Key Takeaways
- A private safari package gives you your own vehicle, guide and tracker — you set the pace, the start time and how long you stay at a sighting.
- Our number-one private package is the 5-day Luxury Sabi Sands Private Safari, from US$4,000 per person — the finest leopard viewing on the continent, with off-road tracking the national parks do not allow.
- The most affordable fully-private option here is the 4-day Phinda Private Game Reserve Safari from US$3,200 per person, in a low-malaria-risk KwaZulu-Natal reserve.
- For the greatest spectacle in a private vehicle, the 7-day Serengeti Private Migration Safari (from US$5,400) places your camps where the river crossings should be.
- Every package folds lodges, private game drives, guiding, park fees and transfers into one all-in from-price, and every route is built around your dates.
- Private does not always cost more: in the Greater Kruger and Zululand reserves, a private vehicle is standard, so you pay little or no premium over a shared seat.
What “Private” Really Means on These Packages
The word private gets used loosely in safari marketing, so it is worth being plain about what it buys. On every package below, the game-drive vehicle is yours alone. You are not sharing the back seats with another family, you are not held to a group departure time, and you are not pulled away from a leopard because someone else wants breakfast. You decide when you leave camp, the guide reads your interests — big cats, birds, photography, a slower pace with children — and you stay with a sighting for as long as it holds. That single difference changes the whole trip.
There are two ways we deliver it. In South Africa’s private reserves, such as the Sabi Sands, Phinda and the Zululand reserves, a private vehicle is often the standard way lodges operate, so the premium over a shared seat is small or non-existent. In Botswana, Kenya and Tanzania, where vehicles are usually shared, we book the vehicle on a sole-use basis for your party — this adds cost, but it is the real thing: your guide, your 4x4, your schedule, for the whole journey.
Below are the ten we rank most highly for 2027 and 2028. Each is a genuine package we run, with a from-price per person that includes lodges, private game drives, expert guiding, park fees and transfers. Prices rise with lodge tier, season and the size of your party, and every route is tailored to your dates. We count up to our single best private safari on the continent.
1. Luxury Sabi Sands Private Safari — 5 Days, from US$4,000pp
Top of the ranking, and our finest private package, is five days in the Sabi Sands. This private reserve shares an unfenced border with the Kruger, and it is the best Big Five territory on the continent — above all for leopard. Because it is private land, your guide can take the vehicle off-road to follow a cat through the thickets, and run the night drives that national parks forbid. The big cats here are so used to vehicles that sightings are close, quiet and unhurried.
Over five days you settle into a lodge of just a handful of suites, head out on dawn and dusk drives with a ranger-and-tracker team that is yours alone, and watch the wild at a pace no group can spoil. It is the clearest demonstration of why private matters: two vehicles can sit at the same leopard, but only yours waits for the cat to move into the light. It pairs naturally with Cape Town or the coast, and our guide to private safaris in South Africa sets out the wider picture.
Related journey: Luxury Sabi Sands Safari (5 days) — from US$4,000pp →
2. Phinda Private Game Reserve Safari — 4 Days, from US$3,200pp
Number two, and the best-value fully-private package on the list, is four days at Phinda in KwaZulu-Natal. Phinda is a 28,000-hectare private reserve with seven distinct habitats packed into one property — sand forest, wetland, mountain and bushveld — which is why a short stay here delivers such variety. It holds the Big Five, and it is one of the best places in Africa for cheetah and for both black and white rhino, tracked on foot with a specialist guide.
Your vehicle is private throughout, and Phinda sits in a low-malaria-risk area, which makes it a sound choice for families and for anyone who would rather skip anti-malarials. Four days is enough for morning and afternoon drives, a rhino-tracking walk and, if you wish, a turtle-nesting outing in season on the nearby coast. It reaches easily from Durban or by a short flight, and works beautifully before or after time on the KwaZulu-Natal beaches.
Related journey: Phinda Private Game Reserve Luxury Safari (4 days) — from US$3,200pp →
3. Okavango Delta Private Safari — 6 Days, from US$8,000pp
The Okavango Delta is the most exclusive wilderness on this list. Here the Okavango River spills into the Kalahari and vanishes into a maze of channels, islands and lily lagoons — a vast inland delta that floods each year and draws elephant, lion, leopard and the endangered African wild dog. Botswana runs a low-volume, high-value model, so the concessions stay quiet and the sense of wild is total.
