Luxury African safari itineraries

Arrive Kilimanjaro; private transfer to a garden lodge beneath Mount Meru for a soft landing.

Elephants among the baobabs, night drives and a first taste of the bush from a river-view camp.

Dawn descent to the crater floor for the Big Five, lunch by the hippo pools, Maasai highlands.

Big-cat country, with leopard along the Seronera River and an optional balloon flight at dawn.

In season, the Mara River crossings; then fly back to Kilimanjaro for your flight home.

Arrive and unwind on a coffee estate before the safari begins.

Crater game drives and highland walks from a rim lodge.

Mobile camps positioned with the herds for calving in the south or river crossings in the north, by season.

Fly to Zanzibar; spice-island history, carved doors and rooftop dinner in the old town.

A barefoot-luxury beach lodge. Finally, dhow sails, snorkeling and nothing on the calendar.

Arrive Kenya; overnight in leafy Karen with time for the giraffe center or Sheldrick elephant nursery.

A private conservancy with off-road lion and cheetah sightings, night drives, and a dawn balloon over the plains.

Great tuskers beneath Kilimanjaro’s snows before flying back through Nairobi.

A direct flight to a beachfront hideaway on Mahé or Praslin, then island-hopping, snorkeling and nothing on the calendar.

Fly out of Mahé, rested and sun-warmed.

Arrive; overnight in leafy Karen with time for the Sheldrick elephant nursery.

Great tuskers on the plains beneath Kilimanjaro’s snows.

A private conservancy for off-road big cats, night drives, walks and Maasai-guided culture.

Next, cross into Tanzania and follow the migration through the world’s most famous plains.

Crater floor finale, then fly home via Kilimanjaro airport.

Arrive Rwanda; city tour and the moving Genocide Memorial before heading to the volcanoes.

Two gorilla treks (permits arranged, quoted separately) plus golden monkeys, from a luxury forest lodge.

Fly to Kenya; overnight and regroup.

Private-conservancy game drives, balloon over the plains and sundowners over the Mara River.

Finally, fly back to Nairobi and connect to your international flight.

Arrive and take a light aircraft over the delta’s green filigree to your first camp.

Mokoro glides, boat safaris and 4x4 drives in a private concession, water and land in one.

Next, river cruises among some of the largest elephant herds on earth.

Then cross to the falls for a guided tour of the gorge, a sunset Zambezi cruise and an optional helicopter flight.

Finally, fly out via Victoria Falls or Johannesburg.

Land to rose petals and a garden suite on a coffee estate, and sleep off the flight together.

A crater-rim lodge with fireplaces and long views; dawn descent to the crater floor, champagne picnic included.

An intimate camp in big-cat country, with private game drives, a bush dinner for two and an optional star-bed sleep-out.

Fly to a private-pool villa on the north coast for sandbank picnics, dhow sunset sails and spa mornings.

Finally, fly out of Zanzibar, married and rested.

Arrive to a garden hotel; afternoon with the baby elephants at the Sheldrick nursery.

A family-friendly conservancy camp: junior-ranger tracking, shorter flexible game drives, Maasai storytelling by the fire and a family balloon flight.

Fly to the Indian Ocean for connecting family rooms, snorkeling lessons, and time for the grown-ups too.

Then fly home via Nairobi with the best show-and-tell in school.

Arrive Kilimanjaro; overnight beneath Mount Meru while we brief you on where the herds are right now.

Fly to a mobile camp placed for your month: calving on the southern plains (Dec–Mar) or the central corridors as the columns move north.

The Mara River country, where in crossing season (Jul–Oct) you spend whole mornings at the river waiting for the plunge.

Next, cross into Kenya to a private conservancy on the migration’s northern stage, and go off-road with the big cats that follow the herds.

Fly out via Nairobi.

Arrive Zambia; overnight or connect straight on to the Luangwa Valley.

Morning walks between remote bush camps with Zambia’s legendary guides. Leopard country by night drive, on foot by day.

Fly to the river for canoe safaris drifting past elephants, tiger-fishing, and sundowners on the water with Zimbabwe’s mountains beyond.

Finally, fly out via Lusaka, or extend to Victoria Falls, an easy hop away.

Table Mountain, the V&A waterfront and Bo-Kaap with a private guide; dinner at the Cape’s best tables.

Chapman’s Peak, the penguins of Boulders Beach and the Cape of Good Hope.

Franschhoek and Stellenbosch: cellar tastings, mountain views and long lunches.

Fly to a private Big Five reserve famed for leopard, with open-vehicle drives, bush walks and star-lit dinners.

Fly out via Johannesburg.

Arrive and settle into a garden house in Karen, with giraffe at breakfast if you want it.

Fly to the shadow of Kilimanjaro for the continent’s great elephant herds, with buffalo and lion on the open pan.

A rhino conservancy where black and white rhino are tracked with the rangers who protect them, on foot where the conservancy allows it. In fact, it is the hardest of the five, handled properly.

Private land for off-road big-cat viewing: lion prides and the leopard sightings the reserves cannot promise. Night drives permitted.

Finally, fly to Nairobi for your evening flight, or add four nights on Diani beach.

Arrive and overnight in the capital for a gentle start before the flying circuit.

Dawn at Sossusvlei and Deadvlei before the heat, sundowners on the gravel plains, and some of the darkest skies on earth.

Track desert-adapted elephant and lion along dry riverbeds, with a flight over the shipwreck coast and its seal colonies.

The great white pan, where black rhino, elephant and lion come to the waterholes and you simply sit still.

Finally, fly Windhoek to Johannesburg for onward connections.

Table Mountain early, Boulders and Cape Point, and the Atlantic seaboard at sunset, with time to do nothing as well.

Vineyard lunches, cellar tastings and one properly long dinner in South Africa’s best eating village.

The Falls on foot, sundowners on the Zambezi, and helicopter flights for the whole span at once.

Light aircraft into a private concession for mokoro channels, boat safaris and island game drives.

Then fly Maun to Johannesburg for your onward flight.

Stay beside the plateau and walk to the pyramids at opening time; the Grand Egyptian Museum with a private Egyptologist.

Karnak and the Valley of the Kings, early, before the heat and the coaches.

A small ship for Edfu, Kom Ombo and the river villages. Temples by day, while the Nile drifts past your cabin at night.

Philae by boat and a dawn flight to Abu Simbel, standing before Ramses before the light hardens.

Finally, fly Aswan to Cairo and onward, or continue to the Red Sea.

A courtyard palace in the medina, the souks with someone who knows them, and dinner where locals eat rather than where the guidebooks point.

Berber country of walnut valleys, village walks and mountain air after the city’s heat.

Camels at golden hour, a luxury desert camp, and a silence you can hear.

The most complete medieval city in the world, with tanneries, medersas and a labyrinth best entered with a guide.

Fly out of Fes or Casablanca.

Arrive Kilimanjaro; gear checks and a full briefing with your head guide at a garden lodge.

Through montane forest onto one of the world’s highest plateaus. Above all, the route is gradual, quiet, and built for acclimatization.

Climb high, sleep low past Lava Tower (4,630 m), then the Great Barranco Wall, a scramble that looks harder than it is.

By headlamp from base camp to the crater rim at dawn, reaching the roof of Africa at 5,895 m, then the long descent.

Out through the forest to certificates and a celebration dinner. Then take a rest day, or fly straight to the Serengeti or Zanzibar.