Africa & Safaris
Not a Trip You Book.
A Journey You Design.
From the Mara River crossings to the Okavango Delta, Africa planned by an advisor who knows which camp, which month, and which guide.
Most people get one safari in their lifetime. That is exactly why booking it off a website is a gamble. The difference between a good safari and the one you talk about for twenty years comes down to details no brochure explains: which side of the Serengeti in February, which camp has the guide worth flying for, and why arriving in the Mara in July instead of June changes everything. We have spent years learning those details so your one safari is the right one.
Why Travel Africa With TDC
Africa Rewards Planning
More Than Anywhere on Earth.
Africa is the most rewarding trip you will ever take and the easiest one to get wrong. Timing, camp selection, and the order you travel in matter more here than anywhere else. A week in the wrong region during the wrong month is still a lovely holiday. It is not the trip you were promised.
We design Africa around three things: where the wildlife actually is in the month you are traveling, which camps deliver on their own photography, and how to move between them without losing days to airstrips and transfers.
You are not handed a brochure and a booking. You get a route built for how you travel, properties we would put our own family in, and someone reachable in your time zone from the day you inquire to the day you land home.
- Condé Nast Top Travel Specialist, 2020 to present
- Signature Travel Network and ASTA Verified Advisor, with preferred rates and added amenities at the safari properties worth having them at
- Operator partnerships that hold camp space and trekking permits in the seasons that sell out a year ahead
Start Here
Six Ways to See Africa.
Which One Is Yours?
Nobody arrives knowing whether they want Kenya or Botswana. Start with what you want the trip to feel like. We will handle the map.
01
Your First Safari
You have never done this and you do not want to get it wrong. Kenya, Tanzania, or South Africa, routed for the easiest logistics and the highest certainty of seeing what you came for.
Request This →02
The Great Migration
Nearly two million animals, one river, and a window measured in weeks. The herds move on a different schedule every year, which is why the month you book matters more than the camp.
Request This →03
Gorillas & Primates
Mountain gorillas in Rwanda, western lowland gorillas in the Congo, chimpanzees on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. Permits are dated, limited, and gone early.
Request This →04
Bush & Beach
Game drives first, then Zanzibar, Mozambique, or the Seychelles. The best way to end a safari is horizontal, on an island, with nothing on the schedule.
Request This →05
Family Safari
Camps that genuinely want your children there, with the right age minimums, the right activities, and malaria-free options when that is the deciding factor.
Request This →06
Honeymoon & Romance
Private, remote, and quiet. Walking safaris, sleepouts under the stars, and islands where the only other footprints are turtle tracks.
Request This →Explore Africa
Where Would You Like to Go?
East Africa
Kenya · Tanzania · Rwanda · Uganda
The Migration, the Ngorongoro Crater, and the gorillas. The Africa most people picture, done properly.
Explore This →Southern Africa
Botswana · South Africa · Zimbabwe · Zambia
Private conservancies, the Okavango by mokoro, Victoria Falls, and the Cape Winelands.
Explore This →The Desert South
Namibia · The Kalahari · Makgadikgadi
Sossusvlei at sunrise, Etosha waterholes, ghost towns filling with sand, and salt flats that run to the horizon.
Explore This →Indian Ocean & Islands
Zanzibar · Seychelles · Mozambique · Madagascar · Mauritius
Where a safari should end. House reefs, private islands, and fly fishing worth crossing an ocean for.
Explore This →Signature Journeys
Routes We Design Again and Again.
Every journey below is a starting point, not a package. Yours gets rebuilt around your dates, your pace, and how far you want to be from other people.
Classic Great Migration
Ngorongoro Crater → Ndutu → Northern Serengeti → Maasai Mara
The Migration done in the right order and the right month. A hot air balloon over the Serengeti at first light, the Mara River crossings between June and October, and the Ndutu calving season when the predator density is at its highest.
Request Pricing →Botswana Under Canvas
Linyanti → Okavango Delta → Makgadikgadi Pans
Three completely different Botswanas in one trip. Mokoro through the Delta channels, meerkats and quad biking across the salt flats, and walks with Zu/'hoasi Bushmen who read the desert like a page.
Request Pricing →Gorilla Trekking: Mountains to Lowlands
Volcanoes National Park → Odzala-Kokoua National Park
Two gorilla species on one itinerary, which almost nobody does. Mountain gorillas in the Virungas, then western lowland gorillas in the Congo Basin, with golden monkey trekking and night forest walks in between.
Request Pricing →Best of Kenya
Giraffe Manor → Mara Plains → Solio → ol Donyo
Breakfast with Rothschild's giraffes leaning through the window, a balloon over the Mara, and a helicopter with a 180 degree view of Kilimanjaro. Four properties, each one a reason to go on its own.
Request Pricing →Tanzania Bush & Beach
Tarangire → Lake Manyara → Ngorongoro → Serengeti → Zanzibar
The full northern circuit with night drives and bush walks, then the part most itineraries skip: a week on the Zanzibar coast with a private house reef and a spice plantation twenty minutes inland.
