Getting the right safari guide is make or break for your safari experience. The safari guide is the most important part of the whole safari experience. Get a great guide and you’ll have an incredible time – regardless of the wildlife, the weather or the lodge. A good safari guide makes the difference between a good safari experience and an unforgettable memorable lifetime adventure.
Good guides make a difference to all travel experiences. Their historical knowledge helps you learn more about a destination. A cultural sensitivity helps you feel immersed, there’s so much to learn and a guide with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the bush will be able to answer all your questions – from the obvious to the obscure.
Beyond the facts and figures, good guides are great storytellers and can bring their wealth of information to life; using real-life examples helps guests to retain knowledge and it’s exciting for them to know what kind of things they might witness for themselves. It’s often up to a guide to keep conversation flowing – whether that’s during sundowners (unless of course it’s clear people are happy gazing off into the bush and enjoying the peacefulness) or at dinner.
Great Safari Guides make sure you stay safe.
A good guide or ranger is not only important for making guests feel safe. A great guide will genuinely keep guests safe by knowing how to interpret animal signals. This is particularly important when on foot, especially if you unexpectedly encounter a potentially aggressive animal, such as a black rhino or buffalo. As well as theoretical knowledge, experience is very important in these situations.
They’ll also know how to drive safely and responsibly, reducing the likelihood of getting stuck – though sometimes it’s unavoidable, even for the best drivers! When it does, at least they’ll know how to quickly fix the problem and not panic guests.
Great Safari Guides manage expectations
Guides should know better than to tell guests what they might see or what was spotted that morning – there’s too much possibility of disappointment. Instead, a good safari guide will keep expectations reasonably low and promise nothing. That way, guests are thrilled with what they do find and not downcast when they don’t happen across a pack of wild dogs.
Great Safari Guides know how to keep young children interested
Having young children on safari can be a challenge, but a good safari guide will know how to engage kids of any age – by finding out what interests them, asking questions and running the odd pop quiz on fun animal facts. If all else fails, guides know that kids of a certain age tend to love examining animal poop – and there’s plenty of that on safari!
Communication Is Key
Our guides are multi-lingual, speaking local languages, Swahili and English with some also fluent in German, Italian, French and Spanish. We always have the perfect guide for each and every guest.
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