The kids have watched Lion King and are desperate to go to Africa and meet Pumba! Now what? How do you make sure to plan a safari that will be fun for the whole family?
The first step? Consider the ages of your children. Kids under 6 years tend to have limited attention span and get bored fairly quickly. I would recommend waiting until your children are six or older before you go on safari. Obviously, all children are different, and I once spent a 4 hour game drive enthralled by the questions of a four year old, who kept the ranger on his toes with intelligent questions. My own child only started to enjoy game drives around the age of 9.
If you have younger children, it is imperative that you choose lodges that actively welcome young children and offer a plethora of activities to keep them busy. Activities will include shorter safari drives, frogging walks, identifying animal tracks, making spears or decorating cookies. Some camps will have a dedicated play area for the kids so that parents can relax and enjoy their safari.
Older kids will love game drives and the rangers are great at engaging young minds. Lodges provide a list of animals and birds that you might spot, which creates a nice sense of competition and excitement. You should still pick a lodge with lots of activities on offer and with a great kids program though, as the siesta time gets very dull the younger among us. Older kids will enjoy learning to pole a mokoro canoe, make fire, shoot a pellet gun, fishing and star gazing.
I like to make sure that my family has a private safari vehicle or that the lodge always allocates families to the same game drives. Otherwise you spend your game drive shushing your kids so they don’t irritate the honeymoon couple sharing the vehicle with you. It can drive you (and them) nuts!
When you chose the right safari lodge for your family safari, you can relax in the knowledge that your kids are having fun and you can spend quality time as a family, making memories that will stay with you forever. Just beware, once the kids have been on an African safari, they will nag you to go back!