We normally encourage our clients to book safaris at least a year in advance, but 2021 has not been a “normal” year by any stretch. So if you’ve put off your travel plans, but now feel ready to go – call us! We are taking lots of last minute requests, and many of our clients are already out there enjoying fantastic safaris without the usual crowds. We have a bit of flexibility with pricing for short term trips, which you may find enticing as well.
A few things to keep in mind as travel rebounds …
Keep your itinerary simple and don’t try and combine too many countries or different regions. This will avoid having to upend your plans if country A is allowing you in without too many testing hurdles, and country B is not. Or if country B requires a recent COVID test, and this is hard to find and get done in a timely manner, in country A …
Stay a little longer at each lodge, after all no game drive is ever the same so extending your stay in one place doesn’t mean you will be missing out. In fact there’s a good argument to be made that your opportunity for exceptional game viewing increases the more time you spend at one camp. You can take advantage of waterhole hides, sleep outs, full day excursions, walking — many of the activities you don’t have time for on a shorter visit. Staying longer lessens the logistics and potential schedule change issues you might face. Scheduled and charter flights within countries and regions are not operating at 100% given the lack of tourists in some areas so the fewer flights, the less chance of additional hassle and expense.
Count on adding an extra night at your arrival city in order to cushion a potential delay in flights, and/or need to take a COVID test. An extra night is great to just recover from travel stress and jet-lag anyway, plus there are always lovely little guest houses in nice leafy suburbs in each arrival city, you don’t have to stay at a high-rise in an urban setting.
Be prepared to give us at least 2-3 weeks to put your itinerary together, and work on all your travel details. Our commitment is to provide customized, seamless, wonderful experiences from start to finish, and that takes a little while to arrange! But the advantage of working with us is we have perfected the art of COVID travel logistics and can guarantee we’ll have all your documents, testing, online forms and other requirements all sorted for you before you travel.
We have never received more enthusiastic and heartfelt feedback from clients who have finally taken their postponed trips or those that have booked ‘last minute’. Read some of our recent reviews to see how great it is to go on safari right now.