Private tailor-made safari
Your own vehicle and guide, and a route planned around your interests, dates and pace. Private safaris work at every comfort level, not only at the top end.
Your vehicle, your pace
On a private safari the vehicle and guide are yours alone. Nobody else's plans shape your day. If a leopard is asleep in a sausage tree and you want to wait an hour for it to wake, you wait. If the children need lunch back at camp, you go back.
Tailor-made means the route is built around you as well. You choose the parks, the number of nights in each, the comfort level and the pace. We plan from there.
Who it suits
- Families, who need flexibility around meals, naps and attention spans.
- Photographers, who want to stay with a sighting and position the vehicle for the light.
- Honeymooners and couples who'd rather not share their game drives.
- Special interests, such as birding, walking or cultural visits, which don't fit a set itinerary.
- Repeat visitors, who want to go deeper into fewer places.
What changes day to day
Start times are agreed with your guide the evening before. You might leave before dawn with a packed breakfast to reach the herds early, or take a slow morning and a long afternoon drive instead. Rest days are easy to add. So are detours, like a morning at Lake Eyasi or an extra night where the wildlife is good.
Private at different comfort levels
Private travel isn't only for luxury trips. At comfort level, you have your own vehicle and guide and stay in mid-range lodges and tented camps. At luxury and ultra level, the camps are smaller and better placed, and some legs may be flown to save time on the road. Many travellers mix the two: a comfortable lodge one night, a smaller camp on the crater rim or in the Serengeti the next.
Practical considerations
- Group size: the per-person cost of the vehicle falls as more people share it, so private travel is often good value for families and small groups.
- Planning time: the best-placed small camps fill early for July to October and the calving months. Give yourself as much notice as you can.
- Seating: tell us your group size and any mobility needs so the vehicle can be arranged around them.
The 12-day private Tanzania safari shows what a longer private route can look like, and the 8-day premium Tanzania safari is a shorter option at a higher comfort level.
Tell us how you'd like to travel on the plan your safari page and we'll draft a route for you.
Journeys with this experience
Where it happens
Questions travellers ask
Can we change the plan once we are on safari?
Within the day, usually yes: your guide can adjust start times, stay longer at a sighting or head back early. Changing the route itself, such as adding a night somewhere, depends on whether the camps have space and on park permits, so it isn't always possible at short notice. The more flexibility you build in at the planning stage, the easier it is.
How far ahead should we plan a private safari?
For travel from July to October, or in the calving months of January to March, it's worth planning well ahead, because the best-placed small camps fill first. For the green season you can often plan at shorter notice. If your dates are fixed, start early; if you're flexible on dates, you'll have more choice of camps.
Build a journey around Private tailor-made safari
Tell us when you would like to travel, and we will suggest where and when it fits best, and what to pair it with.