I’ve been extremely lucky to go on not one, not two but THREE safaris in my 29 years of life.
By doing two stationary safaris where you stay at one lodge the entire time and one traveling safari which took me through two different safari parks, I can tell you the benefits to each. Spoiler alert! A traveling safari where you stay at several different lodges during your trip isn’t exactly worth it.
Stationary Safaris
My first safari was in South Africa’s flagship park, Kruger National Park. It was only 3 days, 2 nights and we stayed at the same lodge for the entire time, or what I’m calling a “stationary safari.” We did two game drives a day, one at sunrise and one just before dusk. We were also offered the option to do a night safari in the dark one night for spotting nocturnal animals.
This safari was organized through my study abroad program, Semester at Sea, so our days were quite structured. In between game drives we had lectures and visited an elephant sanctuary. That’s part of the benefits of doing a safari where you only stay at one lodge. You have the whole day between drives to spend however you wish. You don’t have to rush to get to another site.
The third safari that I did was also a stationary safari where I only stayed at one lodge. It was a 4 day, 3 night safari in South Africa’s Sabi Sands National Park which borders Kruger.
I stayed at the Ivory Lodge inside the Lion Sands Game Reserve. It was one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed at in my life. There were beautiful, private infinity pools at every villa, a reasonably priced spa and delicious food. There was so much to do at Ivory Lodge in between game drives including volunteer opportunities. Since we didn’t have to move to another lodge each day after game drive, it gave us plenty of time to really enjoy the hotel.
Additionally, because you have more freedom with timing, you can spend longer on your game drives. Each drive is roughly 3 hours at Lion Sands but if you saw something special and wanted to spend a little longer watching, you had the freedom to do so. To spend more time watching an animal, it was just taking away from your relaxation time at the lodge. It wasn’t messing up a schedule of driving to another location.
For example, one day we found a leopard that had just killed an impala but had yet to take it up a tree. Side note, did you know leopards take their kills into trees to eat them so other animals won’t get it? Smart!
Anyways! This leopard was trying to take the impala up the tree but it was too heavy. We stayed for awhile to watch her eat more and continuously attempt to bring it up. If we had to rush to drive to another lodge before sundown, we wouldn’t have had the freedom to stay and watch the leopard. Instead we would have just looked at it, taken a few photos and left. It’s really not a true safari experience if you don’t have time to stop and watch the animals. There’s so much National Geographic stuff happening out there! You don’t want to miss it.
Traveling Safari
I am determined to see as much of the earth as possible before I die. Because of this desire and having a full-time job, this makes me travel quite fast. I try to fit A LOT in a small amount of time.
The second safari I did was a 7 day traveling safari that stayed at different lodges each night in Kenya’s Maasai Mara and Tanzania’s Serengeti. This safari was definitely a budget safari in comparison to the other two I did. While many people fly from one location to their lodge, we DROVE.
Each morning after our game drive we would have to get on the road to drive to our next lodge. We often had more than 5 hour drives between lodges. We spent more time driving from one lodge to the next than we did actually viewing animals.
Fortunately, Kenya and Tanzania have an over abundance of animals (including all of the Big 5!) so even during our long drives to our hotels, we would see a lot. We just didn’t have the freedom to stop and watch the animals for awhile if we wanted to.
While it’s great to see so much of the world, the Maasai Mara and Serengeti looked extremely similar. When we drove from one to the other, I honestly couldn’t tell a difference. Basically the only difference is now I can tell people I’ve visited Kenya AND Tanzania. Not exactly worth it in my opinion! I would’ve been happy just staying at a lodge in Kenya. Or only one in Tanzania! You catch my drift.
Having to travel each day to a new lodge really took away from the experience. First of all, each of the lodges we stayed at were beautiful and had so much to offer! It would have been nice to be able to really relax and enjoy them rather than just showing up to sleep. Instead we had to pack up every morning to head to the next one which was just as nice and we had just as little time at. The lodges are definitely a highlight of safari. Even the “budget” ones are stunningly beautiful. Most lodges are built in the middle of the wild and you can hear some amazing things like hippos fighting or lions roaring at night. On stationary safaris at one lodge, you can spend time looking for animals around the grounds of your lodge. You don’t have that luxury on a traveling safari.
Overall, I would highly recommend choosing one place for your safari. In South Africa, Kenya or Tanzania you see so many animals during your game drives you really don’t need to move to a different area to see more.
A safari should be a relaxing experience. Game drives start really early in the morning (like 6 a.m.) so you want to come back to a comfortable bed, not a 5 hour drive to another place. Very rarely is it worth it to just cross somewhere off your list just to say you’ve done it. Instead, go on one safari. If you love it, go back and see more!