Group safari or private safari in Tanzania, who decides when you drive on
What a group tour is
You travel with a party you did not put together yourself. The departure dates are fixed, the route is fixed, and the accommodation is booked in advance for the whole group. You share a vehicle with people you have not met when you set off.
The programme is built to work for everybody, so it allows for the slowest and the fastest at the same time. That means leaving on time and moving on when the schedule says so, because a lunch is waiting and a lodge is waiting.
What a private safari is
You travel with your own party and nobody else. Your own vehicle, your own guide, your own dates. The route is built around what you want to see and how many days you have, and it is not fixed until you say it is.
You set the pace along the way. A later breakfast, a day less in one park and a day more in another, driving back to yesterday's spot because you saw something there, all of it is yours to decide.
The difference is who decides when you drive on
Back to that leopard.
In a group the majority wins, and that makes sense. There are people in that vehicle who have now seen this animal and want to move on to the next, and they have as much right to their day as you do. So after a quarter of an hour the vehicle drives on, and that is nobody's fault.
I have stood still at one animal for an hour. Not because something was happening, but because something was about to, and you feel that if you stay long enough. That hour only exists if nobody else in the vehicle wants to be somewhere else.
That is what you buy with a private safari. Not luxury, not exclusivity, but a say over your own day.
When a group tour is the better choice
Sometimes it is, and then we say so.
If you travel alone and you are looking for company, a group tour does something we cannot deliver. You eat with people, you share what you have seen, and you come home with contacts. On a private safari you are with your own party, and if that party is one person, the evenings are quiet.
If your budget is fixed and tight, a group tour gets you further. The costs are divided over more people and that makes a difference.
And anyone who likes everything being decided already has fewer choices to make with a set programme. For some people that is restful.
We do not offer group tours, so if that suits you better, we are not the right company for you. We would rather say that now than after three emails.
How the price difference is built up
This is where the biggest misunderstanding sits, and one sentence clears it up: you pay for the vehicle and the guide per vehicle, not per person.
The price of a safari with us is built from the Land Cruiser, the kilometres, the guide, the park fees, an extra park fee if you sleep inside a park or protected area, the accommodation, and the meals. Sometimes domestic flights or extra activities come on top of that.
Of those items, the park fees and the accommodation are per person. The vehicle, the kilometres and the guide are not. If there are two of you, you split those costs two ways. If there are six of you, six people share the same vehicle and the same guide, and the price per person drops considerably.
So a price per person says little until you know how many of you there are. A private safari for two is a different story from the same trip with a family of five, and that gap is bigger than people expect.
How we do it
We only drive private. One safari vehicle takes a maximum of seven guests, and that vehicle always belongs to your party alone. Nobody joins along the way.
We work only with well-trained guides, and you keep the same guide for your whole trip. He meets you when you land, he drives with you, and on day five he knows what you enjoyed on day two. There is more about that on our page about your private safari guide.
Meals are always included in a trip with us, and we arrange the transfers in advance, so that at the airport you have nothing to do but find your guide, who is standing there with your name.
What to look for when you compare quotes
A price only means something once you know what is in it. Four things that make the difference and that are not always visible in an amount.
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
Are the park fees included? | These are substantial amounts per person per day, and sometimes they sit outside the quoted price |
Is the extra fee for sleeping inside a park included? | If you sleep inside a park or protected area, an extra rate applies on top |
Are the meals included? | With us they are, and that is not the case everywhere |
Is the vehicle private, and with how many people? | A shared vehicle is a different trip, even when the word safari is the same |
What we would do
If you travel with two or more people and you want to decide how your day runs, private is the choice. That is also why we do nothing else.
If you travel alone, your budget is fixed, or you would rather be out with other people, a group tour is not a compromise but simply the better option, and then we are not your company.
If you are still unsure, request a call. Tell us how many of you there are and how many days you have, and we will work it out for you. If that produces an answer that is no use to you, you will hear that too.