Over six days you move by traditional mokoro canoe, poled through the reeds in near silence, and by open 4x4 on the islands. We book your vehicle and guide on a sole-use basis, so the pace is entirely yours. The camps are among the finest in Africa, many with just a handful of tents raised over the floodplain. It is a premium safari and the price reflects it, but for privacy and pure wilderness, nothing on the continent matches it. Our Okavango Delta guide walks through the seasons and camps.
Related journey: Okavango Delta Luxury Safari (6 days) — from US$8,000pp →
4. Serengeti Private Migration Safari — 7 Days, from US$5,400pp
If one safari belongs on everyone’s shortlist, it is the Serengeti in migration season. Across seven days in Tanzania you follow the great herds — close to two million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle moving across the plains, trailed by the continent’s largest predator populations. Time it right and you reach the Mara and Grumeti rivers for the crossings, one of the most charged scenes in the natural world.
On this private package your vehicle and guide are booked for your party alone, which matters enormously in the Serengeti: a shared vehicle moves on a group’s clock, but yours can sit at a river bank for an hour while the herds build courage to cross. We position your camps where the herds should be for your dates, and keep the route flexible if the rains shift the animals early. Our Great Migration guide and our month-by-month timing map the whole loop.
Related journey: Serengeti Great Migration Safari (7 days) — from US$5,400pp →
5. Kenya Private Samburu & Masai Mara Safari — 7 Days, from US$6,200pp
Our fifth pick pairs two of Kenya’s greatest wildernesses in one seven-day private journey. It opens in the semi-arid north of Samburu — home to the Samburu Special Five, including the reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s zebra and gerenuk found almost nowhere else — then flies south to the Masai Mara, the Kenyan heart of the migration ecosystem and one of the best places on Earth for lion and cheetah.
Your 4x4 and guide stay with you across both reserves, so the contrast feels like one continuous trip rather than two tours stitched together. Private vehicles matter most in the Mara during migration months, when shared minibuses crowd the crossings — in your own vehicle, the guide can hold a quiet line and read the herds. It is a strong choice for a second safari, or for a first-timer who wants real variety. Our guide to safaris in Kenya sets out the wider country.
Related journey: Kenya: Samburu & Masai Mara Safari (7 days) — from US$6,200pp →
6. Big Five Private Luxury Safari — 7 Days, from US$6,500pp
Number six is built around a single clear goal: see all of the Big Five — lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino — in comfort and in your own vehicle. Over seven days in the Greater Kruger private reserves, your guide and tracker work the terrain and the radio network to find the species you have not yet seen, with the freedom to go off-road that makes the difference between a glimpse and a long, close sighting.
Seven days gives the time the five really need. Leopard and rhino are the hardest to tick off, and an extra day or two turns a hopeful list into a near-certainty. You stay in a small private-reserve lodge, drive at dawn and dusk, and spend the warm middle hours by the pool or on a guided bush walk. It suits a couple or a family who want the complete set without rushing, and it combines well with Cape Town or Victoria Falls on either end.
Related journey: Big Five Luxury Safari (7 days) — from US$6,500pp →
7. Luxury Tanzania Fly-In Private Safari — 8 Days, from US$7,400pp
Our seventh package links Tanzania’s northern circuit by light aircraft, so you skip the long road transfers and spend your time with the animals instead. Over eight days you take in Tarangire, famous for its enormous elephant herds and ancient baobabs; the Ngorongoro Crater, a collapsed caldera holding a dense, year-round concentration of wildlife on its floor; and the Serengeti itself.
Flying between them keeps the pace gentle and the private vehicle waits for you at each airstrip, so the guiding is continuous even as the camps change. This is the circuit that made East African safaris famous, and eight days is the right length to do it without hurry. We match the lodges to your budget — from well-run tented camps to the most sought-after crater-rim and Serengeti properties — and build the dates around the season you want. Our Tanzania safari guide covers the circuit in detail.
Related journey: Luxury Tanzania Fly-In Safari (8 days) — from US$7,400pp →
8. Durban, Zululand Big Five Private Safari — 5 Days, from US$2,900pp
Number eight is the easiest-to-reach malaria-free Big Five package here. From Durban you drive or take a short flight into the Zululand reserves of northern KwaZulu-Natal — among them Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, the park that brought the white rhino back from near-extinction and still one of the best places in Africa to see both rhino species. Over five days your private vehicle and guide work the hills and thornveld for lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino.
Because the whole region is malaria-free, it is a sound choice for families with young children and for travellers who would rather not take anti-malarials. It also pairs naturally with the KwaZulu-Natal coast, so you can add a few days on the beach at the end. This is private safari at a gentler price point — proof that you do not need the biggest budget to have the vehicle to yourself.