Request Pricing →South Africa Family Adventure
Grootbos → Sabi Sand → Soutpansberg Mountains
Built for travelers bringing children. Whale watching for the Marine Big Five off Dyer Island, a hands-on program at Sabi Sabi that keeps kids genuinely occupied, and a sleepout under the stars nobody in the family forgets.
Request Pricing →Namibia & South Africa by Rail
Rovos Rail · Sossusvlei → Etosha → Kalahari → Kimberley
Your hotel moves while you sleep. Kolmanskop, where drifting sand has filled the rooms of a diamond boom town, the blackened camel thorns of Deadvlei, and the Big Hole at Kimberley, all from a train that belongs in another century.
Request Pricing →Off the Tanzanian Path
Arusha → Greystoke Mahale → Sand Rivers Selous → Mnemba Island
Our honeymoon route. Chimpanzees in the Mahale forest, sunrise kayaking on Lake Tanganyika, walking safaris and treetop hides in the Selous, and green turtles nesting on the beach at Mnemba.
Request Pricing →Ultimate Southern Africa
Sossusvlei → Okavango Delta → Victoria Falls → Lower Zambezi
Four countries without four days lost in airports. A balloon over the Namib, mokoro in the Delta, the Falls from a helicopter, and canoe safaris on the Lower Zambezi with elephants crossing ahead of you.
Request Pricing →Seychelles Marine Safari
Mahé → Alphonse Island & the Outer Islands
The other kind of safari. World-class fly fishing on the Alphonse flats, marine exploration through the outer atolls, and turtle patrols alongside the Island Conservation Society.
Request Pricing →Where You’ll Stay
Camps and Lodges We Book With Confidence.
Africa has more beautiful photographs than beautiful camps. These are the ones that hold up when you arrive.
✦ Travel Design Co Preferred Partner
Giraffe Manor
Nairobi, Kenya
A 1930s manor house where endangered Rothschild’s giraffes put their heads through the dining room windows at breakfast. It is as absurd and as wonderful as it sounds, and it books out roughly a year ahead. Worth building your arrival date around.
Inquire About This Property →✦ Travel Design Co Preferred Partner
Mara Plains Camp
Olare Motorogi Conservancy, Kenya
Seven tents on a private conservancy bordering the Maasai Mara, which means off-road driving, night drives, and a hard cap on how many vehicles reach a sighting. If you want photographs with no other trucks in the frame, this is how you get them.
Inquire About This Property →✦ Travel Design Co Preferred Partner
Greystoke Mahale
Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania
Six bandas built from dhow wood on a beach with forested mountains rising straight up behind them. You arrive by boat, you leave by boat, and in between you climb into the forest to sit with wild chimpanzees. Nowhere else feels like this.
Inquire About This Property →✦ Travel Design Co Preferred Partner
Earth Lodge
Sabi Sand Nature Reserve, South Africa
Built into a slope so completely that you do not see it until you are inside it. Sabi Sand has the highest leopard density in Africa, and walking safaris here go out with both an armed ranger and a Shangaan tracker. Malaria risk is low and the flights in are easy.
Inquire About This Property →✦ Travel Design Co Preferred Partner
Kanana
Okavango Delta, Botswana
A water camp in the truest sense. Mokoro and motorboat rather than vehicles, and a seasonal heronry that is one of the largest in southern Africa. Go in the flood months and the Delta does something you cannot photograph well enough to explain later.
Inquire About This Property →✦ Travel Design Co Preferred Partner
&Beyond Mnemba Island
Zanzibar Archipelago, Tanzania
A private island you can walk around in twenty minutes, with ten bandas and no shoes required at any point. Green turtles nest and hatch on the beach. It is the correct ending to a Tanzania safari and the reason people extend by three nights.
Inquire About This Property →Timing
When to Go, and Why It Matters More Here.
The single most common safari mistake is picking dates first and destination second. Start with what you want to see, and let the calendar choose the country.
