For me, Africa simply lends herself to family holidays and probably more so than most other continents!

Family Safari Holidays with AfricanExplorations.com

One can simply do so much – the diversity is huge. We have been arranging family holidays to Africa for over twenty years – which seems the natural thing to do as we all come from Africa and many of us have children which we delight in taking back each year on safari. The perfect guinea pigs, they are now all completely spoiled for life!

Family Holidays Africa with AfricanExplorations.com

Watching one’s children’s  first encounter with wildlife is nothing short of rewarding – rejoicing in their wonderment! Whether it is a ‘bug hunt’ or going ‘frogging’ at night – or simply searching for nocturnal species, it is all one big adventure! Then there is horse riding, camel riding and walking alongside mules with the local tribes, learning what it takes to become a warrior!

They learn equally about the culture as they do the wildlife – learning also about the night sky and the stars and planets. They get to learn about the medicinal properties of trees and plants and the folklore attached to them. Perhaps they might be taught to make and use a bow and arrow or to make a fire without matches.  They can quad bike across deserts, spend time with Bushmen tribes, camp out beneath the stars at night – the options are endless! From luxury villas and lodges to camping and everything in between, this continent is your oyster!  Perhaps you dont want a safari but would rather visit non malarial South Africa and the Cape or even just visit Mauritius or stay at a villa in Kenya on the coast?  And with over 20 years of tailor making the finest family holidays to Africa filled with fun and enjoyment by a team of specialists from Africa, who better to consult for the very best advice?

How often do you hear the words: “not like it used to be”? More to the point, what emotions and memories does that sort of phrase invoke? For, in our modern world, life races by at speed and the basics are forgotten . The children’s day is full of school, after school clubs, extra lessons, swimming, Stagecoach, music, riding or whatever their interests (or their parent’s interests!) may be.  The parents, too, are equally busy rushing around earning  a living or seeing friends. This may or may not be such a bad thing but there’s a question – how much time do we really get to spend together, properly, as a family unit and together experiencing the world in which we actually live? And how often do we get to do – and appreciate – real things in a world where the DS, TV, IPOD, PC and the good old phone are constantly-pervasive influences and distractions?

I allude to “connection”, not only with one’s family (although that has to be the ultimate point) but the actual world which spins beneath our feet. Not a world where everything is seen through a glazed window, on a screen or bought from a supermarket but a world where things are real – where the land, animals, culture and life all there to be lived, enjoyed and, crucially, experienced together at first hand and without barriers.  This is the joy of a Child Friendly African Safari – it brings families together in one, huge, ongoing and never-to-be-forgotten, life-enhancing adventure.

Enthralled - Child Friendly African Safari with Experts AfricanExplorations.com

Connection comes from simple things: The sigh of the wind through a whistling thorn bush; the roar of a lion; the stellar clarity of a Serengeti night; the smile of a child seeing his or her first giraffe; the complete assurance of a nomadic tribesman alone on vast plains; a game of cards in camp; messing about in a mudhole where no-one cares about being covered in mud; the smell of breakfast cooked over an open fire after an early morning walk; the determination of a dung beetle; a genuine grin of welcome; the midnight rustle of “something” moving through the bush just a few metres from your bed…….the list is endless but the theme is the same: simplicity, raw connection to the world around you and of which you are now truly a part.

Children naturally understand all this, of course. Preparation for adulthood erases much of the basic instict with which we are born but, if one takes children to Africa and allows them to free their sense of adventure and fun, and, at the same time, allows adults to reconnect with simple enjoyment and the instincts that live on in all of us what a holiday that becomes! What an experience! What a homecoming! What enormous fun! And how fabulously bonding the whole experience can be.

An Ol Malo Moment in Kenya - Child Friendly African Safari with Experts AfricanExplorations.com

A child friendly safari in Africa can achieve all this. However (or in whatever country) one might “do” Africa – and the possibilities are almost endless so long as one leaves electronics and preconceptions behind – the people you meet will be welcoming and fun, the places you see and stay will be awe inspiring and the experience will be real. This is magic for children and adults alike and is,  surely, not only how things should be – even if just for a short while – but also, perhaps, just a little, “like it used to be”…….