Safari with toddler and baby

[Flymeaway4]

Never been on safari and now have a 2yr old and 5 month old. Had resigned myself to waiting 10 years til they were old enough, but a family member has just returned from her first one and it looks incredible! She also said there was a British couple there with their 2yr old and triplet babies!! So it got me thinking, maybe we don't have to wait 10 years?! Thoughts? Anyone done it and can share their experience, good or bad?

I live in East Africa

I remember taking my 3 year old on safari. She slept in the car, would wake up occasionally and shout "animal" she had the same reaction to a dog or an elephant.
She has no memory of it.

On safari with another 4 year old she spent the whole time hiding and saying we should hide from the animals.

I have friends who go on safari with young children but they drive themselves, camp and pay resident park fees.

Lodges are not set up for children and are expensive. Park fees are expensive.

Going on safari is great and I have done it many times but don't recommend it with young children. They won't appreciate it and it would be hard.

I've been on safari and would love to take my kids one day because its an amazing experience but I wouldn't do it now when mine are so young, I would wait. My reasons below:

*The blistering heat during the day would do them in (it did me) and I'm not sure that's fair on them, they were bad enough with the heat hear last summer.

*The timings of the trips, at least on our holiday, were before sunrise and late afternoon coming into sunset and I don't think they would cope well with those timings (hangry and tired).

*There are times where its pretty important to be quiet and telling our toddler to be quiet can sometimes be a trigger for her to shout or scream as loud as she can. Our 10 month old wouldn't understand enough to stay quiet. It could scare or annoy the animals and ruin it for any other guests.

*I also feel that they wouldn't remember the trip so it would be quite an expensive holiday that would be a bit pointless for them - I'd rather wait the 10 or so years until they would actually appreciate it.

Hope this helps!

Hear?! FFS - here 🤦‍♀️

I used to live in Southern Africa . This is absolute nope from. It's not just lions and elephants that do not like loud humans in their space. There are snakes, spiders and all manner of creatures that you'd need to watch for. As pp have said safari is hot, long and uncomfortable at times. You can be waiting in silence for ages sometimes or driving in the heat across very bumpy ground. Unfortunately young children are best suited to somewhere calm with a pool. Bit dull for a few years but they soon grow up.

I've done a week long safari and I definitely wouldn't want to be taking toddlers / babies . There were no children at all at our lodge and tbh it wasn't very suitable for children .
There's a lot of dust / dirt in and out of land rovers, collected to and fro evening meal by armed guards .
No way is it a holiday for tinies

there was a British couple there with their 2yr old and triplet babies!!

On safari?
I think she's pulling your leg OP.

Or you're a troll.

Most safaris have a minimum age of 8, which makes sense because of all the points made above b

Well having read all these replies now re hours of discomfort and having to be quiet and not be able to get out of the jeep, I'm fairly sure I myself am not grown up enough to cope with a safari. I'm 43.

We took my son to a safari reserve in South Africa when he was 2.5, there are two that cater for kids that age. It’s not ‘proper’ safari though, it’s a large version of a wildlife park as you aren’t seeing the animals in the wild. I can look up the name if you want?

None of the companies in Kruger would take a two year old and with good reason.

We had an incredible time but DS was a chilled toddler and handled long haul flights easily. By this point he’d been to Thailand, Singapore, Dubai, Antigua and then SA. If I had a more energetic toddler who would fit sitting still in the plane tough I wouldn’t have done it.

Not sure this is real tbh but my heart would sink if I saved to go on safari & was in a group with toddlers & babies.
There are so many more suitable holidays.

I’ve been to the Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru, Mount Kenya, Tree Tops…

Would have been HELL keeping two little ones happy

but that’s just me ….

Absolutely not.
The heat, the fact that a screaming baby could well attract all kinds of predators, not to mention ruin the experience - if you're sneaking up to observe something skittish, between a toddler and a baby you won't exactly be stealthy. There's so many health and safety risks, vaccines that you need, it's just a really terrible idea.

I think Virgin holidays do family safaris, but they are basically a pool holiday with a few drives out to see a few animals in quite a sanitised wildlife park. A lot of ££££ for not very much. And a proper safari at that age- no! Children aren't allowed in many of the parks/ reserves. You can get in dangerous situations quite quickly (charging elephant or rhino, snake on your porch etc). Also long bits can be boring! Very early start to see the best wildlife, then hours of driving not seeing much as the heat increases until all the animals come out at sunset. Wait till they are older and will remember it!

There is a reason a lot of the travel companies have a minimum age of 10-12.

firstly you’d have to think about area as you wouldn’t want to be giving children that age malarial tablets or injections like rabies etc so you’d immediate knock out large chunks of Africa.

Then the practicalities as others have said of early mornings, long drives, needing to be quiet. Sometimes safaris can be really dull but also bumpy. You would also struggle to fit car seats to some of the vehicles so may not be able to properly restrain very small children in an off road environment.

I don’t think mine at 3 and 6 would be anywhere near able to cope with it as a holiday. It was stressful enough having them moaning in the car at Longleat. I would absolutely love to take them eventually but suspect it is more likely to be when they’re teenagers.

Just back from one.

I doubt (hopefully) lodges or Rangers would accept them on a drive at that age. The vehicles are open sided and there are not usually any seatbelts. When animals get close or you approach them, and the former can happen very unexpectedly, you are asked to remain very still and quite. Rhinos and elephants have been known to attack vehicles. Our Rangers said that most animals don’t register the presence of humans/ other animals if they are in the big metal box, it’s just a big metal box, as soon as you are outside that box, or sometimes even protruding (standing to take photographs) that changes and you are seen as a potential threat, or far less commonly, prey.

