Planning Your Zambian Safari

Author: Nick Aslin Photos: inset: Nick Aslin, background: Mukambi Safaris

So you want to go on safari, and you’ve heard that Zambia is the place to be in 2016… but what next? Careful planning and preparation can be the difference between a waste of your valuable holiday time (not to mention your money) and an absolute trip of a lifetime. I assist hundreds of people every year with the planning of their holidays and so in the paragraphs below and in a follow-up article I hope to dispel some of the myths and detail a few guidelines that should make the planning of your trip a whole lot easier.

Let’s start at the beginning; you’re going to need some advice on where to go and where to stay. Believe me, a quick search on the internet will produce numerous safari specialists around the world all promising that their knowledge and their customer care is unequalled. My advice here is not to shy away but to get stuck in, have a look at a bunch of websites and select a few that take your fancy, you’ll soon be able to gauge whether a company knows much about Zambia or not. Ideally you should write to your favorite few and see what sort of responses you receive, ultimately you’re looking for someone to reply quickly and enthusiastically with some sense of firsthand knowledge or experience.

Many people will be tempted to try and do everything themselves rather than going directly to the websites of safari operators here in Zambia. That would be a mistake for a first time visitor to the country. Most importantly and contrary to popular belief, it’s no cheaper, in fact you may end up paying more for a lesser experience. The safari industry is made up of many components; the agents around the world play an important role, many of the cleverer ones will then bring in my company for the ultimate in local knowledge and assistance, we then deal with local safari operators and flight companies. Each player in the game adds value to the travelling customer yet the price charged for the holiday is not increased.

The more information you can give your booking agent the more likely they are to guide you correctly. Have you been on safari before? What did you like or dislike? Do you prefer to walk or to drive? Are you into birds or animals, culture or tranquility? Do you like hair-driers and plunge-pools or grass walls and bucket-showers, all of these factors are actually just as important as how much you want to pay.

I‘ve always thought that Zambia attracts the more discerning of safari-goers, we offer a very authentic product, and it’s fair to say that this won’t suit everyone. Many of our camps are very small and some quite remote. As a rule - the more camps in an area, the more vehicles and tourists and indeed the more animals. The trouble is that no one goes on safari to look at other people. The best designed trips will strive for a balance between a remote experience and one that provides all the game one could wish to see. We are lucky in Zambia that these elements will often come together but this does not happen by chance; the skill and knowledge of those advising you is paramount.

So whether you’re looking for a week’s walking safari in the South Luangwa, a canoe trip on the Zambezi or something more specialist like the bats in Kasanka or the wildebeest in Liuwa, it is important to research carefully, seek plenty of advice and don’t be afraid to involve middlemen, you’ll get a better trip if you do and someone else is paying them, not you!

In the next edition of Travel & Leisure Zambia we will assume that you’ve chosen your destinations and look at what to consider before departure.

Nick Aslin runs Zambian Ground Handlers