The Best Luxury African Safaris For You

Africa has many hundreds of safari destinations, from the wild and wonderful to the contorted vision of a Western zoo. It is the wild places that excite the imagination, evoking a land untouched and untamed. They are the destinations for the best luxury African safaris. Like wildebeest marauding across the Serengeti grasslands, lions silently watching them pass. Coming eye to eye with a white rhino on the Kruger savannah, time suspended as you share a glance. Hippos wading from an Okavango Delta waterway at sunset, rumbustious yet ravishing as they move. These are scenes from the wildlife documentaries and they are remarkably abundant, provided you know where to look.

At Heritage Africa we celebrate the best luxury African safaris, in the places where wildlife thrives freely of human inhibition. Destinations where impressions of Africa are at their redolent best, where the Africa of your imagination isn’t interrupted by a procession of safari vehicles. In some of these famous safari destinations the encounters are so numerous you don’t know where to look. But we take you away from the main trails, utilizing the intimate knowledge of Africa’s best guides to ensure safari is always a personal experience. For us the best luxury African safaris are unscripted, in the places where wildlife thrives completely free of human intervention.

Where to Go on an African Safari

For more than 25 years we’ve strongly believed that the best luxury African safaris are diverse experiences. We carefully customize an itinerary to your interests and aspirations. We want to know about you, before we prescribe a set itinerary to start from. There’s enough safari in Africa to last many many lifetimes so we’d never want to regurgitate the same standard trail.

For the ultimate experiences you need the best safari destinations in Africa. These are vast national parks, particularly hidden corners and unexplored places within these parks. Plus private concessions, where careful restrictions ensure every visitor has their own experience with the wild. Walking across the Mara with a Masai warrior guide, bashful cheetah cubs in the surrounding grass. Quarrels between buffalo bulls, found on an exhilarating nighttime game drive in a private concession within Kruger National Park. Lounging by a private plunge pool at dusk, watching a procession of elephants slowly morph into four-legged silhouettes. Drifting off to nature’s lullaby, then waking up to a new animal soundtrack.

By combining unfenced private concessions and national parks you get this authenticity of experience, taking safari far beyond the postcard moments. We think the best luxury African safaris are personal journeys and if there’s anything we don’t like it’s 15 vehicles crowding around a single lion. We love wilderness, where safari vehicles and camps have nominal impact. It’s an exclusive approach that means our best luxury African safaris  start from $7000 per person. It’s raw, it’s wild, it’s far beyond what you are imagining right now. It takes you on a journey over many days, because there really is no such thing as a one-day safari. And when you wake up each day there’s no predicting how nature’s theater will unfold.

When to Go on an African Safari

Africa will put on a show, wherever and whenever you want to travel. However, this incredible natural world is steadily vanishing. Our generation may be the last to experience the full bounty of the African wilderness. After more than 25 years of customizing the best luxury African safaris we’ve witnessed habitat degradation and the changing face of a continent. Wildlife is no longer as widely spread, nor as abundant. But the special moments haven’t gone away.

The best luxury African safaris play an integral role in preserving fragile habitats and maintaining the wilderness. Conservation fees helps the wilderness pay its way and ensure animals have an uninterrupted habitat. By going on safari you support communities. There are jobs for trackers and guides, aspirations for children, money that filters down through communities. Your safari makes conservation possible as it enables community activism. Local people unite against poaching and can sustainably continue what they have traditionally done – find harmony between the needs of the land, the animals and the people.

Going on a safari is a positive vote to preserving these rare landscapes, and to a future where the world’s rare and endangered wildlife has a central role. The time to make a difference is now. The time to go on safari is now, while this precious world can still thrive.

The best luxury African safaris make you feel alive. The melancholic expression of a great African tusker cast out from the herd; a mother rhino with calf, horns pointing skyward as she ambles towards the lake at dawn; the breathtaking silence that exists when you track a leopard on the prowl. Endangered species walk straight past your lodge while echoed grunts alert you to herds that numbers many thousands of individuals. Sometimes there’s so much going on you don’t know where to look.

Seasonal changes will make the wildlife experience different dependent on the month you visit. But there is no best or worst time for the best luxury African safaris. Instead, we’ve never changed in our belief that the best time to go on safari is as soon as you can – haven’t you dreamt of it long enough? The opportunity is greater than once in a lifetime, because we may be the last generations to witness first-hand what this land is truly about. And with it we may be the storytellers passing a legacy to future generations.

Planning the Best Luxury African Safaris For You

Picture the scene. Two lionesses are laying an ambush in the dusk light, hiding silently in the grass. Another three harass a buffalo herd, cajoling them into aggressive, frightened grunts. It’s tense. They’ve been facing off for 30 minutes now. Clouds of dust accompany the buffalo as they charge. The three lionesses retreat, before regrouping and harassing once more. The scene repeats itself. Again. And again.

Some people go on safari and never lay eyes on a lion. In some private safari reserves the big cats are fenced off, fed, and not allowed to roam free, so these raw predatory scenes never occur. Yet your goosebumps will be near permanent when lionesses rile the herd into a frenzy. The buffalo charge again and there’s so much dust you hear the kill as much as see it. A separated calf had been exposed in the chaos. And the three lionesses had run it straight into the ambush.

Anything that’s once in a lifetime requires careful planning. It’s not luck that you are here, watching a carcass get torn apart. Being in the heart of nature’s drama requires excellent local guides. It means traveling to destinations that consistently deliver raw, unscripted experiences. While every safari destination is different, there are many clues and contrasts to help you distinguish the best luxury African safaris from all the others.

