Tackling our big rocks: Africa edition
Continuing on theme but this time at Valley of Fire State Park (still in Vegas)
African Safaris 🦓🦒🐘: the marquee of all marquee travel destinations (so far)
While we were planning our variety of cruise expeditions, I also had African safaris in the back of my mind. I’m not sure what about Africa was intimidating but it took us more than 1 month to solidify our decisions and itinerary there. So here is a blog post dedicated to just our Africa planning journey.
So far, Africa (by far) is our most expensive trip. It also has been the longest so there’s definitely some correlation there. We originally were thinking about doing a single safari at a single resort/lodge for around a week after talking with a travel agent but after talking to friends who have done safaris in Africa, we received consistent advice and feedback that for a single safari, you only need 4 days/3 nights, no more no less. By day 3 or 4, you see the same animals, you become more desensitized to the amazement of the wildlife and there’s diminishing marginal excitement for every incremental day beyond day 4.
On the flip side, Africa is pretty far away and so after some research with the travel agents who obviously were inclined to skew and recommend longer stays, we decided to hop around to multiple safaris in multiple countries. The contenders for October travel were:
Tanzania: the Great Migration and the most “classic” safari vibes — our friends said “think Lion King”
Botswana: more private than Tanzania, more flooded grasslands while still getting the diversity in wildlife
South Africa: one of the most famous areas. Great place to visit beyond just safaris.
Kenya: known for the Great Migration and also elephants
Rwanda: gorilla trekking
Uganda: gorilla trekking and birding
This was a different type of tricky than Antarctica because we really wanted to prioritize seeing wildlife and we didn’t have any knowledge of what was the best in October. We were a little overwhelmed by all the options so we reached out to a couple of hotel operators which had lodges in multiple countries and regions to see their recommendations for October.
Singita, &Beyond, Wilderness Destinations, Elephant Watch Portfolio
Singita was the highest reviewed out of the bunch (and the most expensive). Marianda, our travel advisor, recommended South Africa or Tanzania in early October.
In South Africa, Singita operates in Sabi Sands and Kruger National Park.
In Tanzania, Singita operates on the 350,000 acre Singita Grumeti Reserve in the Serengeti. Read more about Singita Grumeti here.
&Beyond was extremely responsive and detailed during our communication. Natalie was our Travel Specialist and recommended East Africa (Kenya and/or Zanzibar) and Botswana in early October.
Botswana came out of left field for us but Natalie described it as
more “exclusive” than East Africa – far less crowds all through the year. Most of the properties in Botswana are all on private concessions (meaning not National Parks, so the only people allowed on safari in these areas are the guests staying at these properties). Therefore, you safari is exclusive to the best! You rarely share a high profile sighting with many other vehicles and if you do, it is never more than 3 vehicles, all who are from the same lodges).
Elephant Watch Portfolio was a recommendation by one of Marshall’s colleagues who was close friends with folks at Save The Elephants. The friend focuses on conservation work and was happy to get on a Zoom call with us for some intro tips!
Gorilla Trekking also came out of left field because it wasn’t on our original itinerary but once we asked friends about safari, everybody mentioned “oh but you’re also going to go gorilla trekking in Rwanda right?” After the consistency of those rave reviews, we decided to look into Singita or Bisate Lodge (part of Wilderness Destinations)
Having Resort Availability Plan Your Vacation For You
Tanzania
We originally started our outreach in mid March and got on our first phone call with the travel advisor at Singita at the beginning of April. We were still getting our bearings straight for 1-2 weeks. By mid April, a lot of the Singita lodges we were excited about in Tanzania were fully committed already for October. I guess most people plan African safaris more than 6 months in advance!
We knew we wanted to stay at Singita Faru Faru Lodge but they only had 2 nights/3 days available. Singita also had an offer of stay 4 nights pay 3 nights so we decided to do 2 nights at Faru Faru and 2 nights at Sabora Tented Camp. We weren’t that interested in Singita Sasakwa (which still had more availability for 4 nights) so it was easy to let the availability decide our travel schedule.
Rwanda
Singita also had a Rwanda lodge (Kwitonda) but we also heard great things about Bisate Lodge with Wilderness Destinations. The hotel availabilities were also extremely limited and dictated that we do Rwanda first and then Tanzania (ideally we would’ve done gorilla trekking after Tanzania because we heard gorilla trekking was insanely cool and wanted to save it for the last). We decided to do Bisate and stay an extra day in Arusha, Tanzania as a transfer day to maximize our time in Faru Faru. If we stayed in Singita Kwitonda and did back to back, we would’ve had to check into Faru Faru much later in the afternoon and shortened our time to actually experience staying at that resort. Marshall also really liked the vibe of Bisate more than Ktwidonda (embedded into nature vs glass house) and it’s nice to diversify and experience multiple resorts and services.
Kenya
Last but certainly not least, we decided to start our travel in Africa with Elephant Watch Camp and see if we could get some more local color on the Save The Elephants effort.
So what’s our final schedule?
Email us if you have more specific questions!
Sept 30, 2024: Depart New York City for Nairobi (layover in CDG)
Oct 1: Land in Nairobi and stay overnight since the flight gets in super late
Oct 2 - Oct 5: Elephant Watch Camp in Kenya
Oct 5-9: Gorilla Trekking with Bisate in Rwanda (opted for Bisate instead of Kwitonda to try some non Singita properties)
Oct 9-14: Tanzania Safari with Singita. Spending 2 days in Faru Faru and then 2 days in Sabora Tents
Oct 14-19: Goodbye mainland Africa and going to the Seychelles
Oct 19-21: Transportation to… Japan!