South Africa Travel Guide

You have booked your dream African Safari and now find yourself staring at your travel bag, wondering what to pack. How much do you need to take with you? What type of clothing and what colors are appropriate for the bush?

Packing your suitcase for a safari adventure can be intimidating, and many online packing guides complicate matters with a seemingly endless list of essential items. This can be challenging when confronted with the luggage weight restrictions of light aircraft flights to remote destinations. Here is a simple guide to show you not only what to pack but how.

With so many properties and regions to select from on safari, some consider a few days spent a luxury tented camp an essential experience. Classic luxury under canvas, set in secluded and idyllic locations on safari, would best describe a luxury tented camp safari.

A step up from a safari lodge and more luxurious than a mobile camp, this level of accommodation stands out as unique and exquisite. Mostly built on a solid foundation, perhaps solid walls, the high-ceiling, spacious roomed luxury tents offer a different viewpoint to the surrounding bush and are a popular choice with safari-goers.

There are many options to consider when it comes to where to stay on safari, and a game lodge most certainly provides the luxury and comfort to be expected on this type of journey. Most game parks and reserves will offer lodge-style accommodations only, splendid hotel-style establishments that blend with their surroundings, and offer service and facilities you would expect to find at any high-end hotel.

Ranging from small and intimate to large and expansive, lodge options vary in size and facilities to offer guests the perfect blend of style and safari in Africa.

An African safari is defined by the properties you select. Most travelers have an idea of what they hope to see on a game drive, but few anticipate the quality and variety of safari accommodation available. Across the continent, African safari accommodations tend to exceed expectations. Lodges and camps are not just a place to sleep, but “art galleries in the bush,” boutique spaces that inspire and enchant with African influences and touches that cannot go unnoticed. There are three options for the luxury safari traveler, and good reasons to try them all.

With many properties to choose from while on safari, a mobile tented camp is perhaps the most unique. Adventure-seekers looking for something different while out in the bush may consider spending time in the remote wilderness on a mobile camping safari.

Lodges and luxury tents that stand permanently in place in a safari park or reserve may be more popular choices for where to stay on safari. Still, the freedom of moving from park to reserve or simply being set up in an intimate group in a remote location draws the attention of safari-goers everywhere.

Travelling between safari destinations can be as short as a light aircraft lodge hop or a days-long journey through the savanna, and how you choose to move between destinations can be a true highlight of your trip.

Journeys are a huge part of the African experience, elevated from functionality to memorable parts of a vacation. For some unique locations, getting from point A to B may be by humble boat, though most are by light aircraft or game drive. Africa is always an adventure, embracing the popular mantra that travel is as much about the journey as the destination.