Questions about changing things

It means the trip is assembled for you rather than bought off a shelf, which is real but narrower than it sounds — most people only ever adjust the country, the camps and the number of nights.

The rest of the levers exist and are mostly unused: the vehicle, the departure times, the guide, the route inside a day, what happens at a sighting, where and when you eat. Several of them cost nothing.

Often yes, if you ask early. Good guides are booked well ahead and a request six months out is far more likely to succeed than one six weeks out.

A guide who travels with you across several camps is a separate arrangement with a daily rate and their bed, and it is one of the better ways to spend extra money on a long trip.

Generally no, and they will not negotiate it. The rules usually exist in unfenced camps where walking to a tent after dark is part of the arrangement, and they are the right rules.

The workable answer is a different form rather than an argument: a lodge, or a private house where your party is the only party and the age rules are yours.

Timings, meals, vehicle arrangements and what you do at a sighting stay adjustable right up to and during the trip. Camps, dates and routes become progressively harder after the deposit and are governed by the cancellation terms.

Which is the argument for pulling the levers at the enquiry stage, when changing anything costs nothing.

For photographers it is close to essential. For everybody else it is the upgrade with the largest effect per pound, because it changes when you leave, how long you stay at a sighting and whether you can follow something.

Ask what it adds to your specific quote before assuming it is out of reach. It is frequently less than the room upgrade offered alongside it.

We will say so in the first reply, with what the same money does buy well. That is more useful than a plan that technically fits the number and quietly removes the things that made it worth doing.

Usually the answer is fewer places and more nights in each, which costs less and produces a better trip.

A 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 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.