What is a Luxury African Safari?
What is a Luxury African Safari? It is many different things to many people! Perhaps this clip defines it in more detail!
What is a Luxury African Safari? It is many different things to many people! Perhaps this clip defines it in more detail!
An Africa Safari Vacation is one of the most amazing and rewarding types of holiday that one can ever imagine! With magnificent wildlife in abundance, incredible walking, scenery and top class guiding – as well as having such a variety of first class accommodation – all this contributes to having the perfect safari!See the video below to get an idea of which country might be right for you! We come from Africa and have been arranging bespoke safaris for our clients for 21 years – so, if only the very best will do – we would love to assist you in arranging your safari of a lifetime!
Abu Camp is a wonderful phenomenon – especially for those who either feel a real empathy with elephants or for those who are interested in elephant safaris.
This is the most magical experience that we have ever witnessed. One spends three nights at the beautiful Abu’s Camp and each morning, your mahout and guide tells you all about your elephant family. Learn all about their behaviour, their bonding and then ride them into the heart of the Okavango Delta – watching the elephant calves running alongside their mothers and family – splashing around in the water and playing and generally having a glorious time. This is a real privilege and the most warming experience one could possibly have!Learn about conservation issues and participate or observe mud bathing, training and veterinary care. Watch wildlife from the back of an elephant – completely peaceful and quiet – simply observing in an unobtrusive manner.
The rooms are beautiful and open fronted, set beneath a grove of mature trees and overlooking the waterway of the Delta yet they blend in beautifully with the environment.There is even a star bed which we can request for you so that one night you sleep beneath the vast canopy of stars – ever closer to the elephants.
The camp itself is gorgeous and spoiling – but in addition, one can also go out on game drives to search for other mammals and predators and also glide along the floodplains in a mokoro – a canoe – as you are poled along the floodplains. This is one of the most beautiful experiences and iconic of the Okavango Delta. Call us to arrange your elephant safari of a lifetime!
Luxury Okavango Delta Safari – these are some of the most magical safaris possible!
Flying across the delta, looking at the bejewelled waterway beneath you – landing on an island and immediately seeing a myriad of wildlife around you and you could be forgiven for thinking you had just landed in paradise – because that is exactly what it is!
There are so many very beautiful camps offering all sorts of different experiences in the Delta – from lodges with gorgeous architecture to a private tented, simple tented camp to a private camp which has persian rugs in your room and silver candelabra on the dinner table for night dining – with your own private vehicle and guide – this is all that awaits you!
Then you can go out on an elephant-back safari for three or four days where you watch and become part of the herd or even go out with a zoologist one day for a couple of hours, walking with his herd of elephant. There is even amazing riding in the Okavango Delta too.
Combine this with the Kalahari Desert and you have the safari of a lifetime!
An African safari needs to be tailormade in order to ensure that you get the most out of it. Just rationalise – how could one safari be right for thousands of people? It simply can’t – and one just ends up compromising hugely. And why should one? When paying this much money for a holiday (or anything else in life, for that matter), it has to be as perfect as possible – and the only way this is possible is to replicate an environment that you not only feel comfortable in, but indeed surpasses all your expectations and leaves you breathless!
And that’s where we come in! We listen to you, ask lots of questions, analyse and disseminate that information and then send you a suggestion which we think will be absolutely right for you! Whether its taking in photography lessons with a film maker and guide in the Masai Mara, going up in a hot air balloon across the sand dunes in the Namib Desert of Namibia or flying over the harsh and beautiful Skeleton Coast. Perhaps it is seeing the wildebeest migration in the mighty Serengeti – or spending times with chimps. It could be spending time with a researcher, looking for wild dog in Botswana, or taking a houseboat on the Chobe River. Perhaps it is looking at gorillas or sitting on the back of an elephant on an elephant back safari in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. What about riding a horse across the Kalahari Desert in Botswana or sipping wine at some of the best wine estates in the Cape? It might even be canoeing along the Mighty Zambezi in Zimbabwe or viewing the Victoria Falls. It could even be undertaking a walking safari.
These, plus a myriad of other ideas are available to you – we would love to share our knowledge and enthusiasm with you!
Luxury Safaris in Africa are our forte. Whether you would like the very best in luxury in terms of having private aeroplanes and the finest guides that the countries can produce at your fingertips, camps set up for you in the best wildlife locations or whether you want a film maker to improve your photography, perhaps you might like to spend time with an ornithologist or simply an all round naturalist guide, or even would like to see a particular species – such as a wild dog or a shoebill stork, we can achieve this for you! We have set up camps where the wild dogs are denning and where the shoebill stork is nesting – something that only sheer expertise and a lifetime spent on the African continent can allow us to do.
