A Fully Private Luxury Safari

Picture 6:40 AM, with a leopard dragging a freshly killed impala up into a sausage tree. A scheduled safari would grant you roughly fifteen minutes before the vehicle moved off, since a schedule has to be kept and fellow passengers each hope for something different. Go private, and your guide simply turns round and asks, 'Shall we stay?' Of course you do. Two hours slip by watching the cat, with no objection from anyone, because everyone in the vehicle is family.

Being free to decide, minute by minute, what your safari is for: that is the understated luxury under all the showy ones. The candlelit dinners and plunge pools are lovely, but what people remember is that every hour belonged to them. Below we explain what exclusivity really buys, how it is priced and how to judge whether it is right for your trip.

What private means in practice

Think of it as three layers, each more indulgent than the last. The base layer is your own guide and vehicle: the 4x4 holds nobody but your party, the day follows your interests, and your guide gets to know you across the whole trip. Next come carefully chosen top-end camps and lodges, selected for setting, personality and service instead of bed count. The optional top layer is exclusive use, where a small camp or villa is reserved outright, so that its staff, vehicles, chef and sundowner spot answer only to your group.

Beyond that core, each detail is tailored: dinners laid out privately in the bush, balloon flights, helicopter hops, vehicles fitted for photography, a quiet crater picnic, even a Maasai naming ceremony for your children. Provided we can deliver it properly and respectfully, we will weave it into the plan.

How going private changes the trip

• The timetable dissolves: group safaris run on compromise, with everyone's breakfast, endurance and bathroom stops. A private safari follows the rhythm of the wild and of your party alone. Roll out at 5:30 for the best light, spend twelve hours out with a packed lunch, or lie in after a late night over wine. Every option is right, simply because it was yours to pick.
• Depth takes the place of coverage. Once your guide understands your passions, the days no longer read like checklists. Photographers are given position and time, families a gentler tempo, and returning visitors get the obscure corners and behavioural detail that group itineraries cannot risk.
• Privacy accumulates: one shared sundowner with strangers is pleasant, but fourteen shared dinners can, for honeymooners, families with small children or groups celebrating something, be the difference between a good trip and the one they dreamed of. Exclusive use removes the audience entirely.

When to travel

Any time of year suits a private safari, because we shape the route around the calendar rather than fight it. Dry months from June to October bring the classic circuit and the river crossings; December through March offers calving and soft green-season light. Either way, we point the vehicle wherever the ecosystem is at its liveliest.

A counterintuitive point: the low season of April and May may be when private travel shines brightest. Top lodges cut rates sharply, the parks empty and exclusive use of a camp becomes realistic for groups who could not justify it in August. You accept some afternoon rain in exchange for having the Serengeti almost to yourself.

What a day might hold

By design there is no standard day, but one could look like this.

1. Your call

   Rise when it suits

   Head out at daybreak after predators, or linger over an eight o'clock breakfast on the deck. Either way, the 4x4 waits for you.

2. Morning

   The long drive

   No sighting is on a clock. Stay two hours with the leopard, or head for far plains no timetable would allow.

3. Midday

   Lunch wherever you like

   By the pool at camp, or a full bush lunch beneath a fig tree set up just for you.

4. Afternoon

   Bespoke by definition

   A second drive, balloon flight, guided walk, village visit, spa treatment or unapologetic nap. Every option is open daily.

5. Evening

   Private sundowners and dinner

   Sparkling wine on a kopje as the sun goes down, followed by a lantern-lit dinner shared only with your own companions.

What shapes the price

Fully private itineraries scale with ambition. Lemala Safaris will confirm figures for your dates and party.

• Privacy on its own: your guide and 4x4 cost the same whoever rides along, and that bill is split across the party, so a pair of travellers carries a heavier share each than six would.
• Lodge level: moving from an excellent lodge to a legendary one makes a genuine difference you feel every night, and we are frank about where the added spend shows and where it does not.
• Exclusive use: buying out a small camp is priced for the entire camp, and for family groups of 8 to 12 it often works out cheaper per person than expected.
• Getting around in style: air hops between parks, helicopter transfers and far-flung private camps cut travel time, and the price climbs accordingly.

Packing notes

The usual safari kit applies: neutral layers, a hat, binoculars. Two private-safari notes. Laundry is returned the same day at the better camps, so take less than your instincts say. Should your route involve light aircraft, soft bags of about 15 kg are required however lavish the itinerary, because a bush plane cares nothing for your lodge bill.

• Soft duffel for flight weight limits
• Neutral layers plus one warmer evening layer
• Wide-brimmed hat and sunscreen
• Binoculars, one pair each
• Camera and spare batteries
• Something comfortable for dinner, not formal