PHOTO PLACEHOLDER — replace with a licensed image. Do not use unlicensed stock. — Budgets get caught out by the joins, not the camps
Money
Budgets get caught out by the joins, not the camps
People plan per night and forget that a ten-night route across three regions can carry four internal flights.
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What the joins add
| Element | Scale | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Internal flights | 15–25% of a typical trip | The thing that makes two regions plus a coast possible in ten nights |
| Road transfers | Cheaper, and cost hours | Sometimes the better call — a two-hour drive beats a flight with two transfers |
| A private vehicle | Often a few hundred US$ a day per couple | The best-value line on any route we build |
| Park and conservancy fees | Usually inside the nightly rate | Ask — where they are not, they are significant |
| Gorilla permits | Several hundred to over US$1,000 per person | Only if the route includes Rwanda or Uganda |
| International flights | Often the largest single line | Never inside a safari quote |
Trades that make a route cheaper without making it worse
- Remove a move, not a night. Six nights in one region costs less than three plus three and is frequently the better trip.
- Move a fortnight, not a season. Late June rather than mid-July can be a large saving for a small change.
- Road where road is genuinely fine. A two-hour drive through real country beats a flight plus two airstrip transfers.
- Fly home from the coast rather than routing back through the safari area — it saves most of a day and a leg.
- Take the private vehicle and a smaller camp rather than a bigger room at a larger one.
The trade we would not make
Cutting nights to raise the nightly rate. Four nights at a very expensive camp loses to seven at a good one, almost every time, because what a safari gives you accumulates — the guide learns you, and the third morning is better than the first.
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