Affordable African Safaris

A safari is nearly always more than you want to spend. Faced with this reality, sometimes you may decide to increase your budget but that may not be possible. Here are some of our more affordable safaris and less expensive safari lodges and camps…

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Overview

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What on earth do we mean by “Affordable African Safaris”? Elsewhere we’ve talked about how a safari is often more than you want to spend. And that's true. So on this page, we focus on lodges and areas which are on the affordable side of this spectrum.

PRO TIP: Make sure you budget considerably more for your nights on safari within a trip. You may want to economize in other ways - See our page on Africa Safari Pricing for some rough per night prices - in order to know what to budget for good private game reserves.

Below are some of our more affordable African safaris and less expensive game lodges and camps.

These tend to be - though not exclusively - in South Africa or Namibia, Here the Rand is relatively weak versus the world currencies giving you better value for your money. Also our sample South Africa safari tours usually include non-safari areas such as Cape Town or the Garden Route. This naturally brings down the overall cost.

(Plus you can easily opt to self-drive in the Cape which brings down the cost still more.)

What do you get at OUR affordable game lodges?

In this world of online travel sites, it’s easy to get confused as to why a game lodge is comparatively inexpensive. All game reserves are NOT created equal. So if a game lodge seems very reasonable, you need to ask why? When choosing an affordable African safari, we steer clear of the lesser game reserves. (They may say they are Big Five reserves but how many of each species do they really have? And are they free-roaming?)

You are looking for a proper safari and not a zoo experience.

Instead we focus on the affordable game lodges which are in good game-viewing areas. The accommodation will be simpler, the food not so elegant. Yes, the guiding may be a little less refined. But you will be on safari in the same terrain as much more expensive lodges, tracking the same wildlife.

Similarly some of the lesser known game reserves in remote areas offer a fantastic safari experience. That's why you need to talk to the safari experts! (End of small rant.)

As long as you have the correct expectations, these affordable lodges can be every bit as good as their pricier cousins.

Note: Below we highlight affordable game lodges for their area.

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WHAT AN AMAZING SAFARI! An outstanding job!
"WHAT AN AMAZING SAFARI! What an outstanding job you did! From the arrival of the guests to the end of the safari. I’ll speak on my behalf and let the other guests speak for themselves and give their own opinions. Let me just say the Safari amazing…., The team did an outstanding job, from the day of arrival at the airport with ground handlers to the drivers, to the departure da ..." - Mrs Carol Ndungu
Outstanding holiday
"The arrangements worked well. Many thanks for all the hard work. " - Mr Bund, UK
Holiday of a lifetime
"Just wanted to write a quick note to say a big thank you for all your help in arranging what was a fantastic trip for the three of us. My dad loved every minute of it. And said it was a holiday of a lifetime – which is what I of course had hoped it would be for all of us. " - Jo & Family
Exactly what we wanted
"The services Cedarberg provided was excellent. We had a few hiccups and needed to change the itinerary a couple of times but Cedarberg was very quick to respond to our needs and helped us out very quickly. All the accommodations were excellent and suited us perfectly for what we wanted and doing at that time. " - Mrs Kim Swain
Exceeded all expectations
"Cedarberg was professional, responsive, and personable. All flights, all transfers, all accommodation, all activities, and the safari itself went exactly to plan. The experience, end-to-end, exceeded all expectations. " - Mr Michael Barnard
 
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Milandi Joubert

AFRICAN TRAVEL SPECIALIST

Hi I'm Milandi , I'm here to help you plan your ideal holiday experience GET IN TOUCH