About us

Welcome to Elephant Back Safaris – our website is here purely to give you great reviews on where you and with whom you can go around on safaris. We started off as a place to talk about elephant back safaris, but the subject of safaris are just too broad to limit it just to that, so we’ve expanded into a wide range of safari based subjects. We’re a relatively new website, so you should expect us to be around and active for a while yet to come!

So what exactly do we do? We tend to look at the locations where you can look at abundant wildlife, including the types of accommodation you might expect, how to prepare for your trip, and, most importantly, what animals these locations are showcasing. A common misconception about wildlife holidays is that it’s all about Africa, but while this may be where safaris originated, that is far from the case now. Safaris, or wildlife excursions (whatever you want to call them) are offered in a massive number of locations, and if you’re interested in wildlife seeing the diversity of life in various locations is the best option for you to pursue.

Preparing for a Safari

If you’ve decided to finally go on that safari you’ve been looking forward to for a while now, there are a number of steps you need to go through. First of all is deciding upon which location you want to go to, which can actually be pretty complex, as you need to consider the following factors:

  • The types of animals that you want to see.
  • The political climates of the places which offer views of said animals (you don’t want to go to somewhere in the middle of a civil war).
  • If you need to take any vaccines before you get there (remember Ebola? yeah…).
  • Any other health related concerns, such as clean, fresh, running water, the toilet situation.
  • What products are recommended taking? If it’s a hot place, you’ll want to make sure that you’re protected from heat and sun exposure, if it’s cold, then protected from the cold. Hot places generally also mean insects, so you’ll want to take insect repellent too (believe me, that’s absolutely essential).

Once you’ve run through these various factors and any others you can think of, the next step is choosing which safari company to go with, and which package to purchase. Safari services can be pretty diverse in terms of how close you get to the wildlife, accommodation, such as whether you’re camping out in the bush or you’re staying at a nearby hotel, and what type of day you go out to view the animals. Here are a few options you might want to consider:

  • One of the biggest reasons to go on a safari for many people is to see Lions in their natural habitat. In order to get a really exciting experience out of it, many people opt for a night time safari, which increases the odds of seeing them in a hunt tremendously.
  • Elephant back safaris are a pretty incredible experience, although only a few places offer them. You get to travel around on the back of an elephant (tamed, of course), as you traverse their natural habitat, seeing how a variety of other animals interact with and them and each other.
  • Walking safaris are yet another option, but one many are afraid of doing (y’know, Lions…). Even so, one of the biggest drawbacks to typical safaris is how the truck you’re travelling around in disrupts the wildlife and stops them from behaving naturally; which is a problem a walking safari is immune to. Another benefit to walking safaris is how you’ll be able to access forested areas without or with limited vehicle access.
  • The different accommodation types can have a big impact on your experience. Many people just want to experience the safari and then get back to a normal holiday, but others want to remain in the thick of it for the entire vacation, which is why they choose a camping type of safari. With these, those on the trip will stay in a camp right out in the bush, where they can go so sleep with the sounds of life all around them.

If you want to hear more about what you can get up to on your safari, take a look at our blog section, where we go into these areas and many more.