Is it recommended to go on a safari with kids? This is a common question from traveling families eager to experience a safari with their children.
Our usual answer is yes! A safari with kids is not only possible but highly recommended, provided you consider a few key points outlined in this post.
A safari with your children can be an unforgettable adventure. Seeing animals in the wild and learning about their behaviors is a rare privilege. Families who take the plunge cherish the experience, with parents and kids alike recalling it fondly.
Questions to ask before traveling to Africa with kids
The main doubts or considerations for a family planning a safari with kids might include:
- The fatigue of being in the car all day.
- Long travel distances.
- Possibility of contracting a disease.
- Food and water safety.
- Heat or temperature variation.
- Clothing needed.
- The cost of traveling with additional people.
- Which destination is better for a safari: Kenya or Tanzania?
Going on safari with Kids in Tanzania
In this analysis, we focus on the experience of traveling with children to Tanzania in a private group, meaning with a guide and vehicle exclusive to your family, without sharing with anyone else.
Safety on a safari with Kids
Tanzania and Kenya are safe countries for tourists, and even more so in the safari area, where there is hardly any population, overcrowding, and therefore, you will not find the situations of robberies or thefts that you can find in the big cities.
The main problem that can occur in the savannah areas is if you get sick. As in any trip with children, this is a fear shared by parents, although at the same time, we would never go anywhere if we only thought about it, and in general, the desire to know, share unforgettable experiences, and learn in places totally different from where we usually are, is more important than the “paralysis” because of the “what if it gets bad? If you are a traveler, and in addition, now you have children, you know what we are talking about.
Access to medical centers
In this sense, there are families who attach great importance to having a medical center near the lodgings. In this case, very close to the accommodations in Tanzania that we offer, the NGO with which we collaborate has a medical center near Momella with all kinds of specialists and good facilities. It is a small medical center, of course. It is not a big hospital, which we would need in case something serious happens. In that case we would go to Arusha or Dar es Salaam, the capital. But if what happens is something routine, a virus, a cold, something stomach, or the typical fall of any child, this medical center is perfect for care, diagnosis and even medicines (although we always recommend that you bring your own medicines, to which you resort most, and your first aid kit). In fact, you may even be seen by Cornelia herself, the director of the NGO, who is a doctor and works at the medical center taking care of patients.
What is almost mandatory is to have a good travel health insurance, especially for the little ones, to be able to travel with peace of mind.
Transportation during the Safari in Tanzania
In Tanzania, the drives are longer and can be more tiring for your children than in the Kenyan area where we offer the experiences. You have to go from park to park and the drives can take from 2 to 5 hours depending on the day. For example, returning from Ngorongoro Crater to Arusha is about 5 hours and there is no way to return by plane.
Even so, there are many families that do it. The important thing is to know how your children are, and to control the schedules. For many families, it is no problem to get up early on their first day of safari (one of the longest journeys), and take advantage of that time for the children to sleep in the car. If they stay asleep for 2 hours, we have already won a lot. The same on the way back. We usually recommend to do the last day of safari in Ngorongoro, and return after lunch or in the early afternoon. We assure you that after days of safari, fatigue is noticeable. And it’s not just the kids who will fall asleep. You will also spend part of the journey as if nothing, letting your driver take you back to your accommodation.
The option of going by plane
However, if you want to visit the main parks in northern Tanzania with children, and avoid the return by car, there are alternatives. You can do the northern route (Tarangire, Manyara, Ngorongoro and Serengeti) and return from the Serengeti by plane to Arusha. This way we save a long drive, in addition to seeing the beautiful Serengeti National Park from the sky.
Returning by plane will increase the price of the safari, of course. Comfort always has a price.
Prices of a safari with children in Tanzania
Great news: children pay less.
In Tanzania, safari prices are as follows*.
- Children under 5 years of age do not pay for park entrance fees or accommodations. Considering that the entrance fee to a park costs 70 US dollars per person, the savings of not paying the entrance fee and accommodation is high. So, if you have a 4 year old child, and you want to do a safari with your child, this is a positive detail to take into account.
- Children from 5 to 12 years old pay 50% of the entrance fee and 50% of the accommodation.
At that age children already remember, so knowing that the savings of doing a safari with your children is 50% is a good opportunity to do the safari with your children.
- Children from 13 to 16 years old pay 75% of the entrance fees and accommodations.
Without being a very big saving, it can be important, since safaris in general are expensive, so saving 25% of for example 2,000 euros, is 500 euros less that you will have to pay for your child to do the safari.
In the following link you have the available routes for Tanzania, including Safaris, Maasai immersive tourism and visit to the NGO projects in a beautiful rural area. If you also want to finish the trip with a few days of sun and beach we also have combinations between safaris and beach. Everything is customizable.
(*Note: if you want to do a safari with children in Tanzania, please contact us to confirm that this is still the case, and so that we can make a route according to the type of trip you have in mind).
Safari with Kids in Kenya
If, on the other hand, you prefer to go on safari without having to travel too far, being close to your accommodation, our recommendation is to travel to Kenya with Trip to Help. Why? Basically because the lodge is within the Masai Mara area, in a conservation area, and in half an hour drive you are already on safari seeing all kinds of animals in the wild. In addition, safaris are made for half a day, so you can return for lunch or dinner at your lodge, and spend the other part of the day to do other activities such as playing with the Maasai children who are in the school of the NGO, next to the lodge.
