Safari Accommodation – Park entrance fees are the same for all budgets, so you can expect the same game viewing experience. However, what you pay for an organized safari depends on the standard of accommodation and whether you want to access the parks by road or air. Generally, park accommodations fall into three categories: high-end luxury tented camps, mid-range lodges, and campgrounds. Intimate tent camps typically consist of a dozen large tents under thatched or wooden roofs with their own decks and sometimes extras like a private plunge pool or outdoor shower. The cuisine and service are excellent and the games and other activities are all included. The advantage of this is that you sleep in the wild with the animals close by and are personally assisted by competent guides. The large safari lodges in the parks also offer good service and are usually in scenic locations, but with many rooms in hotel-style blocks or individual lodges, they can feel a little impersonal. Nevertheless, they offer reasonable value and have a wide range of services such as restaurants, bars and swimming pools. Camping safaris offer the best value but are the least comfortable, with cold showers, primitive toilets and hard floors to sleep on. But the advantage is sleeping in unfenced campsites where you can hear the roar of a lion at night. Camping safaris usually have a chef who cooks over an open fire.