A Different Safari Experience for Everyone

Lions out hunting is a scene that everyone wants to encounter. Yet no two safaris are ever the same. Arrive at the same lions 30 minutes later and you witness something new, an alpha male roaring belligerently, scaring the pride’s younger males away from the kill; they must wait until everyone else has had their fill. It’s not just these ferocious scenes that excite. Watching springbok giving birth or tracking flirtatious zebra is equally enchanting. When you are centerstage in nature’s great theater, there are new stories almost every moment.

Everyone has their own idea of the best luxury African safaris and this doesn’t just concern their favorite wildlife. Camps and lodges come in various styles, from wild adventure to modern opulence. Each activity offers a fresh angle and feeling; the best luxury African safaris combine possibilities. Some people prefer to sit back and watch wildlife from their private verandah or plunge pool, perhaps with a cocktail in hand. Others are excited by ten-hour game drives bumping around the bush, seeking the endangered or incredulous. So think big. Dream dreams. Live out the safari adventure of your imagination.

A Day on Safari

It’s relatively easy to predict a city break experience. A beach escape always revolves around the same revered images of sea and sand, even in a new and exotic destination. But Africa? Land of leopards and hippos? There’s so much unknown in the wilderness, and we know that this can be off-putting. Yet Africa is safe and it’s easy to be prepared if you know what questions to ask before you travel. And while it sounds incredibly foreign, the experience is always immensely personal.

Gaze at a zebra herd and you first see black and white stripes; refocus and there are innumerable micro scenes taking place. You can be engrossed in yawning hippos, oblivious to hyenas roaming behind the vehicle. Every hunt can be watched through the eyes of predator or prey, elegance and patience and skill, versus fearful eyes and an emotional tension that’s felt as much as observed.

With the best luxury African safaris can be different for everyone. With nature’s theater as the setting you get to spend time together, while having opportunity to do your own thing. It’s always your safari, your individual experiences with the best of wild Africa. And that’s so much different to a city or beach vacation.

Completely Private Safari

The experience can be rugged and adventurous. Or it can be laid-back and decadent. There are picnics in the wildest places and fine dining beneath the stars. At Heritage Africa we craft carefully individualized safari packages that allow everyone to follow their own magical impressions of Africa. By harmonizing diverse interests into a safari program the vacation becomes accessible to everyone you want to travel with. Safari should be different for everyone, because many years later, the wildlife theater will be your story to tell.

We celebrate the best of Africa and will tailor an itinerary to what you want to experience. For some interests we recommend a private safari, as this also gives complete customization during the activities. Photographers are afforded the patience and customization necessary for the perfect shots, like tracking a particular scene under the cloak of moonlight. Those with physical impairments can get the support and flexibility they need, making the best luxury African safaris possible. Those that want absolute privacy can be satisfied. With a private safari you find an exclusivity of wildlife experience, one that elevates what other programs can offer.

Space and Privacy to be Yourself

The scale can be unfathomable. It’s possible to picture one elephant. Maybe even encountering a herd of 20. But 100 elephants? How about 100,000? That’s researchers’ best guess on the number of elephants roving around the woodlands of northwestern Botswana. Such abundance requires space. Africa’s landscapes also provide the space to spend time with the people you most want to spend time with. And unlike the elephants, there aren’t many others around.

All mammals seeks their own space and Africa provides. An aging matriarch will seek more time in the best places; boisterous young elephants will want to travel further as they come of age. Couples on safari demand a certain privacy but a larger realm is necessary for multi-generational families. Those seeking absolute exclusivity can be catered for.  Safari can be different for everyone yet it always offers a space to share with those closest to you, whether it’s one loved one or 25.

The Best Safari Destinations in Africa

Dreamy scenes always roll by when watching documentaries. The mad and chaotic surge of the great wildebeest migration crossing the Mara River; pure serenity as a wild mountain gorilla nestles into its mother’s bosom; hippos yawning in the Okavango Delta, black rhinos socializing after dark at a desert waterhole, leopard cubs bounding down an acacia trunk. But what will you discover? What rare animals will you uncover on a multi-day safari? Which moments will create your story in Africa?

For the best luxury African safaris we recommend the places where nature really thrives. If you are promised the big five on one game drive then we don’t believe it’s authentic. If you’re been offered accommodation far outside a park or reserve then we think it’s a scam. Stay in the heart of Africa’s best safari destinations and you’ll uncover innumerable stories, not just fleeting moments with five animals. Four countries stand out for us. But let us not prescribe. We’ve written definitive inside guides so you can start planning and come to us with an idea of where you’d like to go.

Planning Your African Safari

Half American, half South African, and completely independent. That’s Heritage Africa. We were amongst the tourism pioneers when South Africa forged its new path in the early 1990s. Our purpose has always been conservation, using safari as a vehicle to activate change. Our focus has always been authentic wildlife experience.

We curate highly tailored packages that embrace the true safari feeling; intimate, immersive, defined by the details that only you experience.

Not all safaris are the same and we believe the experience should be planned as if everyone was a return visitor. Safari is simply too good for you to follow a standard program.

We’re not afraid of your questions and we understand that planning a safari will always have its challenges. That’s why we are here. As independent insiders we celebrate the magic that Africa has to offer. We want you to be centerstage in nature’s great theater. We want you to pass on the story. And we want to get to know you, so we can plan the African safari of a lifetime.