The only long drive, which can be avoided, is the one from Nairobi to the Masai Mara (Lemek Conservation Area). It is the one you do the first day and / or the last. It is about 5 hours and can be avoided by flying by light aircraft from Nairobi at an extra cost (about 40 minutes drive).
Kenya is one of the most tourism-friendly countries on the African continent, with several hospitals and one of the best medical centers in all of Africa. If that is your fear, do not worry. Of course, you should take out medical insurance to avoid surprises, and know that if something happens, you are fully covered. In this post we analyze the best travel insurance, and if you hire through our links you will get a discount.
Prices of a safari in Kenya with children
In the case of a safari with children in Kenya, the savings are less than in Tanzania.
For example, in Kenya, if the child is between 5 and 11 years old, they pay 40 euros instead of 70 euros per day for Conservation Zone fees. On the other hand, in accommodation they pay the same as if they were adults.
You can see the routes and safaris in Kenya in the following link:
Meals during the Safari
The meals we offer on safaris to Kenya and Tanzania are very good, healthy and quite similar to what we could eat in Spain. It has, however, a different touch because the food in Africa is different from the food in Spain. Both in Kenya and Tanzania, the cooks will always cook us supernatural food and made at the moment for us. No ultra-processed food. In general, it is simple but very healthy cuisine, with vegetables as the main element. On the other hand, in both places they renounce to introduce non-local food as a principle of sustainability, and everything is made the same day.
In addition, in both places you can enjoy a varied diet, and if you are vegan or vegetarian, or have intolerances or allergies, you will have no problem. They are used to adapt menus, and offer alternatives.
During the safari days, the lodges prepare a picnic for the whole family, to have lunch in the national parks and then continue with the visit. Don’t worry about drinks, cutlery, napkins and so on, everything will be prepared for you.
On the other hand, the water is bottled during the whole trip, so you will not have to worry about buying water, we will bring it to you. In addition, both accommodations are very concerned about the use of plastic, so you will always have your water bottle in glass or stainless steel.
What to wear during a Safari with Kids
At this point we won’t take too long, because if you want to know what to take on safari it is important that you read this post where we explain and detail everything you need. For your children you should follow the same recommendations, bearing in mind, as always, that they may need more changes of clothes.
What we do anticipate is that you should bring warm clothes, because at night and in the mornings it can be a little cold, especially if your trip is during the months of June, July or August, our summer, and its winter. Another fact if what worries you is the heat: we have in our imagination to think that it will be unbearably hot there, and we assure you that it is hotter in many parts of the Spanish geography than in the safari area of Kenya or Tanzania. It is hot, but dry, and if you wear breathable clothes, cotton or linen, it is ideal.
Vaccination
For the vaccination issue, you will have to go to an international vaccination center in your city. They, looking at your vaccination record, will tell you which vaccines you need to be vaccinated and what medication you will need to take to travel to Africa. They are experts and it is normally a public service, although the visit may have a cost. In Barcelona, the visit is 35 € and includes the vaccinations that they have to give you.
A very common issue to consider is malaria. It is generally recommended to take malaria prophylaxis during the trip to avoid contracting the disease from a mosquito, but it is also common to decide that children should not take it. You should take into account the time of the year in which you travel, and also the detail that in high and dry areas (the areas of the national parks of Tanzania and Kenya are areas high above sea level) there is very little risk, since mosquitoes are located in humid areas and more tropical climate, such as on the coast. If you travel in the dry season, you have even less risk, since without rain, there are fewer insects.
Conclusions of a safari with Kids
We are in favor of traveling with our children. Children, at that age, perceive and learn many things that later, when they are older, they will remember for the rest of their lives. Just look at how the children of traveling families like Los Mundo know nature in a way that almost no child who goes to school knows it. And not only that, their sensitivity and respect for it is very particular. This is thanks to being in close contact with natural life and seeing in first person the animals in their habitat, without fences, without limits and in coexistence with other species.
One detail: it is important that the children understand that they must keep quiet when the guide stops to see animals up close. The animals want to be quiet, otherwise they will either leave or get angry with us. So, make sure your son or daughter is able to keep quiet when the car stops to see the animals up close. If so, one more reason not to hesitate: take them on a safari in Africa.
Every family is different and you will have the last decision, but remember that Tanzania and Kenya are safe countries and super adapted to tourism, that you must have a medical insurance for your peace of mind and finally that every day more and more traveling families decide to travel with their children and go on safari. Don’t you want to be one of them?
We finish with this list of reasons on instagram why we believe that yes, traveling with kids, and on safari, is one of the best things you can do.
Other blog entries
- Seeing the Great Migration in Kenya: An Unforgettable Natural Spectacle
- TRIP TO HELP, WINNER OF THE AFRICA WTM RESPONSIBLE TOURISM AWARDS
- How much does a Kenya Safari Cost?
- How to make a sustainable trip to Kenya: Tips & Tricks
- Sustainable Safari in Tanzania
- Sustainable Travel in Tanzania
- Money in Kenya: tips and tricks
- What is the best time to travel to Kenya?
- Going on a Safari with Kids: Is It Recommended?
- Tanzania or Kenya: Which of these is the best safari?
- Our Kenya Safari Experience
- 10 days in Zanzibar: For independent and first time travelers
- 5-day safari in Tanzania
- Getting around in Zanzibar
- Honeymoon trip to Tanzania