Related journey: Durban, Zululand Big Five Safari (5 days) — from US$2,900pp →
9. Sabi Sands Private Fly-In Safari — 4 Days, from US$3,800pp
Our ninth package is for travellers short on time who still want the very best. You fly straight from Johannesburg to an airstrip in the Sabi Sands, step off the plane and into a private vehicle, and are on a game drive within the hour. Four days gives you six game drives — three dawns and three dusks — in Africa’s finest leopard territory, with no road transfer eating into your trip.
It is the most time-efficient way to reach this quality of wildlife, and it slots neatly onto the end of a Cape Town holiday or a business trip. The lodge is small and private, the vehicle is yours, and the guiding is of the same standard as our longer Sabi Sands package — simply condensed. For anyone who thinks a private top-tier safari needs two weeks, this proves four focused days can deliver.
Related journey: Luxury Sabi Sands Fly-In Safari (4 days) — from US$3,800pp →
10. Grand Private Africa: Cape Town, Kruger, Victoria Falls & Okavango — 14 Days, from US$12,500pp
Closing the ranking is our definitive two-week private journey, linking four of the continent’s great names on one connected route — Cape Town, the Greater Kruger, Victoria Falls and the Okavango Delta. You begin at the foot of Table Mountain with the winelands and the Cape coast, fly to a private Greater Kruger reserve for Big Five game drives, cross to Victoria Falls for the thunder of the Zambezi, and finish in the water-wilderness of the Okavango.
A private guide and vehicle carry the safari legs, light aircraft handle the long hops, and every lodge is chosen to match your budget and pace. Fourteen days is the length this journey deserves — long enough to settle into each place rather than tick it off. It is the trip we build most often for a milestone — an anniversary, a retirement, a family coming together — and the one that leaves the deepest mark. For the full route, see our guide to luxury Africa safaris.
Related journey: Cape Town, Kruger, Victoria Falls & Okavango Grand Safari (14 days) — from US$12,500pp →
How Much Does a Private African Safari Package Cost?
The packages above run from about US$2,900 per person for five private, malaria-free days in Zululand to US$12,500 for the fourteen-day grand journey. Most week-long private safaris fall between US$5,000 and US$8,000 per person. Three things move the price: the lodge tier you choose, the season you travel, and whether the destination charges a premium for sole use of the vehicle.
That last point is where private safaris surprise people. In the South African private reserves — the Sabi Sands, Phinda, the Zululand parks and the Greater Kruger — a private vehicle is often the standard way lodges run game drives, so there is little or no premium over a shared seat. In Botswana, Kenya and Tanzania, vehicles are usually shared, so booking yours on a sole-use basis adds a real cost, typically a few hundred US dollars per day split across your party. The larger your group, the lower that cost per person, which is why private safaris often make most sense for families and small groups travelling together.
| Package | Days | From (pp) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luxury Sabi Sands Private | 5 | US$4,000 | Leopard & finest Big Five |
| Phinda Private Game Reserve | 4 | US$3,200 | Best value, low malaria risk |
| Okavango Delta Private | 6 | US$8,000 | Exclusivity & wilderness |
| Serengeti Private Migration | 7 | US$5,400 | The migration & crossings |
| Kenya Samburu & Masai Mara | 7 | US$6,200 | Variety & rare species |
| Big Five Private Luxury | 7 | US$6,500 | Seeing all five |
| Luxury Tanzania Fly-In | 8 | US$7,400 | Northern circuit, no long drives |
| Durban, Zululand Big Five | 5 | US$2,900 | Malaria-free families |
| Sabi Sands Private Fly-In | 4 | US$3,800 | Short on time |
| Grand Private Africa | 14 | US$12,500 | A milestone journey |
How to Book Your Private Safari
Every package here is a starting point, not a fixed menu. Tell us your dates, who is travelling and roughly what you want to spend, and we build the trip around you — adjusting the lodge tier, adding or dropping days, swapping a reserve, or linking two of these packages into one longer journey. Because we run these trips ourselves and work directly with the lodges, the from-price you see is the real all-in figure for lodges, private game drives, guiding, park fees and transfers; the only common exclusion is your international airfare, which we are glad to advise on.
The private vehicles, the best guides and the smaller camps are the first things to sell out, especially over peak migration dates and the festive season, so the earlier you talk to us the more of the top choices stay open. Send us a note with your rough dates and party size, and one of our safari specialists will come back with a tailored plan and a firm quote — no obligation, just a clear picture of what your private safari would look like.
