Really high-end safaris are based on the recognition that, today, ultra luxury is about privacy and exclusive experiences. Everything is taken to the next level, with air transfers and expert guides ensuring that your vacation time is optimised and focused on your interests. The exclusivity naturally includes world-class dining and dedicated staff.
The fully customised itineraries for really high-end safaris generally cost approximately USD8,500–11,500 per person sharing per week in low season, and USD9500–12,500 and above in high season. Certainly, making an investment of this nature comes with certain expectations, yet high-end safaris will often exceed these.
Rest assured, you’ll be staying in stylish, sumptuous accommodations designed by leading architects and interior designers and familiar from the covers of glossy ‘world’s best’ lists. Open-plan, secluded villas and suites with private pools, decks, and butler service mean that should you choose to, you need never venture beyond your opulent sanctuary. If you do, you’ll discover expansive main areas designed around sweeping views and romantic nooks.
Staff at high-end safari properties have perfected phantom service – discreet turndowns and special touches give you the welcome sensation of arriving for the first time whenever you return to your room.
While everything runs like clockwork, here’s also a refreshing lack of formality, and schedules become a thing of the past. Superb meals (ranging from reinvented comfort food to world-class gastronomy) and activities take place whenever and wherever you’d like them to.
Speaking of activities, you come on safari to experience the wilderness, so you’ll want to tear yourself away from your oasis at some point. Shared safari activities let you meet a handful of the kind of people who add to an experience, while private guides and vehicles are available at extra cost for bespoke wildlife encounters based on your specific interests.
This is just the start of the exclusive experiences on offer – if you can picture yourself being whisked atop a Kenyan mountain by chartered helicopter to fly-fish, proposing to your partner on a truly deserted Mozambican island, or dining à deux inside an extinct volcano in Tanzania, it can be done on high-end safaris.
And all the while you’ll glide effortlessly over life’s minor irritations – high-end safaris are fully inclusive; rather than fussing with (sometimes foreign) notes, you can simply enjoy these noteworthy experiences. Africa is a continent with almost limitless potential for wonder, and this rarefied end of the safari spectrum really capitalises on that.
You may also want to explore Comfortable safaris or Luxury safaris.
