A responsible safari checklist: 10 ways to travel well in East Africa
Ten practical ways to make your East Africa safari better for wildlife, communities and the environment, from choosing a conservancy to how you behave at a sighting.
Tourism is one of the main reasons East Africa’s wild places still exist. Park fees fund rangers, conservancy leases pay local families, and lodges are among the largest employers around the parks. The choices you make decide how much your trip contributes. Here are ten practical ways to make it count.
1. Choose a local operator
Booking with an operator based in East Africa keeps more of your money in the region, and means the people planning your trip know the roads, the guides and the camps first-hand. Volcan plans and runs every trip from its Nairobi office.
2. Stay in conservancies and community lodges
Conservancies such as those around the Maasai Mara lease land from Maasai families, who receive a regular income for keeping it wild. Staying there directly funds conservation outside the national parks. Our guide to Mara conservancies explains how they work.
3. Keep your distance at sightings
A good guide never crowds an animal, blocks its path or chases it for a better photograph. If an animal changes its behaviour because of the vehicle, you are too close. Ask your guide to wait at a distance and let the animal move on its own terms.
4. Stay on the track
Off-road driving in national parks damages grassland and disturbs wildlife, and it is prohibited. Where conservancies allow it, it is done carefully and with limits.
5. Never feed wildlife
Feeding animals, even monkeys at a picnic site, changes their behaviour and can make them dangerous. It is also against park rules. Our guides never use food to lure animals into view.
6. Travel in a small group
Smaller groups mean fewer vehicles, less noise and less impact. A Volcan private safari is usually just your own family or friends.
7. Cut the plastic
Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda have banned single-use plastic bags, and many parks restrict single-use plastics. Bring a reusable water bottle: our vehicles carry drinking water to refill it.
8. Respect local cultures
Ask before photographing people, dress modestly in towns and villages, and choose community visits arranged properly, with the consent of the community and with your contribution going directly to them.
9. Pay fairly and tip for good service
Hire a porter on a gorilla trek, buy crafts directly from the people who made them, and tip guides and camp staff for good service. Our tipping guide covers the details.
10. Leave only footprints
Take your litter with you, including cigarette ends, and never remove anything from a park: shells, feathers, horns and stones all belong where they are.
How Volcan travels
These are the principles we follow on every Volcan safari: guides trained in wildlife etiquette, small private groups, reusable water bottles in every vehicle, and camps chosen for their community involvement. Read more on our Responsible Travel page.
Plan a safari with us that benefits the places and people you visit.
