Private & exclusive

Sole-use villas, whole camps taken for your party alone, private guides and private vehicles — safaris where the only footprints at the sighting are yours.

Design my private safari The four ways

Privacy, properly

The rarest luxury in Africa is having it to yourself.

Exclusive use means no strangers at dinner, no shared vehicles, no negotiating over the morning's plan. The camp runs to your family's rhythm — dawn starts for the photographers, slow breakfasts for everyone else, dinner whenever the sundowner ends.

It is how multigenerational families, close friends and anyone marking a milestone increasingly choose to travel — and, per person, often closer to regular camp rates than you would guess.

Four ways to take Africa privately

From a private vehicle
to a private camp

Golden hour, and every seat in the vehicle belongs to your party.

Private safari vehicle at sunset on the Serengeti plains

Private guide & vehicle

The essential upgrade, included on most of our safaris — your own guide and 4x4 for the whole journey, so every game drive runs on your curiosity, not a schedule.

Sole-use villas

Private houses within great reserves — your own chef, guide, vehicle, pool and staff. Two to twelve guests, with no set mealtimes and no one else's children in the pool.

Half-camp exclusive use

Some camps — including in the Serengeti's Lamai Wedge — are built in two independent halves, so a family or group of friends takes a whole side: private mess tent, fire and staff, at a gentler cost than a full buyout.

The full camp, yours

The whole camp — every tent, every vehicle, every guide — run entirely to your rhythm. For milestone birthdays, reunions and weddings in the bush, nothing else compares.

"The lions were still at the kill when the sun rose. There was no one to share it with — which was exactly the point."

Is it for you?

When exclusive use earns its keep

Six or more travelers. At that size, a villa or half-camp often costs no more per person than separate suites — and transforms the trip.

Mixed generations. Grandparents nap, teenagers sleep in, parents take the dawn drive — a private camp absorbs every rhythm without compromise.

A milestone worth marking. A 50th under the stars, a golden anniversary at the crossing points, a reunion nobody will ever top.

Total flexibility. Photographers who need golden hour, birders who need patience, toddlers who need naps — nobody else's schedule applies.

Browse the camps & lodges we use →

Africa,
to yourselves

Tell us who's coming and what you're celebrating — we'll match the right villa, half-camp or full buyout to your party, your dates and your budget.

Design my private safari