What we offer

These safaris are accompanied by one of our specialist guides - who have years of experience and an extensive knowledge of, and passion for, the areas in which they work - in a private safari vehicle. Guides are selected for their enthusiasm, infectious personalities, and dedication, as well as in depth knowledge of the region. Our guides also fulfill the function of being your driver, allowing you to sit back, relax and soak up your safari experiences. This type of safari offers you constant access to one of our specialist guides, who have an intimate knowledge of each camp/lodge and area, being able to expose the relevant highlights, adding continuity and depth to your safari, and effectively tailor-making your experience around any special interests. An Ultimate Safaris guide will turn your safari into an experience of a lifetime! Many of our guests return year after year to travel with a particular guide

Destinations for which a safari of this nature is suited:

• NAMIBIA
• BOTSWANA (in combination with a ‘un-guided fly-in safari’)

Whilst Ultimate Safaris is a tailor-made safari specialist, we do offer one small group scheduled departure safari in Namibia. This safari has the benefit of being a guided safari, but does not carry the financial implication for single travellers that may be associated with a privately guided safari. This safari runs with a minimum of one participant  and a maximum of seven, all of whom are guaranteed a window seat. This is ideal for single travellers who enjoy travelling in a small group. 

• Ultimate Namibia Safari 11 Day Schedule Accomodated Safari 2012
• Download the Ultimate Kalahari, Okavango Delta & Victoria Falls Safari 10 Day Scheduled accommodation safari 2011
• The Green Season Special 2012
• Download the Ultimate Kalahari, Delta & Vic Falls Safari 2012

These safaris are a mirror image of the ‘Guided land safaris’, the only difference being that your guide doubles as a pilot instead of a driver. Perhaps one of best ways to travel around southern Africa (especially when visiting more than one destination at a time) is with your own pilot and plane.  Our pilot-guides combine perfectly with the resident camp/lodge guides to ensure that not only do you benefit from years of local knowledge but also from an overall holistic interpretation that takes your entire safari into account. We have a number of guides who are qualified pilots and who will accompany you throughout your safari, allowing for seamless interpretation and unrivalled flexibility. A safari of this nature allows you the freedom of dictating your movements between camps/lodges, allowing you to get in that extra activity before your departure from a camp/lodge or that first activity after an early arrival at a camp/lodge. Ultimate Safaris fly in safaris are normally operated in light aircraft of differing sizes, ranging from five to thirteen passenger seats.

Destinations for which a safari of this nature is suited:

• BOTSWANA
• ZAMBIA
• NAMIBIA

Given the great expanse of southern Africa, our fly-in safaris afford you the chance to experience the best of this magnificent and varied region within the limited time you have to spend here. Flying enables you to see more in a shorter period of time, and from a very special view point. The varied and impressive landscapes of southern Africa are emphasised from the air, particularly those areas you cannot reach in a vehicle such as the ship wrecks along the Skeleton Coast of Namibia.

With daily scheduled air transfers between most of southern Africa’s camps/lodges, this has become a popular type of safari – especially when only having limited time! These safaris have proven to be efficient and more price economical than the guided version, especially for couples traveling alone. You are transferred between your destinations by light aircraft, and hosted by the resident guides and hosts at the individual camps/lodges. 

Destinations for which a safari of this nature is suited:

• BOTSWANA
• ZAMBIA
• NAMIBIA

Most of southern Africa has good roads which are well maintained and maps are easy to follow. These safaris are un-guided, meaning that you set off in a rented vehicle and follow a detailed Ultimate Safaris itinerary! This type of safari is for the more adventurous guest who prefers a more flexible and independent itinerary. Ultimate Safaris can create the perfect itinerary for you, whether you prefer to drive established routes and take your time, or to strike out into the unknown in a 4x4 vehicle. We can assist you with every aspect of your self drive safari by arranging your vehicle hire, your accommodation bookings, activities, airport transfers and any other requirements you may have.

In order to ensure that you get the most out of your self drive safari we provide a unique personal service to all our self drive clients. One of our trained consultants will meet you on arrival in Windhoek and provide a comprehensive and in-depth safari briefing. Our consultants will answer any questions you might have and they will provide local knowledge on the best places to stop en route, as well as giving snippets of local information on things to see which are often not found in guide books. If you decide you want restaurant reservations or activities booked, they will always be more than happy to oblige.

A detailed information package is also provided which includes: - a map marked with your route and written directions to all the places visited, all accommodation and pre booked activity vouchers as well as a comprehensive day by day itinerary.

Perhaps the most important part of this personal meet and greet is a detailed briefing on driving conditions in southern Africa from experts who drive these routes on a regular basis. Local dangers such as donkey cart drivers, gravel road cambers, and flash floods are all dealt with so that you can depart confident in the knowledge that you know how to deal with these 'challenges', as well as those caused by 'continental European' drivers who instinctively pull to the right.

The most important part of a self drive safari is choosing the correct itinerary beforehand, one that suits your interests and the time frame you have available. Our consultants are masters at creating personalised itineraries that allow you to make the most of your time in Namibia. Given the expanse of southern Africa and the many diverse areas that you can visit, the inside knowledge that we provide will give you a head start for a safe, stress free and thoroughly enjoyable safari. We also offer advice on important considerations such as travelling distances (we wouldn't want your safari to become an endurance test), the best vehicle for the road conditions, National Park entry fees and permits, recommended accommodation, and where you can and cannot go.

