extended period of time!), and you’re invariably in a truly beautiful location. Add to that the fact that it is a great way to introduce younger family members to the idea of conserving our wonderful planet, or perhaps learning a new skill such as photography, painting or diary writing and you may well have the ideal holiday.
Image by Nick Garbutt
However, having decided that you are going to have a family safari, where should you go and why? There are so many different safari countries in Africa … and they all claim to be the best!
The first important considerations are whether you wish to combine your safari with other activities, and whether you wish to self-drive. If you like the idea of the latter, then both South Africa and Namibia are great options. South Africa has the advantage of direct flights from the UK – to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban – which is an important consideration when travelling as a family. In addition to some fabulous wildlife viewing on the eastern side of the country in and around Kruger National Park and KwaZulu Natal, if you go at the right time of year (our summer holidays) there is tremendous whale watching off the southern coast, which can be neatly combined with some of the world’s finest wineries in the Cape Town area for the adults!
Namibia is more ‘off beat’ but another country perfect for self-driving and with some great pockets of wildlife – Etosha, the Waterberg Plateau and the Skeleton Coast to name a few – not to mention the towering sand dunes of Sossusvlei and the now famous cheetah conservation project at Okonjima.
If you want something a little more ‘traditional’, and possibly cheaper, then it has to be East Africa. Tanzania is where many people take their once-in-a-lifetime safari, and it is an excellent choice. You are almost guaranteed to see large herds of wildebeest and zebra, together with lions, cheetahs and all of the other plains game that you might imagine. But, you will see more people on safari than you would in other safari countries and that is not for everyone.
For the connoisseurs, Zambia and Botswana are the places to go. In Zambia, the Luangwa Valley and the Lower Zambezi, and in Botswana the Okavango Delta, Moremi and Chobe; with both countries also having easy access to the Victoria Falls – a wonderful place to end a safari. Zambia and Botswana offer small, intimate lodges and tented camps, outstanding guiding and wildlife that goes beyond anything you might be able to imagine and (in Zambia particularly) there are a number of family-friendly lodges where you can have your own private family guide, your own chefs and your own safari schedule, for very little extra cost.
Contact our expert team for more information on our safari holidays, or take a look at our wide range of wildlife and nature holidays.