For those starting out on their first safaris, we guide you closely and help you to make the right decision for you or your family. Whether it is a private villa in the bush or on the coast for a family or group of friends, or a simple tented camp erected just for you where no other camp exists – where you watch the birds come to rest in the boughs of the trees – knowing it is just yourselves, your guide and crew and the birdlife – surely this must be the most blissful thing? Or hot air ballooning across the world’s highest sand dunes, watching each of them change hue. Perhaps spend time with lion or elephant or wild dog researchers – nothing is beyond our remit. You might even have dreamt of riding an elephant through the jewel of the Okavango Delta, observing the whole herd playing and interacting – a priceless experience! You have purely our passion and our expertise – and we look forward to arranging your safari of a lifetime!
Gosh – now this is one wide topic of conversation! Choosing a safari is one of the most important decisions one will ever make in their lives! The reason for this is that a safari is not an inexpensive holiday – and one wants to ensure that the correct choices are made – whether for a couple or a family.
Secondly, if it is your first safari – then we want to make the right impression. Getting it wrong will put you off for life – but getting it right will make you the staunchest advocate of safaris and wildlife for the rest of your life!
Many of our clients take a safari every single year – it simply gets into one’s blood! Partially, I think it is because it takes people out of their comfort zone but secondly, its that primeval feeling – seeing the continent as it has been for millenia and will always be – whereas we will simply disappear…. Its the immediacy of your surroundings – the thrill of sleeping under canvas and hearing the roaring of the lions or the whoop of a hyaena close by – their sound carrying – and wondering what activity each night will be delivering.
Being on foot or on horseback one is far more vulnerable and the heartbeat quickens – this is a wonderful feeling and one feels so much more in touch with the earth and Africa itself.
For some that immediacy is a terrifying prospect – in which case we have secure lodges that cocoon one entirely. For those with young children, security is at the forefront of one’s thoughts – and here we have fenced reserves or even non malarial safaris.
We spend time with you, learning all about you as an individual, or as a family, understanding your hobbies and interests, in order to make the perfect recommendations for you.
We have a list to help you answer all the questions you never even thought of – and of course, with staff all from Africa – our expertise is unrivalled and we relish the prospect of tailoring your first or next safari to ensure it is an experience of a lifetime!
Anyone with a family will truly appreciate an adventure holiday in Africa.
So- what constitutes an adventure? This word has so many different meanings for so many different people. It can simply mean getting off the beaten track – and not doing what everyone else appears to do. It can mean doing something different to what you would normally do in your every day life – or even what you would normally do on holiday. For others it means lots of ‘daring do’ – and this we can provide in buckets full! I say family safaris simply because one can do the following:
I understand many people’s concerns regarding taking a young family on holiday in Botswana and I suppose it depends upon what age one is considering, but certainly I feel that 6 and upward is the appropriate age to take a child on safari. One forgets that their mind is like a sponge, absorbing all the information and the sights and sounds of the African bush. These days there is a half dose of anti malarial tablets that one can give to ones children too.
There are three or four specific places where I feel that famillies with young children most benefit. The first is in the Delta where we can arrange a boating and private camping safari which is seriously good fun. Here one can learn how to fish as well! Secondly is to stay at a camp which is entirely closed to your family with the most amazing guide who is completely tuned into children. He teaches them about identifying the footprints of the animals in the sand, of learning about the medicinal properties of trees and plants (such as the leaves used for a toothbrush), to reading the night sky of the southern hemisphere and the planets and stars and the folklore attached to them. Then one learns how to fish and generally what skills to adopt for survival in the bush.
Contrast that with the Kalahari Desert where one can get close to meerkats and quad bike (and have a sleep out on the salt pans) and one has a simply perfect family safari. Perhaps end off at Victoria Falls or Livingstone – and visit a local school – as well as seeing the Falls themselves – it simply doesn’t get much better than this!
Taking a private mobile camp perhaps guided by a teacher who interacts with the children and gives them projects to do in between – which are both fun and educational! All I know, is that a safari to Africa with one’s family surpasses any other type of family holiday I have ever been on!
There is nothing quite like having luxury weddings in Africa. There are so many places that really lend themselves to having the most amazing wedding!
We have arranged a number of weddings for our clients and they have all been simply stunning! One of them was in Botswana at this truly beautiful camp in the Okavango Delta, where the ceremony was performed on a private island and the bride and groom arrived and departed on the back of an elephant.
We have also arranged several in truly gorgeous bush locations – where we have set up location in the most beautiful spot overlooking a wide river. The bride had the most gorgeous wild flower bouquets and she was married in a simple long dress. They had the most lovely African choir singing to them. Another example was in Zambia in Livingstone – getting married on Livingstone Island where there is a permanent rainbow and the Victoria Falls right next to you. Again we had a beautiful African choir singing for them.
If you want something more traditional, we have some really lovely small, pretty churches in the winelands in the Cape in South Africa where one can make one’s vows and your names are etched into the ancient wooden doors. Another lovely church is in the Mpumalanga region on an avocado pear plantation – whilst a further suggestion is on one of our favourite estates in Plettenberg Bay.
African & Indian Explorations Clients are all fully bonded under our ATOL and Travel Trust Association licenses.
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