My Grand African Safari - Help!?

[alice.x]

I've been planning to go to Africa for a couple of years now, and have finally decided that next summer is the perfect time to do it; I (hopefully) will start med school that September, so it'd be one last trip to celebrate! However, I don't know where to start. I want to do a guided, small group tour, instead of travelling by myself; around 8 weeks long; mainly wildlife focused, though the wine-tasting sounds pretty good!; and I've budgeted (for everything, including flights and visas etc) around £6000-7000. I've found a few tours that look pretty good, but either don't explain all the extras and how much they will cost, or have hardly any wildlife-based activities involved. I'm happy to do a lot of bus-sitting, but for the money I'm willing to spend it has to be pretty perfect. 

I am going to visit my travel agent during this week, but was just wondering if anyone here had any ideas; any companies they've used, anywhere that's a must-see or must-avoid, and any other tricks and tips.

 

Thanks!

[Jakkals]

Africa is a big place. I'm in South Africa, so I can give a few pointers if you come down this way.

[Alocin]

I did a safari a while ago through Kenya and Tanzania - the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Crater and then on to the beaches of Zanzibar. The Ngorongoro Crater was particularly fantastic for wildlife.

 

The company I went with no longer exists, but I have travelled a few times with Intrepid (not in Africa though) and found them pretty good overall. They run smaller tours - somewhere between 8-15 people I believe.  I think you should be able to do a decent trip with them in your timeframe, and particularly with your budget. I went for a fairly budget option and there were a lot of campsites and drop toilets. There were extras we could choose to do, like hot air ballooning over the Serengeti, swimming with dolphins in Zanzibar and going to museums etc and we needed to pay separately for those.

 

I think with a more expensive trip you may end up with more meals, experiences, entrance fees etc included, but for the one I went on, as well as paying for extras we all had to chip $US100 or so into a kitty which covered things like buying food for some meals, plus we needed to tip our guide and our driver at the end.

 

I'm thinking of doing a trip through South Africa, Swaziland and on to Mozambique next year... (travel is a bit of an obsession for me!) ... hope you have fun with yours!!