What makes a private safari different from a group safari?

A private safari means you travel with your own guide and your own vehicle. There is no other party in your Land Cruiser. You set the pace, you decide when to stop and for how long, and you follow your guide's knowledge rather than a fixed circuit. The wildlife is the same; the experience is entirely different.

Who are the Bobby Safaris private safari guides?

You travel with Don Kassim himself, or with one of our two senior guides who have worked with our family for over a decade. These are not guides assigned from a pool — they are the people who know Tanzania intimately, who have relationships with the park wardens, who know individual leopards by name. The guide is not a service provider; he is the person who makes the safari.

How flexible is a private safari itinerary?

Complete flexibility. Your itinerary is a framework, not a contract. If the migration crossing is happening and you want to stay for three hours, you stay. If the leopard has been hunting and you want to follow, your guide follows. If the sunrise at the Crater is so extraordinary that you want to skip the planned walk and stay in the moment, you do. This is what private means.

Is a private safari only for couples or can groups travel privately?

A private safari suits anyone who wants an exclusive experience — couples, families, small groups of friends. There is no minimum or maximum party size; your safari is priced around your group. Families with young children particularly benefit from a private safari, as the pace can be adjusted to suit children rather than following a fixed schedule designed for adults.

Red dirt road stretching through green savanna grasslands under a vast blue sky with wispy clouds.

Your Guide. Your Vehicle. Your Pace.

Private Safari

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Duration

3–14 Days

Best Time

Year-round

Highlights

Exclusive guide, Private vehicle, Personalised itinerary, Maximum flexibility, Complete exclusivity

The Journey

The safari that is entirely yours

A private safari is not a different destination. The lions are the same lions. The wildebeest cross the same rivers. The crater holds the same rhino. What changes is everything else: the pace, the flexibility, the relationship with your guide, the ability to stay when something extraordinary is happening and move on when the light is not.

When you book a private safari with Bobby Safaris, you are not assigned a guide from a pool. You travel with Don Kassim himself, or with one of our two senior guides who have worked with our family for over a decade. They know the parks intimately — not just where the animals are, but how the light falls at 6am in March, which rocks the leopards prefer in the dry season, how the migration herds move in relation to the moon.

There is no other party in your vehicle. There is no negotiation about when to stop or how long to stay. If the leopard has been hunting for two hours and the next vehicle is leaving, you stay. If the sunrise at the Crater is so extraordinary that breakfast can wait, it waits.

Leopard resting on a tree branch in the golden light of late afternoon, undisturbed by vehicles — In a private safari, you stay as long as the moment deserves

Elephant herd moving across the savannah plains with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background — Your own pace means you witness things a rushing group safari cannot

Wildebeest crossing a river during the Great Migration, crocodiles waiting below — When the migration crosses, a private safari is there — not rushing to the next checkpoint

Lions resting in tall golden grass, the female watching the horizon — A private guide knows where the animals will be before the crowds arrive

Giraffe walking across open savannah at sunset, silhouette against orange sky — In a private safari, the sunset belongs to you — not to a dozen other vehicles at the same spot

Day by Day

Your Itinerary

Arrival and Orientation

Don meets you at Kilimanjaro International Airport. The drive to Arusha is an introduction to Tanzania — the Maasai herders, the change in vegetation, the first sight of Mount Meru. You settle into your lodge, meet your guide, and discuss the days ahead. There is no itinerary imposed. The plan is yours.

First Morning in the Field

Your first game drive begins before dawn. In a private safari, your guide drives where he knows the animals will be, not where the circuit takes the group vehicles. You stop for coffee as the sun rises over the acacia. You linger at a leopard sighting that a group safari would spend fifteen minutes at before moving on.

The Rhythm of a Private Safari

By the third day, you begin to understand what a private safari offers that a group safari cannot: the ability to develop a relationship with a place. You return to the same kopje three mornings running because your guide knows a pride of lions uses it at dawn. You learn to read the signs — the way the buffalo herd moves, the patterns of the elephant traffic on the river crossing.

Flexibility Without Compromise

Something changes on a private safari. On a group tour, you rush from one highlight to the next. On a private safari, you have time. If the great herd is crossing and the light is extraordinary, you stay. If the afternoon storm is building and the leopard is in the open, you stay. If breakfast can wait, breakfast waits.

A Safari Without End

The final day of a private safari has a particular quality. Having travelled at your own pace, having built a relationship with your guide and with the landscape, you carry something away that a rushed circuit cannot offer. The photographs are secondary. What remains is the knowledge of how it felt to move through that landscape with someone who knows it as well as his own land.

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