| When | What Is Happening |
|---|---|
| East Africa · Kenya & Tanzania | |
| Jan – Mar | Calving season in the Ndutu and southern Serengeti. Hundreds of thousands of births in a few weeks, and predator activity at its most intense all year. Green, photogenic, and far fewer vehicles than the crossing season. |
| Jun – Jul | The herds push north through the western corridor. Excellent all-round game viewing before peak rates and peak crowds arrive. |
| Jul – Oct | The Mara River crossings. This is the image everyone has in their head, and it is also the most competitive window of the year for camp space. |
| Nov – Dec | Short rains. Quieter camps, softer rates, and the best birding of the year. A strong choice if the Migration is not your priority. |
| Apr – May | Long rains. Many camps close and roads become difficult. We steer first-time travelers away from these months. |
| Southern Africa · Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe & Zambia | |
| May – Oct | Dry season, and the strongest game viewing of the year. Vegetation thins out and animals concentrate around water, which makes sightings both more frequent and more predictable. |
| Jul – Sep | Peak Okavango flood. This is mokoro season in the Delta, when the water channels are at their fullest and the water camps are at their best. |
| Nov – Apr | Green season. Newborn animals, dramatic skies, and meaningfully lower rates. Some camps close and some roads flood, so routing matters more. |
| Year round | Sabi Sand and the private reserves bordering Kruger deliver in every month, which is why they are our usual answer for a first safari on fixed dates. |
| The Desert South · Namibia | |
| May – Oct | Dry and cool in the mornings. Best conditions for the Etosha waterholes and for climbing the Sossusvlei dunes before the heat arrives. |
| Dec – Mar | Hot, with occasional storms that turn the desert into something extraordinary to photograph. A specialist’s season rather than a first-timer’s. |
| Gorilla & Chimpanzee Trekking · Rwanda, Congo & Western Tanzania | |
| Jun – Sep | The main dry window. Firmer trails, easier trekking, and the first permits to sell out. |
| Dec – Feb | The shorter dry window. Slightly easier to secure permits, with trekking conditions nearly as good. |
| Plan ahead | Permits are dated, limited, and non-transferable. We secure them nine to twelve months out. Trips built around a permit start with the permit, not the flights. |
| Indian Ocean & Islands · Zanzibar, Seychelles, Mozambique & Mauritius | |
| Jun – Oct | Dry and breezy. The natural pairing with a Southern or East African safari, and the reason so many trips end on an island. |
| Dec – Feb | Hot, clear, and excellent for diving and snorkelling. |
| Mar – May | Wettest months. A number of island properties close entirely, usually in April. |
What to Expect
Every Africa Trip Is Priced From Scratch. Here Is Why.
There is no shelf price for a safari. Two travelers on the same route in July and in March can pay very different amounts, because the camps that make a trip unforgettable price by season, by night, and by how far ahead you commit. Anyone quoting you a fixed number before asking your dates is quoting you someone else’s trip.
Tell us when you want to go, how many of you there are, and what you want the trip to feel like. We will come back with a designed route and a real number.
Request a Quote →What a TDC Quote Includes
- Camps and lodges selected for the exact season you are traveling, not a generic year-round list
- Internal flights, light aircraft, and road transfers between camps, which is where most self-booked safaris come apart
- Park fees, conservancy levies, and guiding
- Trekking permits where required, secured well in advance
- A full day-by-day route with the reasoning behind the order
- Someone reachable in your time zone from inquiry through your return
Before You Go
The Questions Worth Asking First.
How far ahead should I book a safari?
Nine to twelve months for peak season, and longer if you want a specific camp during the Migration or a gorilla permit. The best camps are small. A Delta water camp might have eight tents and a Mahale camp has six. They fill early, and when they fill they do not reopen.
Is a safari a good idea with children?
Yes, at the right camps. Age minimums for game drives vary widely, commonly six, eight, or twelve, and a handful of properties build entire programs around younger travelers. There are also malaria-free reserves in South Africa and Namibia, which is often the deciding factor for families with small children. We match the camp to your children’s ages rather than discovering a rule after you have booked.
What is the difference between a national park and a private conservancy?
National parks generally restrict off-road driving, night drives, and walking safaris. Private conservancies allow all three and cap how many vehicles can attend a sighting. If you have seen a photograph of a leopard at close range with nothing else in the frame, it was almost certainly taken in a conservancy. It is one of the biggest differences in what a trip actually feels like, and it rarely shows up in a brochure.
How many countries should I combine?
Fewer than you are tempted to. Africa’s internal flights and light aircraft transfers eat days quickly. Two countries in two weeks is comfortable. Three is workable with careful routing. Four usually means you spend a meaningful part of your trip in airstrips and lounges, which is a real cost even though it never appears on an itinerary.
Do I need malaria medication?
It depends entirely on the region and season. Parts of South Africa and Namibia are malaria free, while much of East Africa is not. Your physician makes that call, and it is worth having the conversation before you settle on a route rather than after. We will tell you which regions the question applies to so you can raise it early.
Can you handle the flights?
Yes, including international routing and the light aircraft that move you between camps. Bush flights carry strict baggage limits and generally require soft-sided bags, and connections are often built around a single daily departure. Getting this wrong is the most common way a beautifully chosen itinerary falls apart, so we plan it first rather than last.
What if I only have a week?
Then we build a single-country trip with short transfers and put you somewhere with year-round density, usually the private reserves bordering Kruger or a focused northern Tanzania route. A week is enough for a genuinely good safari. It is not enough for three countries, and we would rather tell you that now.
From the Journal
First-Hand Guides and Safari Stories.
Journal Slot 1
Suggested: Migration Timing: What Month to Book for the River Crossings
Journal Slot 2
Suggested: Kenya or Tanzania for Your First Safari?
Journal Slot 3
Suggested: What to Pack for a Bush Flight
