Safari advice please

[Nix32]

I'm planning a long awaited, once in a lifetime safari next summer. Kids will be 15 and 12.

When I've been before, we've moved around and stayed in a few hotels.

The holiday I've found is 10 days staying in one lodge in a smallish game reserve, leaving the reserve to visit other parks.

The hotel has pools but there's not a 'transfer to the beach for a week' option, which is fine, it's the animals we're interested in.

However, the lodge only has 8 rooms. Too small, or intimate and personal?

I guess it depends on whether you like being 'intimate and personal' or not?

Lucky you. We went to SA 10 years ago for 8 days safari, it was fab.

I wasn't expecting to get that length safari within budget - essentially it'll be 7 days. The other days are travel and a visit to Jo'burg. Just right or too long?

We went with a 13yo & animal mad nearly 8 year old.
We did:
Fly to Jo'burg.
2 nights Sun City (to recover & acclimatise)
4 nights Pilansberg reserve (tarmac roads, some 'hides', some toilets)
4 nights Madikwe reserve (tracks & friendly bushes if needed)
2 nights Sun City (to recover from early mornings / late evenings)
Fly home.
I thought the DDs might start not wanting to go on the morning & evening drives at some point, but they did them all. We could have done 3 nights at each place and not done Sun City at the end quite easily without massive impact. Sun City could have been anywhere really, but the girls loved the buffet breakfasts and some of the available activities.

We personally wouldn't have felt safe visiting Jo'berg though would have been nice for me to see some historical stuff it wasn't the aim of the trip. We had private pre-booked transfers between places.

(We used Go2Africa and they tailored a holiday for us.)

Madikwe is fabulous, we stayed at the Sanctuary Makanyane only 6 to a vehicle so everyone had a view. You can traverse the whole park so we saw everything. Amazing experience, great food great guides can't wait to go back.

@TeenPlusCat @WildFlowerBees Did you just do safari or did you travel and visit anywhere else - cities, garden route etc?

@TeenPlusCat Did that feel that was the right amount of safari or too much?

We literally just did safaris (plus the Sun City resort). This was a very adventurous holiday for us, and youngest was only 7. We therefore focused our time and money on the bit we cared about. It would have been 'nice' to do some other bits but we didn't want masses of travelling & we were also worried about safety.

@TeenPlusCat Did the children enjoy it as much as you had hoped?

The safari was right for us, but certainly didn't need to be longer. I think more than 4 days in one location would have got 'samey'.

We saw pretty much everything except cheetahs and leopards. We, and the other family in our truck, were happy not to go looking for them but instead visiting the family of lions and watching the cubs etc (as otherwise potentially long bumpy drive for no end).

(I'm a bit worried by your plan to stay in one reserve but drive out to others. Won't it make for very very early starts / late evenings? We were getting up at 5am.)

Yes they did. DD2 specially as she is the animal mad one (now studying animal care at college). Everyone needs their own binoculars and a decent camera.

I thought they might start not wanting to go on the morning drives due to the early starts, but they absolutely did keep going.
You need layers and layers of clothes as very cold before sunrise/after sunset.

@nix32
We have taken DC on various safaris. We have been to Kenya and South Africa with them and DH and me have been numerous times without them.

I really wouldn’t stay for one week in one lodge. I would not ever go to Sun City either. We had no problems getting DDs to engage. I would look for 2 lots of 4 nights. As it’s SA I would do somewhere like Sabi Sands or Kruger. You need to understand that small reserves in SA are rewilded farms. You get lovely places to stay but they are small. Sabi Sands has plentiful leopards and there are cheetahs. You need space to get the full safari experience.

We also went to Hluhluwe Imfolozi in KwaZulu Natal. It has rhinos. You need to think what you want to see and look at animal sighting logs. Expert Africa is a great resource.

We also went to Kenya. The Mara, Samburu and the Great Rift Valley make a great holiday. DC loved it. Especially the Mara. DH also took DD2 to Tanzania. NgoroNgoro crater and Serengeti are great. Zanzibar after too.

I spent 2 weeks in SA pre kids.
5 days in Cape Town
5 days in a safari lodge in Kruger
2 nights in Victoria Falls/Zambezi

Personally I would try and combine the safari with something else. Only speaking from my own experience here but I was starting to get bored after 3 or 4 days, five was plenty! You will have seen everything there is by then and things become a bit samey. There wasn't a great deal to do at our lodge in between drives either. These were usually around 6am and again late afternoon/early evening. We lounged around reading books but you might need a bit more to do with teens.

Cape Town is amazing - I could have spent a couple of weeks there!

We picked jo'burg area as it is malaria free.
I also completely agree that Sun City would be many people's idea of hell, however as a familiar feeling safe kind of place it helped us settle in to a very new environment.

Seems a shame to only do small game reserves. If going to SA it’s worth going to Kruger National Park.

I can assure everyone that holidays in SA are safe. There is crime everywhere in African holiday countries and only people who haven’t travelled think it’s a SA issue. Take all reasonable precautions everywhere.

We have been to Botswana, SA, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe: all safari holidays. If you choose wisely, as I indicated for SA, you don’t see the same animals. If you are bored after a few days, don’t do a safari holiday. It’s far more interesting and varied than can be covered in a few days. We have chosen areas to see leopards, wild dogs, lions, cheetahs and lots more. We find it exciting. Ostriches mating was an unexpected highlight. I never tire of seeing elephant herds.

So choose two camps in different areas. look at what is seen in the different areas. Seeing a rhino is amazing.

Cape Town is nicer than Joburg. Go to Durban and drive up the coast. Don’t just stay on a rewilded farm for days on end. If you go in our autumn, go and see the whales off Hermanus. Do a lot more research on what you can see but if you are bored in 3 days, do a much bigger mix of activities and sights.

SA has wonderful guest houses. In all sorts of lovely places. The Drakensburgs are wonderful. Go to Blyde River Canyon. There’s a lot to see in SA and of course the garden route is brilliant. Down time there beats Sun City any day.

We saw
black rhinos & white rhinos
lions including cubs
elephants
buffalo
zebras, giraffes
hyenas
wild dogs
ostrich
eland
kudu
wildebeest
various gazelle
all sorts of birds
various lizards
warthogs
and probably a load of other things I've forgotten

(& at Sun City there was a water park, segways, jet skis, large breakfast buffet, all of which were new to my girls.)

OP you need to work out your budget and what is important to you. There is no one correct way.

This is all really useful, thank you.

I've done safari in Zimbabwe and Kenya, and have visited South Africa. I have incredible memories from these trips and want to share the experience with my kids.

However, booking to go with children rather than just adults is quite different, and your perspectives are really helping to clarify my thoughts. You're making me think about things I hadn't considered, which really helps. We're planning to go in August 2023 so have got plenty of time to research.

I find three nights plenty in one lodge. Otherwise you tend to get samey as the animals don’t really move around that much in a short time.

I’ve been to Madikwe and it’s great if you want a malaria free option (I’ve been a few times when one of my kids was under three). Otherwise I’d pick one of the Sabi Sands lodges - as previous poster said, Sabi Sands is great for leopards, I don’t think I’ve done a drive there without a leopard sighting.

I’ve been taking my child to the Kruger since she was 4.

It’s our favourite place in the whole wide world.

@Imohsotired
Wild dogs move a lot. We have also enjoyed watching out for unusual animals and birds. We have seen the wildebeaste migration in Kenya and fantastic experiences with rhinos in SA. We find something different to see but you need a large reserve for variety.,