Questions about the top end here

Only if it is on land with a cap. In a national park or reserve there is no limit on how many vehicles may attend a sighting, and no camp inside the boundary can change that whatever it charges.

On a Kenyan conservancy the cap is written into the lease with somebody employed to enforce it. That is a tenure difference rather than a price difference, and it is the clearest single distinction between the top end in Kenya and in Tanzania.

In peak months, in the central areas, a good sighting can draw a considerable number of vehicles, and there is no lease anywhere in the park that caps it.

The mitigations are real but partial: a quieter month, a less central part of a very large park, a mobile camp positioned away from the main areas, and a private vehicle so at least your own day is yours.

Frequently the largest single line on the invoice in Rwanda, and the dominant line in Uganda even though it is lower there.

It is set by the authority, it is identical for everybody, and it should appear as its own line on any quote you are sent. A bundled per-night figure obscures the fact that most of the money is going to an authority rather than a lodge.

They are good at different things. Tanzania holds the set pieces — the crater, the herds, the scale of the Serengeti — and Kenya holds the variety and the land permissions that let you walk, drive at night and go off-road.

If the top end should change what you are allowed to do, Kenya. If the scale is the point, Tanzania, and plan for the split between park and concession.

Kenya and Rwanda is the strongest version: a two-hour scheduled jet, tarmac at the other end, and a forest half that repeats nothing from the savanna half.

Adding Rwanda or Uganda to a short northern Tanzania trip works much less well — they are not near each other in any way a schedule respects, and it consumes two days.

On hospitality, at the very top, yes — the field is genuinely thin and we would rather say so. On what there is to do, no: gorillas, chimpanzees, tree-climbing lions and the Nile make a fuller two weeks than a Rwanda-only trip.

It is the right answer for a traveller who is there for the animals and relaxed about the beds, and the wrong one for somebody who wants every night to be remarkable.

A East Africa safari is usually quoted fully inclusive: accommodation, all meals, park and conservancy fees, your guide and vehicle, and transport between parks. Most camps include soft drinks, house wine, beer and laundry.

Not included: international flights, visas or travel authorisation, travel insurance, tips, premium drinks, and extras like balloon flights and spa treatments.

For July to October — the migration months in the Masai Mara — six to twelve months is normal, and the best small camps sell out first. Christmas and New Year book up just as early.

For the shoulder months, three to four months is usually comfortable. Inside eight weeks we can still put a very good trip together, but you are choosing from what is left rather than from everything.

This site is a planning guide. When you send an enquiry it goes to Nomad Africa, our partner travel agency in Kenya, who prepare your itinerary and quote and handle the booking, the payments and you on the ground.

You deal with one team from the first email to the airport transfer home.

No. Sending your dates, getting an itinerary and getting a costed quote is free and carries no obligation. Money only changes hands when you decide to hold space at a camp.

The safari areas themselves are well run, and camps take guest safety seriously. The practical risks are ordinary travel risks: road transfers, sun, stomach upsets and not listening to your guide around animals.

Check your own government’s current travel advice for East Africa before you book and again before you fly, and take out insurance that covers medical evacuation. We will not tell you an area is fine if the advice says otherwise.