Family Lodges

The thrill of an African safari is not just for adults. What could be more rewarding than seeing a child’s face when they encounter their first sighting of a wild animal on a game drive this along with the educational experience is the perfect family safari holiday.

The camps we use have successfully created a family tent by adding an extra tent onto the back of the bathroom – parents can lock the childs tent from the outside so the only exit is via the parents sleeping area. This gives parents peace of mind as in the past in many tented camps children had to sleep in a separate tent.

Children are accepted at the camps from the age of 8 years. However, if you wanted to take a camp on an exclusive basis perhaps sharing with another family, the age limit could be lowered. We encourage all families to have a separate vehicle for their family group, which means that game viewing is taken at your pace and if a child gets a little fed up you can stop for a break for a while and not have to worry about other guests and their reactions.

The timing of meals is an area that family-friendly camps have looked at. There are few parents that don’t enjoy a child free evening meal at the end of the day and children are generally far happier eating something they recognise at a sensible time. This is made possible by the general availability of babysitters.

A happy and satisfying family holiday means that everyone can find activities to suit them.

8 - 12 Year olds
Spend the day identifying tracks, hand line fishing, identifying ‘dung’ and insects and making bows and arrows.

13 - 16 Year olds
At this age the essence is excitement, these young adults fully appreciate and enjoy the animals and the outdoors, they are interested in conservation, understand the issues and have their own wealth of biodiversity facts. The sporting activities are generally popular with this age group.

Activities

Game drives
To be close to the largest and most spectacular beasts in the world is a thrill for any age group. Night game drives are fun with the chance to spot more unusual animals but also the excitement of being out in the bush after dark!

Cultural interaction
All tribes adore children and will happily spend hours entertaining or being entertained. To fully appreciate how the traditional tribes happily live to survive and survive to live without luxuries and only a very few basics, a village visit is a must and is a humbling experience.