Not to pry, but what were those minor frictions? That was cooncat who pointed out that the format of a safari prevents many conflicts from ever occuring. So minor upsets in Malayasia may not be an issue in Africa.

Midday when you are back in camp, most people read or nap or update their journals, etc. There would not be that much interaction during these times.

Like everyone else, I'd opt for your own private departure. Speaking from experience, I did a private Kenya/Tanzania trip with 3 other women, so there were four of us. I knew one pretty well, but not the other two very well. We had ample down time from each other. All went fine.

Your first post mentioned a fear of 16 hours per day of togetherness. It is more like 4 hours game drive in the am, an hour for brunch, 3 hours game drive in the pm, then about 2 hours for appetizers, dinner, campfire, etc. That adds up to about 9 hours for an average day. Driving from camp to camp should be about the same since you only drive in the daytime. Of course you may opt to do more flying than driving.

Because you requested small group info, here is some:

I stayed for 4 nights at a camp in Kenya with an International Expeditions group that seemed very good. I was not part of that group.

I've traveled several times with Natural Habitat on small group wildlife trips, but never to Africa. They have a highly reputable operation. I ran into one of their groups of 8 a couple of times in Uganda and everyone was having fun.

I have done small group travel twice in Uganda with Africa Adventure. I set up the itinerary the way I wanted it and then they found me traveling partners to make the trip affordable. We were a group of 5 each time and it worked out great.

There was a good report about Brendan Tours, that I believe is a partner with Globus. That trip did Kenya and Tanzania. Ironically one of the positive points noted with Brendan was that part of the trip was a private departure for two.

If Tanzania is your destination, Thomson's has a very good reputation for small group travel in Tanzania. I've talked with them but never traveled with them.

Please post your itinerary as it develops.

Atravelynn : Thank you for the excellent post. The specific information about how a day might unfold is really useful. I think when travelling with another couple it's really important to have down time on your own and it sounds as if that might be the case. Someone suggested that the smaller the lodge the more liklihood of interacting with other travellers so we'll keep that in mind too. From all the posts in this thread the consensus seems to be that we should book a tour for four and I'm now leaning that way.

If you genuinely have even slightly different interests (e.g. they like hiking and you like to sit with a good book and a glass of wine and watch the world go by) you would have a good reason to split up at some point temporarily - could even be for a few days. Different locations in the same general area often have very different activities on offer. I would definitely do that on a private group trip because I think there's a tendency to feel obliged to be with each other a lot more than is necessary or desirable unless you plan to split up in advance. You pretty much have to plan every day of a safari-based trip ahead of time and so this works better than a trip where you want to leave some free time to fill until you are there. Even my wife and I split up for the odd half day when we were in Kenya - and have actually planned our destinations so that we can do just that again on our next trip there.

Whether traveling with a spouse, friend or family... I believe everyone has to have time to themselves. There's no need to be tied to one another, anymore than when you're back home.

What's nice about African safaris is that while there is time travelers are together with their companions (those you choose or others), there is more than enough time when you can be alone.

Certainly there are schedules to keep, but no one is obligated to go out on every game drive. There are pools at many lodges/camps; you have options for game walks and any number of alternate activities depending on where you're visiting.

Being with a group of strangers in addition to your own little party shouldn't have any impact on your individual needs during your visit. But independent/private travel offers so much more.

For sure, you won't have to decide where to eat, which movie to see, museum to visit, place to shop. Even if these have been issue on previous travel with your friends, Africa will be a different experience.

And, as stated above, before you make any decision, all of these issues or concerns should be talked out so everyone knows the feelings of the participants, expections and how to resolve these should someone's hackles rise up.