Money
What each change actually adds
Including the several that add nothing, and the one that removes more than it costs.
| Per person per night | What it buys |
|---|---|
| US$800 – 1,200 | Established camps in genuinely good locations, a private vehicle throughout, light-aircraft hops between parks rather than long road transfers, and guiding that is a profession rather than a job. The entry point to a safari that does not compromise. |
| US$1,200 – 1,800 | Camps on private land, where the rules change: off-road driving to a sighting, night drives, walking with an armed guide, and a cap on how many vehicles may attend anything. Usually the point at which people stop comparing safaris on price. |
| US$1,800 – 2,500 | The camps people name when they get home. Six to ten tents, an owner or manager who is present, a guide assigned to you for the stay, and food that would hold its own in a city. |
| US$2,500 – 4,000 | A guide who travels with you from park to park rather than being handed over at each one, private charters on your own schedule, and small camps taken whole for your party. |
| US$4,000 and up | Exclusive-use houses and villas with their own staff, mobile expedition camps built for your route, and private aircraft between countries. Bought for privacy and control rather than for thread count. |
Indicative planning ranges only, per person per night sharing, for a fully inclusive safari — accommodation, meals, park and conservancy fees, guiding, and transport between parks. They are what we see in the market, not a quote and not an official tariff. Your quote will be exact and itemised. International flights are not included.
The four lines on top of the bed
- Park, reserve and conservancy fees, per person per day, often a three-figure sum on well-known ground.
- Permits for gorillas or chimpanzees, fixed per person per tracking and not negotiable by anybody.
- Internal flights and transfers, per person per leg — which is why the number of places matters so much to a total.
- Tips and premium drinks, outside almost every "all inclusive" and worth budgeting rather than discovering.
We itemise all four rather than folding them into a nightly figure, because a bundled rate makes the one useful question impossible to ask: what happens if we remove this?
The change that lowers a total most
Remove a place. It takes out a flight, two transfers and a day that belonged to neither end, and it usually improves the trip — because the nights you get back go into places you are already enjoying.
Downgrading every camp by one band spreads a saving thinly and changes the character of every night. Removing a stop changes one thing and gives you back a day.
The changes that cost nothing
Departure times, breakfast in the vehicle, skipping an afternoon drive, how long you stay at a sighting, eating alone, what you tell the camp you want to see, laundry timing, and which seat you take.
None of these appears on a quote and none requires a larger budget. They require being said, preferably at the enquiry stage so the camps chosen can deliver them.
What we will not do
Quote a nightly rate with the fees hidden inside it and call the total competitive, or present a change as impossible when it is merely expensive. Where something genuinely cannot move, we will say that it cannot move and why.
Ready to turn this into a real itinerary?
Send us your dates, who is travelling and roughly what you want to spend per person per night. Our Africa specialist comes back within 24 hours with a plan built around them and a costed quote.