Affordable African Safaris

A safari is nearly always more than you want to spend. Faced with this reality, sometimes you may decide to increase your budget but that may not be possible. Here are some of our more affordable safaris and less expensive safari lodges and camps…

Overview

What on earth do we mean by “Affordable African Safaris”? Elsewhere we’ve talked about how a safari is often more than you want to spend. And that's true. So on this page, we focus on lodges and areas which are on the affordable side of this spectrum.

PRO TIP: Make sure you budget considerably more for your nights on safari within a trip. You may want to economize in other ways - See our page on Africa Safari Pricing for some rough per night prices - in order to know what to budget for good private game reserves.

Below are some of our more affordable African safaris and less expensive game lodges and camps.

These tend to be - though not exclusively - in South Africa or Namibia, Here the Rand is relatively weak versus the world currencies giving you better value for your money. Also our sample South Africa safari tours usually include non-safari areas such as Cape Town or the Garden Route. This naturally brings down the overall cost.

(Plus you can easily opt to self-drive in the Cape which brings down the cost still more.)

What do you get at OUR affordable game lodges?

In this world of online travel sites, it’s easy to get confused as to why a game lodge is comparatively inexpensive. All game reserves are NOT created equal. So if a game lodge seems very reasonable, you need to ask why? When choosing an affordable African safari, we steer clear of the lesser game reserves. (They may say they are Big Five reserves but how many of each species do they really have? And are they free-roaming?)

You are looking for a proper safari and not a zoo experience.

Instead we focus on the affordable game lodges which are in good game-viewing areas. The accommodation will be simpler, the food not so elegant. Yes, the guiding may be a little less refined. But you will be on safari in the same terrain as much more expensive lodges, tracking the same wildlife.

Similarly some of the lesser known game reserves in remote areas offer a fantastic safari experience. That's why you need to talk to the safari experts! (End of small rant.)

As long as you have the correct expectations, these affordable lodges can be every bit as good as their pricier cousins.

Note: Below we highlight affordable game lodges for their area.

Everything went smoothly

"From the initial enquiry until the end of the holiday everything went smoothly. We were very happy with all aspects of the holiday. All the hotels were comfortable; well staffed; good food. " Mrs Kate Mars, UK

Everything worked out perfectly

"Just a quick note to let you know everything worked out perfectly! We had a great time and the accommodations were excellent. We even had two elephants visiting our tent at Simbavati one evening. You can imagine the excitement! Thank you for your hard work to make this a fantastic safari. " Mrs Brigitte, USA

Peter did a brilliant job

"Everything went as planned Peter did a brilliant job helping us to plan the holiday " Mrs Sandra Cutmore
 

Gloria Darvall

Africa Travel Specialist

Hi I'm Gloria, I'm here to help you plan your ideal holiday experience

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Did you know
  • Best Bang for Buck?Generally South Africa and Namibia
  • Low Season PricesSouth Africa - May to July (sometimes), Southern Africa safari destinations - December to March, East Africa - April to May (but April not recommended)

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High satisfaction with Cedarberg

"We just returned from our third African safari booked with Milandi. I cannot say enough about our high satisfaction with Cedarberg and, particularly, Milandi. Milandi has always worked with us, making recommendations based on our preferences, and together we “tweak” the itinerary until it is perfect for us. Milandi is efficient, highly responsive, knowledgeable, friendly, and seems to really care and act excited about our booked adventure. Each time we have traveled, all arrangements have been punctual and without any delays or cancellations. Every detail has been prearranged. During our most recent trip, Milandi even checked us in for each of our domestic and intercontinental flights, knowing that we would not have the capability to do so from the camps we visited. Cannot recommend Milandi highly enough!! " Mrs Shirley Spain

A quite outstanding holiday

"We have just returned from a quite outstanding holiday. Milandi listened to what we wanted and organised it perfectly. The standard of the whole trip was even better than we expected and the itinerary was interesting, enjoyable, relaxing and fun in exactly the right proportions. " Mr Allan Cole

Excellent attention to detail

"This is the second holiday that Ginny and her team have arranged for us, and once again the service and attention to detail were excellent. Ginny put together a wonderful tailor made itinerary for our trip, and her recommendations were absolutely perfect in enhancing the trip. In today’s world of being able to arrange most things yourself, I have no doubt that there is no way we could have put together a trip like this, you need the depth of local knowledge that Cedarberg have. I thoroughly recommend Cedarberg Travel " Mrs Janet Mudge, UK

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