You have a proposal in front of you and you are stuck on the figure at the bottom. This is the point at which most people come back to us, and almost never to haggle. They want to know where the amount comes from.
That is a fair question and it rarely gets answered. So here is where the money goes, what is fixed, and what you can turn yourself.
Where the money goes
A safari in Tanzania is built out of a handful of cost items. They are not complicated. They are just rarely laid out.
The Land Cruiser. Not a hire car, but a vehicle built for the parks and maintained all year round. It costs the same per day whether there are two of you in it or six.
The distance. Tanzania is big and the parks are a long way apart, so you pay for the driving between them as well as for the time inside them. A northern route is a different sum from a southern one, and that shows up in the price.
The guide. A fixed cost per day. He drives, he finds the animals, he knows the ground, and he sorts out whatever needs sorting on the road. Everybody in the vehicle shares that cost.
The park fees. Per person, per day, set by the park authorities. No tour operator has any influence over them, including us. Every park has its own rate.
The extra fee for sleeping inside a park. This one almost never gets explained. If you sleep inside a national park or a protected area, a separate fee applies on top of the entry. It is why a camp in the Serengeti costs more than a lodge just outside the gate, and it is also why you are already in position when the animals are moving.
The accommodation. This runs from simple to very luxurious, and it is where most of the variation in any proposal sits. It is usually the first item we go through with you.
The meals. Always included. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a picnic box on the days you stay out in the park. You never have to think about what the next meal costs.
Domestic flights, sometimes. These come in if you carry on to Zanzibar, or if you fly back rather than drive the whole way.
Extra activities, sometimes. A balloon flight over the Serengeti, a walking safari, a village visit. These sit separately, and whether they go in is your choice.
What is fixed and what you share
This is the distinction that surprises almost everybody, and it is the one worth understanding before you look at the figure again.
The vehicle, the distance and the guide are costs per day that everybody in the car shares. The park fees, the accommodation and the meals are per person. So three items are per vehicle and three are per head.
Which means the number of you matters more than anything else on this page. Four people instead of two brings the price per person down while the trip itself stays exactly the same. And taking one day out saves on both kinds of cost at once.
Eight ways to bring your trip inside your budget
1. One day less on safari
Cutting too much is a shame, because the national parks are what makes coming here worth it. But one day fewer saves you the vehicle, the guide, a set of park fees and a night. If your proposal has a long safari in it and you want to save, ask us which day could come out without damaging the trip.
2. Travel outside the high season
Flights and accommodation cost the most in July and August, and in the weeks around Christmas and New Year. Booking outside those windows, sometimes by only a few days, often saves a great deal, and most of that saving is on the flight. If your dates are flexible, another month makes the trip cheaper and the parks quieter at the same time.
3. Come in April or May
It rains, and that is the point. April and May are the green season, when showers come regularly. Luxury accommodation is available in those months for less than mid-range costs in high season. The country is green, there is grazing everywhere so the animals are spread out and well fed, the skies are dramatic and good for photographs, and the parks are quiet.
4. Zanzibar does not have to happen
If a white beach is not what you came for, leave it out. If you are unsure about it, it is one of the largest single costs you can remove, and without Zanzibar you do not need the domestic flight either. If you still want a soft landing at the end, a lodge or a villa closer to where the safari finishes lets the impressions settle before you fly home.
5. Sleep more simply
This applies mostly to Zanzibar, where what we propose is usually mid-range to luxury. Simpler and cheaper exists, and if that suits you, ask. On the safari itself we usually propose mid-range, and simpler options do exist in some places, although the difference is smaller than you would expect, because the fixed costs underneath do not move.
6. Shorten the trip
Guests say it to us often, all the way to Tanzania, then we want three weeks. We understand that, and three weeks does not always fit the budget. Two weeks still makes a varied trip. Our Safari and Zanzibar itinerary runs fourteen days, with the northern parks and the crater in it and five nights on Zanzibar at the end.
7. Travel with more people
Travelling as a couple works and it is its own thing, and if you want to save a serious amount, invite another couple or a family member. The vehicle, the distance and the guide get shared across everybody, so the price per person drops noticeably at four or six. We do not run group trips and we do not put groups together, and you are free to make your own.
8. Book early for the high season
The earliest you can book is eleven months out, because that is when the flight tickets open. Before that, the trip itself can already be planned in full. For high season, booking early is what gets you the well-priced accommodation and the family rooms while they are still there, and international tickets only get more expensive as the aircraft fills.
One more thing about where your money goes. We do not buy this trip in through anybody. The vehicles are ours, every guide who drives for us is somebody we know and chose ourselves, and Kimbilio in the northern Serengeti is our own camp. What you pay goes into the trip rather than along a chain of middlemen.
And if you want to know how your figure was built, ask us and we will go through it with you, item by item.
