The ones we are asked most at this level

No. Both have a good bed, good food and a competent guide. What differs is how much land you have to yourself, how many vehicles may attend a sighting, how good the guiding is and whether the guide stays with you.

Whether that is worth three times the money depends on what you want from the days. Sometimes it obviously is. Sometimes the honest answer is that the difference buys four more nights instead.

A private vehicle. Usually a few hundred dollars a day for a couple, and it removes the thing that most reliably spoils a good sighting: negotiating with strangers about when to leave it.

It is the largest single upgrade available and it is worth it for a specific reason: continuity. A guide who travels with you learns what you care about in the first two days and spends the next eight acting on it, rather than starting again at each camp.

For a first safari of seven nights in one country, camp guides are usually enough. For a multi-country trip, or a photographic one, it changes everything.

Usually not, and we would rather say so. A good small camp has six to ten tents; you will meet perhaps eight other guests and have your own vehicle and guide regardless.

For a party of six or more, three generations, or a milestone trip, it earns its cost. For a couple, a private vehicle at a smaller camp is almost always the better trip for far less.

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.