I'm at the very beginning of planning for a Christmas vacation and am still tossing around a ton of ideas. One of the ideas that keeps catching my interest is a photo safari. My budget is around $4,000 (the flight is likely around $1,500-$1,700 of that amount) and my possible dates this year are approximately Dec. 22 - Jan 2 (I don't need to be gone the whole time). I would be traveling alone.

I don't need anything luxury, something around the level of a Super 8 is fine. Less than that level might be fine, but I'd have to think about it.

Is this a reasonable trip due to the number of days I have available, the budget and the dates?? I know very little about what I would want other than lots of pictures of gorgeous landscapes and various animals.

If it's really not reasonable, then it will simply wait for a future trip.


Thanks for any help!

IMPOSSIBLE! Christmas is PEAK SEASON wherever you travel in Africa!

I would also think twice about the Photo Safari idea if I were in your shoes.

You consider lion breeders or lion meat the same as breeding chicken or chicken meat. Maybe that doesn't make the trip worthwhile for any reason other than collection destinations - have been there and done that....

BUT

The possibility that you change your attitude towards those great and threatened predators will change onces you have watched them in the wild.

So maybe you enhance the budget and give it a try!

Besides Christmas/New Year's being "peak" season, which country/ies do you want to visit? East Africa at Kenya or Tanzania; Southern Africa at South Africa, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana or Zimbabwe?

As half your budget will go towards international air, with what you have left, you may want to look into "group" travel. Even at that, it could be difficult, unless it's a "basic camping" safari which even if as a solo doing this independent of others, can be expensive.

Good luck!

Get on the saavacations and flysaa e-mail so you get their airfare sales. If you can get there for less, you'll have more to spend. As I said on your other post, if you spend a few days in Cape Town and then go to mid range camps like Arathusa, Elephant Plains and Gomo Gomo, you might be able to do it. They aren't high end, but the animals are the same as you'll get at a high end camp. EP gets really high marks and we loved Arathusa. There just might be more people in your vehicle (which doesn't bother me as much as it bothers others). But it is a tough time to get good deals. It is also hot in December. Much better wildlife viewing May/June - September.

Don't let SV turn you off to much from this forum. We all want help you with your trip.

Those are probably the most expensive dates to travel all year long.

Try 2Afrika in NYC or Basecamp in Tanzania or Eastern & Southern in Nairobi for some pricing. These are not that expensive.

If those are the only dates you can go, then go and have fun. If you could schedule your safari for some other time, you'd save money and might get better viewing conditions.

As SV says -
"You consider lion breeders or lion meat the same as breeding chicken or chicken meat."

Sorry IR - If you are new to this forum, please understand that it is like all other internet forums, that is, having members that need help.

regards -tom

I'm used to SV being a bit... yeah. She doesn't approve of one of my responses to another topic.

Other than that issue, thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it!

Sandi, this is part of why I said I'm at the very beginning of planning; I don't even know what country or area would be reasonable at that time of year!

I think your responses pretty much told me what I need to know. While it is possible to do, my dates and budget are pretty limiting and won't make for the best trip. For a dream trip like this I want to wait til I can do it right. I'll go elsewhere for Christmas this year and leave Africa for another time when I can do it better.

May/June to September is actually the best season at work for asking for time off so that should work really well for maybe next year, but most likely 2012 before I can save up the vacation time for that. My time off at Christmas is simply because the office is closed.


Thanks again everyone!

"For a dream trip like this I want to wait til I can do it right."

That's sound reasoning. You'll have plenty of time for research and planning if 2012 is when you are going. If you read some of the trip reports between now and then, you'll have a better idea of what's out there.