Safari Tours with Flights Included

Three regions cover almost every safari sold to European travellers, and they are genuinely different trips.

East Africa means Tanzania and Kenya, and the whole thing turns on the wildebeest migration. The Serengeti in Tanzania and the Masai Mara in Kenya are one ecosystem cleaved by a colonial border, and 1.5 million wildebeest move through it on an annual loop. Game density is high all year, and the open savannah photographs beautifully. Expect 4x4 game drives from permanent tented camps, hopping between parks on small bush planes. Tanzania throws in Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire too.

Southern Africa means South Africa, Botswana and Zambia. The greater Kruger, with private reserves like Sabi Sand, offers the best Big-5 viewing on the continent and the most established luxury lodges. Botswana's Okavango Delta is water-based safari, with mokoro canoe trips and walking safaris alongside the game drives. Chobe, on the Zambezi, is elephant country.

Western safari is really Namibia, and it plays by its own rules. Etosha National Park is a vast salt pan ringed with waterholes; self-drive is common, and fly-drive with a 4x4 is the mid-range choice. Add the Sossusvlei dunes and the Skeleton Coast and you have a landscape-led trip rather than pure game viewing. Less dense wildlife than East or Southern Africa, but far more road-trip freedom.

Safari prices split cleanly into three tiers, and the gap between them is wider than in almost any other kind of trip.

• Overland tier: from around €1,000 for 7-14 days. Operators like Acacia Africa, Dragoman and Oasis Overland run big-truck expeditions with participation camping, so you help pitch the tents and cook. Usually aimed at travellers in their twenties and early thirties. Honest, sociable, and you cover serious ground. Tanzania to Cape Town in 21 days from around €2,500 is a realistic price.

• Mid-range lodge tier: from around €2,500 for 7-10 days. G Adventures, Intrepid and Exodus live here. Permanent tented camps or mid-range lodges, en-suite bathrooms, daily game drives in shared 4x4s with 6-7 guests aboard. Meals included, guides salaried. This is where most European first-timers land, and rightly so.

• Luxury lodge tier: from around €8,000 for 6 nights. Singita, Londolozi, &Beyond and Wilderness Safaris run the top end. A private vehicle, wine-paired dinners, plunge pools, butler service, and flight transfers between camps. You are paying for exclusivity, guide quality and position; Singita Grumeti in Tanzania or Mombo in the Okavango costs what a small car costs.

The mid-tier is the sweet spot for most travellers. You get nearly all of the wildlife for a fraction of the luxury price, and the animals could not care less how many thread counts are on your sheets.

Safari timing is not something to wing. The wrong month can halve what you see. Each region keeps its own rhythm.

Tanzania and Kenya dance to the wildebeest migration, which chases the rains. Calving season runs late January to mid-March on the southern Serengeti plains, with 8,000 calves born a day and the predators in a frenzy. April and May bring the long rains, when camps close or drop their prices and the roads turn tough. The famous Mara River crossings run July through September, with the herds in the Masai Mara from July to October before they loop back south, returning through the central Serengeti around December and January.

Southern Africa is simpler: dry season is prime. May to October means cold nights, warm days, thin vegetation and animals crowding the waterholes. This is when Kruger, Kgalagadi and Zambia's South Luangwa are at their best. November to March is the green season, kinder for birds and photography but harder for spotting cats in thick bush.

Botswana's Okavango Delta is the counter-intuitive one. The water peaks from May to September, months after the rains that feed it, because the flood drifts slowly down from Angola. Dry-land camps have game all year; the water-camp mokoro trips only work during the flood. And Namibia's Etosha is best May to October, when the animals gather at the waterholes.

Safari leans on its operators more than almost any other kind of trip. A great guide and a well-placed camp count for more than the company logo, but the right brand filters for both.

G Adventures runs the biggest range of African trips aimed at European travellers, taking in the Kenya-Tanzania classics, Cape Town to Victoria Falls overlands, and the full Namibia loop. Intrepid's Ranger range is its safari-focused line, with smaller groups capped at 12 and better camps than the standard Basix trips. Exodus Travels covers similar ground for a slightly older crowd, mostly 45-65.

Among the dedicated Africa specialists, Wild Frontiers is strong on Uganda gorillas and East Africa, Asilia Africa runs excellent mid-range tented camps across Kenya and Tanzania, and Natural Habitat Adventures handles the science-led photography trips. At the luxury end, &Beyond and Wilderness Safaris both own and run their own camps, so the experience is joined up end to end rather than brokered. Singita is the option for when budget is simply not a concern.

Book 8-14 months ahead for peak season, July-October in East Africa and May-September in Botswana, because the camps genuinely sell out. Off-peak, you can book 3-4 months out and still take your pick of lodge. And always check whether the operator owns its camps or merely books them: owned-camp operators control the experience, resellers do not.

Africa has a handful of safari gateways, and bush planes handle the rest. Get the international leg right and the internal logistics largely look after themselves.

Nairobi (NBO) is the main Kenya hub, with Kenya Airways, KLM and Qatar Airways flying direct from European capitals. Kilimanjaro (JRO) in Tanzania is the cleanest way into the Serengeti and Ngorongoro, with KLM direct from Amsterdam, Qatar via Doha and Turkish via Istanbul. Dar es Salaam (DAR) is an alternative, but it adds a domestic flight. Return Europe to Nairobi or Kilimanjaro typically costs from around €700 in economy, more in July and August.

Johannesburg (JNB) is the Southern Africa hub, served by Lufthansa, KLM, British Airways, Qatar and Turkish. From there, domestic SA Airlink or FlySafair connect to the Kruger airstrips at Skukuza and Hoedspruit and to Kasane (BBK) for Chobe and the Okavango. Cape Town direct flights are common too if you want to fold the Cape into your safari. Windhoek (WDH) is the Namibia gateway, served by Eurowings Discover, Lufthansa and Ethiopian via Addis, usually from around €800 return.

Multi-city flights earn their keep here. Fly into Nairobi and out of Kilimanjaro, or into Kruger and out of Cape Town, and you skip a wasted day of overland backtracking. Kiwi.com handles the multi-city routing on our bundles.