What to take on safari with children, seven tips that work for us
Our three children grew up here. They pitch their own tents, they light their own fires, and they walk barefoot through the bush.
What I pack for our own safaris is the same as what I would tell you to pack. The days are long. You are up before light, breakfast before sunrise, and then hours in the vehicle. What you bring with you decides a great deal about how those days go.
So here are seven things, in the order of how much difference each one makes.
What to take on safari with children, the short list
If you are packing right now, this is the list. The reasoning for each one is underneath.
- Clothing in neutral shades, khaki, beige, olive or light brown
- A fleece or a thick jumper, including in the summer holidays
- Closed shoes, not sandals
- A sun hat and sunscreen
- Snacks packed in single portions
- One pair of binoculars per child
- One torch per child
- An animal book about East Africa, plus a blank notebook and pencils
- Wipes and hand gel in the bag at the front of the vehicle
- A power bank
That is the list. Everything else you need less than you think.
1. What your child wears on safari, and why blue and black stay at home
This is the tip the fewest people know, and the one that pays off most.
Tsetse flies are drawn to blue and black. That has been researched, and it is why you see blue and black cloths hanging at camps. Those are traps, pulling the flies away from people. Put your children in khaki, beige or olive and you will barely notice a fly all week. Clothing does more here than any spray.
You do not need to buy a new wardrobe for this. Look in the cupboard first, because almost everybody owns something khaki, beige or olive already. And if your daughter wants to wear her pink shirt, she wears her pink shirt. This is a guideline, not a dress code.
Bring a fleece or a thick jumper even if you are travelling in the summer. The morning drive leaves before sunrise, in an open vehicle, at altitude, and it is cold. Most people do not expect that. There are blankets in our vehicles and they are used every single morning.
And closed shoes. No sandals in the jeep.
2. Snacks your child already knows
The days are long. An early breakfast and then hours on a game drive. Something to eat in the car helps, and something from home helps more, because it tastes familiar. With a fussy eater that makes a real difference.
Pack them in single portions. An open packet of biscuits in a safari vehicle brings ants, and then the ants travel with you for the rest of the week.
A snack is rarely about hunger anyway. It is a moment, something small to look forward to.
3. A pair of binoculars for each child
Each child gets their own pair. Not one between them.
A shared pair causes an argument at exactly the moment there is something to see, and then everybody misses it. A simple light pair is enough. Nothing expensive.
Once a child has their own binoculars, they start looking for animals themselves instead of waiting for you to point. They become part of it rather than a passenger. That is the difference between watching along and being there.
A torch does the same job around camp after dark.
4. Books, and a notebook to draw in
An animal book your child can look things up in, to find what you saw that day, works better than a storybook. What we would put in the bag:
- Let’s Explore… Safari, Lonely Planet Kids
- An illustrated animal encyclopaedia, the kind with a page per species
- A field guide to East African wildlife written for children rather than adults
And a blank notebook with pencils. Every evening your child draws or writes down one thing from the day. It takes ten minutes, it keeps them busy while you have a drink, and it is the souvenir you are both still looking at in ten years.
5. Wipes and hand gel within reach
Within reach, not in the luggage in the back.
Dust is part of a safari. After a morning with the roof open everybody is filthy, and children usually decide that is the best part of the day. The wipes and the gel go in the bag at the front.
6. Games for when it takes a while
Long stretches of driving where not much happens are a normal part of a safari, and they are often where the best conversations happen.
What works for us:
- Guessing how many kilometres to the next village, or how many giraffe you will see that day
- I spy, but only with things outside the vehicle
- An animal chain, where each animal has to start with the last letter of the one before
- Learning Swahili from your guide, ten words a day, so your child can say asante to the waiter at the next lodge
The tablet is your own call. Decide beforehand whether it comes and how it gets used, because a screen can take a child out of the landscape, and that would be a shame. Set a clear rule, only on the transfers between parks, or only when it is getting hard. Load a few films before you fly. The Lion King goes down well.
And a power bank.
7. Talk to your guide, every morning again
This is the one that pays off most of all.
Before you set off, tell him how the children are. How long they last, what frightens them, what they love. Then say it again every morning, because day four is not day one.
Guides read a family quickly and they shape the day around it. Heading back earlier because that suits better. Stopping for dung beetles because our son finds insects more interesting than cats. Staying calm and still while your daughter gets used to a buffalo. The more he knows, the more he does with it.
And tell him what you would rather have had differently. The day gets better for it, and he wants to hear it.
Safari bingo, and why the dung beetle counts just as much
We made bingo cards you can download and print, with animals on them running from very common to rarely seen. Whoever fills their card first wins.
What the game does is move the attention. A child hunting for a dik-dik and a dung beetle looks out of the window the entire drive, including the hours with no lion in them. A dung beetle rolling a ball three times its own weight impresses a seven-year-old at least as much as a sleeping lion does.
On safari with teenagers
A teenager is a different project from a small child, so the same tips do not work.
Give them something that is theirs. The camera, the navigating, the list of what you have seen. A teenager with a job to do takes part.
And offer one thing they choose themselves that the younger ones cannot join. A walking safari with a ranger has a minimum age, and being old enough to go when your brother is not is exactly what makes it worth doing.
A lot of these places have no mobile coverage. Say so before you go, so it is expected rather than discovered on day two.
What you do not need to bring
Specialist safari clothing from an outdoor shop. Plain khaki trousers and a light jumper do the same job for a tenth of the price.
A hard suitcase. The domestic flights take soft bags, with a weight limit per person.
Beyond that, you need less than you think, and laundry gets done along the way.
Where to read about the best time to travel, which ages suit which activities and how malaria works with children, that is all in our piece on a family safari in Tanzania.
And there is a fourteen-day example trip that puts the safari and the beach together, built around the ages of your children.
Safari njema.