If your experience of African bush comes from natural history documentaries, like mine did, then you might be very surprised, pleasantly as long as you don’t have small children in tow. I’m sure great open plains as far as you can see exist but the two brilliant reserves we went to had areas of open plain but also lots of dense scrub and trees; deep ravines and blind dips. One thing that totally blew me away is how huge creatures like rhino and elephants can just “pop up” without warning. Elephants in particularly can be surprisingly quiet and equally a herd of 7 or more elephant can melt away with surprising speed and efficiency.

The two Rangers we experienced were particularly aware of the danger of potentially getting boxed in by elephants leaving them no obvious path to exit and avoid the vehicle, particularly when there are calves to protect as there usually will be. There was plenty of steady reversing away and whispered commands to be still and quiet when they turned their radio right down so as not to startle.

Here are three of the many occasions when we were asked to be still and quiet. We reversed away and off the track out of the path of the elephant pretty sharpish.

Just to add for clarity, if a Ranger would agree to it, as a parent I wouldn’t do it, it would be dangerous IMO, and potentially unpleasant. You can’t get out of the vehicle except at certain, unpredictable times. There needs to be good 360 visibility for a good distance, no animals within a certain proximity and radio confirmation that no lions plus certain other species have been sighted that day in that zone. Rangers and reserves keep constant tabs on where animals have been sighted and at what time. That’s one reason I’d always choose to go with one rather than self-drive, it keeps both you and the wildlife safe, and makes it far more likely you will see the wildlife. You can drive for miles with miles of bush visible all around thinking “Where the fuck are they all?” The reserves are vast and criss-crossed by so many tracks. Next minute three cheetah brothers pop out from shrubs and slowly lope towards your vehicle. Our ranger had to bang on the bonnet with his stick to startle one too close and interested, as the week before one had jumped on the bonnet of a colleague’s vehicle while a second jumped inside. They were just curious, not attacking as they are still adolescent and fairly newly independent of mum, but it was a very dangerous situation as one startled swipe could be the beginning of the end. Every ranger has a long stick within reach at all times and a radio and that’s it. You can see it in this photo.

Lightdrizzle those photos are amazing!! This thread has got me wanting to go on safari now but youngest is only 7 so a few years yet.

Personally I would wait till they're older. Not only ate they very long days (we went very early morning and again in the afternoon), it can be uncomfortable in the trucks. Most importantly in some situations its important to remain calm and quiet (a lion was cruising round our open truck at one point) so I'd be nervous of putting people in danger if a young child were to squeal at the wrong time.

We went on a Safari a few years ago, have been on a few. I don’t think they took young kids, also you could not drink the water, had to use bottled water for everything. You would probably have problems with food, these places are not set up for small kids. If you go to SA you can drive through the Kruger park in a hire care, or you used to be able to

@Malariahilaria
It was beyond all my expectations! We are trying to see as much of the world as possible without returning to the same place or experience at the moment as we had many years where travelling was difficult due to money/ work/ children. However I think I’m going to have to go on safari again. Maybe Botswana instead of S.A. - as at least it would be a new country to us.

The very early morning starts weren’t bad as I did a minimal wash and teeth and drag clothes on and between 9.00 - 15.45 you can just read, doze, swim and eat around the lodge. Usually with animals within sight as many are sited close to a watering hole. It was both far more relaxing and far more exciting than I thought.

Excuse the rolled-up trousers like I’m at Brid!

I don’t think it’s such a terrible idea tbh. I wouldn’t go on a very organised trip on a luxury reserve though (I actually find those exhausting rather than relaxing anyway).

I lived in SA for a few years pre-DC and have safaried with friends who had young DC with them. We stayed in a rented house with pool in Marloth Park which is a private estate on the Southern border of Kruger Park. You can watch elephants in Kruger bathing in the Crocodile River from the comfort of your balcony in Marloth if you are lucky enough to find a house along the boundary line.

Like many private housing/game estates that border the parks, antelope, zebra, warthogs and sometimes giraffe wander around freely and may come up to your garden fence to investigate.

The time we visited with friends with kids, we did a self drive in Kruger one day (started out later than the crack of dawn). We also did a guided one (early start) with a guide whose safari vehicle could seat maybe 12 people but we had booked a private tour so had it all to ourselves. It wasn’t that expensive to do that and I have done similar in other parks around SA.

You could have a similar experience in Pilanesberg which is closer to Joburg and is near Sun City if you want to mix it up with some very child centric activities.

I have rented similar properties in Hoedspruit (can’t remember the name of the estate) up the west side of Kruger and in St Lucia for visits to Hluhluwe/Imfolozi (spelling almost certainly incorrect). Marloth was my favourite and we visited many times and always had a good time.

You have to do a bit of searching to build your trip that way, but it’s vastly cheaper than the luxury organised safari and very comfortable if you stay in a nice house.

I wouldn’t do a big intensive safari with little kids (3 or 4 days is plenty) and would probably stick to SA and combine it with other holiday activities such as visiting Cape Town, a beach trip etc.

I do a self drive in the Kruger every year. If I was stopped at a sighting and someone parked up next to me with a crying baby I’d be less than impressed. I took my DD when she was 4 and she and her cousin of a similar age were ok but can’t say they were particularly interested in the sightings. And we had a few shhhhs from other folk in the rest camps when they got giddy.

We are planning to do when DD is 12 (it’ll mark a milestone birthday too). I want her to be old enough to really remember and get some value out of the trip

We went to the zoo recently and my 2.5 yo had zero interest in any animals that were more than about 2m away.

Also you'd be stuck in a jeep for hours.

I really wouldn't.

Sounds a great idea to me but then I look mine on wildlife holidays from birth. I prefer the colder weather do we are talking the far north. Best of all ... Alaska.

Kids love looking at the photos, don't remember a thing