Best Tips Planning a Family Safari Holiday in East Africa : Tips for planning a family safari holiday to east Africa: With so many family-friendly attractions and activities, East Africa is one of the top family safari destinations in all of Africa. Families can take part in hiking safaris, mountain gorilla treks, cultural tours, game drives, walking safaris, camping safaris, beach safaris, and a variety of water sports, including swimming, snorkeling, and diving, to mention a few, in east Africa. Family safari tours can be taken to many of East Africa’s national parks, including the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Zanzibar, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Other parks in the region include Bwindi Impenetrable, Queen Elizabeth, and Murchison Falls in Uganda; the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya; and the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.
One of the best vacations presents that the whole family can enjoy is planning a family safari trip to East Africa to see animals. Children are fascinated by wild animals from an early age, which is why there are more animated animal stories on television and in our living rooms and on our iPads. A family safari trip will enthrall the kids and provide enduring experiences that are essential to safeguarding our future fading natural world.
However, organizing a family safari trip to East Africa is a difficult process that takes a lot of your time and careful consideration of every aspect of a trip that includes children. Safari vacations typically entail long distance travel, lodging in remote locations with few amenities, spending numerous hours in the wilderness searching for wildlife, exercising great patience, and adhering to critical but time-consuming safety procedures. Due to this, adults and teenagers would benefit more from an African safari.
A family safari in East Africa is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view big game animals that you’ve only ever read about in books and to deepen your relationship with your children. To make sure that everyone’s needs are satisfied and that you have taken care of all the logistics for the greatest safari in Africa, however, meticulous planning is also necessary.
Therefore, we’ve compiled our top 7 suggestions for organizing an outstanding family safari in East Africa to aid in your planning. We have considered everything you might not have, from locating family-friendly safari lodges to making sure there is food your children would enjoy. We’ll also reveal to you one of our time-tested tips that will make organizing a safari in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda or Tanzania easier. Here are the tips for planning a best family safari tour to east Africa:
- Start planning early.
However, you can realize your ambition of taking your younger children on an African wilderness trip with careful planning. Here are some helpful hints on how to build a family-friendly journey packed with unforgettable memories, whether vacationing in Kenya’s huge savannah wilderness or Uganda’s rainforest jungles, home to enormous primates.
The majority of East African safari hotels and camps are quite tiny, with only a few villas or opulent tents that contribute to their unique ambiance. Family-friendly Tanzania safari lodgings often only feature one or two family homes with two or three bedrooms where adults and children can stay together.
Therefore, if you’re keen on staying at a specific place, you’ll need to plan your private safari in Tanzania well in advance and make your reservations early to ensure that you can get the one you want. As an alternative, you might need to reserve two distinct rooms or suites that might or might not be close to one another.
- Look for child-friendly camps and lodges.
Check before choosing a certain Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda or Tanzania safari package because some hotels and camps don’t accept kids merely for safety concerns. Others will be well-suited for families, have certified child-friendly tour guides, and may even provide a variety of kid-friendly activities. Ask an East Africa safari specialist like from Focus East Africa Tours for advice on the top safari lodges for families if you’re unsure to help you plan an amazing trip.
- Brainstorm your safari as a family.
Even though it’s simple to simply think about where you want to go and what you want to see, involving the whole family in the planning process will be far more beneficial. Ask your children, if they are old enough, what they would like to do and which animals they would most like to see while on an East African safari. They most likely have particular favorites that are at the top of their list and are probably familiar with African wildlife via stories or movies. Additionally, you can gauge their interest by suggesting a variety of family-friendly activities.
- Make Booking of age-appropriate safari activities.
While many parents wait until their kids are a little older before taking an African safari vacation, you can still have a memorable trip with toddlers or small kids if you plan age-appropriate activities. Remember that 10 and 12-year-old kids won’t necessarily be interested in activities designed for three and five-year-olds.
While you’re out on game drives and walking safaris, certain lodges and camps may have kid-minders on call, while others may provide eco-adventures and cultural village visits that will appeal to older children and teens.
- Health and safety considerations for a family safari in East Africa.
Check with your general practitioner to learn what the most recent recommendations are, as each African nation has its own standards for both required and recommended vaccines. Your safari travel specialist might also be able to provide you with advice on any health and safety measures to take, as well as how this would affect young children. Be advised that you may need to have a yellow fever certificate in order to enter various countries in east Africa. Don’t wait until the last minute to finish your research because some people may recommend immunizations that need to be given weeks or months in advance, Best Tips Planning a Family Safari Holiday in East Africa.
Another crucial component of any African safari is travel insurance, which can protect you not just from cancelled flights or misplaced luggage but also from unanticipated medical costs. This is especially crucial if you’re staying at a distant lodge or camp where the only escape route in the event of an emergency would be by plane, which could be very expensive if you don’t have insurance.
- Check if the lodges or camps offer kid-friendly menus.
Food is a major component of safaris in East Africa safari countries of Uganda, Rwanda, D.R.C Kenya and Tanzania, and you don’t want to pay for the trip of a lifetime only to find that your children won’t eat anything. It’s especially crucial to inquire about the types of meals lodges and camps serve for kids and the availability of specific foods if you have picky eaters. Always verify before making a reservation because certain safari camps may not be able to get certain foods or accommodate special diets owing to their distant location.
- Select an appropriate safari destination.
Some safari locations offer animal sightings right from your balcony, while others involve several hours spent traveling in a jeep to reach wildlife watching spots (which may not be appealing to children). It’s also crucial to think about the logistics of getting to and from specific wildlife areas, as well as whether you prefer the convenience of a family charter flight or prefer to take in the landscape while driving. Each has advantages and downsides of its own, which should be considered while choosing the best course of action for your family.
- Find an East Africa safari expert to do the hard work for you.
Under this part let Focus East Africa Tours a local East Africa safari company do it for you. When it comes down to it, you can sometimes only do so much research online and will need the assistance of a local specialist. This is especially true when organizing a family safari in East Africa because there are so many demands and preferences that must be met. An expert in African travel will be familiar with the area like the back of their hand and know which lodges and camps will be appropriate for your family and which won’t.
If you’re having trouble locating a local specialist online, send them an email that includes the kind of safari vacation you’re after, the kind of accommodations you’d like, as well as any animals or family-friendly activities. Then, give them the difficult task of customizing a safari excursion for you, with lots of opportunities for you to make changes and offer suggestions along the way.
Despite the fact that you might assume this is a pricey alternative, many locally-based travel specialists have access to unique packages and offers that you won’t find online. They’ll be able to recommend lodges and camps that have received high marks from other families as well as those with excellent safety records that are deserving of your family’s lives. Chances are you’ll wind up with a more memorable and economical luxury safari in Tanzania or Kenya than you could have imagined by spending hours online researching it yourself.
“Let us at Focus East Africa Tours plan your safari activities, lodging, transportation, and everything else for a better family safari experience in East Africa. This way, you won’t have to struggle and can instead sit back and wait for your free time—after all, you’re on vacation, not going to work. Tell us what you need by contacting us right away, and we’ll take care of the rest”
