Most travellers spend more time researching a laptop purchase than a safari operator. The operator you choose determines your guide, your vehicle, your camp locations, what happens when something goes wrong, and ultimately whether the trip delivers what it promised. These are the questions worth asking before you commit.

About guiding

Who will be our guide, and what is their experience? Ask for the guide by name, ask how long they have been guiding and in which parks. The best operators have named, long-tenured guides. If the operator cannot tell you who will guide you or deflects the question, that tells you something important.

Is our guide in-country? A local guide — Kenyan in Kenya, Tanzanian in Tanzania — with deep knowledge of specific parks is almost always better than a guide rotated between countries. Ask where your guide lives and which parks they work most.

About the vehicle

Will we have a private vehicle or share with other travellers? This is not a trivial question. A private vehicle means you set the pace, stop as long as you like, and are not constrained by other passengers' interests or attention spans. A shared vehicle is cheaper and can work well in small groups with aligned interests, but it is a fundamentally different experience.

What model is the vehicle and how many passengers maximum? The best safari vehicles in East Africa are Toyota Land Cruisers with pop-up roofs, seating a maximum of 7 passengers. Beware of larger minibuses operated by volume-based operators.

About the itinerary

Is this itinerary tailored to our dates, or a fixed template? A well-designed itinerary accounts for where the wildlife actually is on your dates — not where it was when the brochure was written. A good operator will adjust based on migration position, rainfall and recent field reports.

What happens if a park or road is inaccessible on our dates? Ask explicitly how the operator handles disruptions — bad weather, park closures, vehicle breakdown. A professional operator has contingency plans and will describe them clearly.

About the operator

Are you KATO or TATO registered? The Kenya Association of Tour Operators (KATO) and the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO) are the professional bodies that regulate in-country operators. Registration is not a guarantee of quality, but non-registration is a warning sign.

Can you provide verified client testimonials and a reference? A confident operator will offer contact details for recent clients on request. If they resist, ask why.

What is your cancellation and deposit policy? Understand what happens to your money if you cancel, if they cancel, or if events beyond your control (flight changes, illness) force a change. A fair policy is a sign of a legitimate operator.

The right operator responds to your questions with specifics, not generalities. If the answers feel scripted or evasive, keep looking.

The questions we welcome

We encourage every prospective client to ask us every question on this list. We can name your guide, describe the vehicle, explain our contingency plans and provide references. That is the standard we hold ourselves to and the standard you should expect from any operator you consider.

Ask us anything. Start the conversation →