Destinations for which a safari of this nature is suited:

• NAMIBIA
• BOTSWANA (in combination with an ‘Unguided fly-in safari’)

While our private guides may be recognised as specialists in their own right, we do also organise independent specialist and private guides for groups with very specific requirements. These interests may range from ornithology to astronomy, palaeontology, photography, botany and even anthropology. In such cases we contract independent guides - often university academics and recognised authorities - with whom we have worked before and who understand our company philosophies.

We also specially craft safaris that focus primarily on bird watching. Specialist birding guides or bird-aware guides always guide these tours.

Namibia regularly hosts up to 660 bird species due to its wide variety of habitats. Namibia has 14 near endemic species of birds and the itineraries are designed to focus on the primary birding areas with emphasis on these endemic species (Botswana and Zambia birding safaris are also arranged).

An example of the type of birding itinerary offered is listed below -
We start in Windhoek where we will explore the sparsely wooded hills and valleys near the city centre here we should find – Short-toed Rock Thrush, White-tailed shrike. Avis Dam should yield Bradfield's and Palm Swifts, Rock Martin as well as wetland birds such as Cape Shoveller and Red-billed Teal. In the surrounding grasslands a variety of seedeaters such as Black-chested Prinia and Yellow-bellied Eremomela are fairly common.
On the way down to the Namib Desert we should be able to see the following raptors – Tawny Eagle, Pale Chanting Goshawk as well as other roadside birds such as Pale-winged Starling and Red crested Korhaan.

There are not so many birds in the Sossusvlei area but the stunning scenery should make up for this. Some of the birds we should be able to see are Dune Lark, Pied Crow, Tractrac Chat, Rufous vented Tit Babler and of course Ruppell's Korhaan

The next day we head off to the coast at Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, we should be able to find the Sociable Weaver en route and Gray's Lark on the gravel plains. At the lagoon large concentrations of birds occur – we should see thousands of Greater and Lesser Flamingoes; Cape, Bank, Crowned and Whitebreasted Cormorants as well as African Black Oystercatchers, Avocets and the Damara Tern.

We head off to Omaruru one of Namibia's top birding spots but en route it is a good idea to go via the inselbergs of Spitzkoppe to try and find Herero Chats. Other birds that we might find en route are Long-billed Lark, Karoo Chat, Chat Flycatcher and Lanner Falcon. In the surrounds of Omaruru in the river beds one would hopefully find Ruppell's Parrot, Burnt –necked Eremomela amongst others, the granitic mountain sides should reveal Hartlaub's Francolin and Damara Rockrunner and Monteiro's Hornbill.

The next highlight is the Etosha National Park with over 380 bird species. Raptors that we should see are Secretary Bird and Tawny Eagles. Double Banded Coursers, Northern Black Korhaan and Blacksmith Plovers are fairly common. Halali with its Mopane Forest is a must – here we should pick up Violet Woodhoopoe, Bare-cheeked Babler, Carps Tit as well as Scops and Pearl Spotted Owls. Near Namutoni we hope to find Blue Cranes, Temmincks Courser, Clapper Lark as well as Crimson Breasted Shrikes Boubous.

The above is a fairly standard birding safari – additional add-on's could include the following riverine environments :-

Okavango River to find the ‘Okavango Specials' such as Coppery-tailed Coucal and Slaty Egret amongst others, and Shakawe for Pel's Fishing Owl. Kwando River for Pygmy Kingfisher, White-fronted Bee-Eater and Wood Owl Zambezi River for the Trumpeter Hornbill, Crested Barbet, Greyheaded Bush Shrike As well as the Waterberg Plateau Park where you can find a breeding colony of Cape Vulture as well as a breeding site for Booted Eagle.

Our experience and resources enable us to offer complete solutions for film crews wanting to work in Namibia. Whether this involves the provision of vehicles, staff, and equipment to set up fully serviced film base camps in the most remote areas, the scouting for that ultimate location, or just the facilitation of the necessary permits etc, we are very well placed to assist. We have worked with a wide variety of crews with dramatically differing requirements, ranging from vehicle and guide services for small crews of three or four, to large scale back up with specially modified trucks, aircraft, and helicopters for an IMAX style production.

Our 'filming CV' includes involvement with wildlife and cultural documentary productions over the last ten years, support for celebrities such as Ray Mears, Ian Wright, Austin Stevens, and Bear Grylls being filmed 'in the bush', as well as the provision of guide and support services for VIP visitors such as Executive Producers and sponsors of feature films. Ultimate Safaris and its predecessor SandyAcre Safaris is a registered service provider for the BBC and some of its significant sub-contracted documentary makers, and we believe our record here speaks largely for itself.

Our main area of expertise remains the provision of fully serviced and equipped mobile 'base' camps which allow production staff to focus entirely on their film work without having to worry about comfort, safety, meals or drinks. We can also provide, or locate, specialist film making equipment and we always have heavy generic gear like generators, batteries, and battery chargers available so that it is not necessary for crews to bring these along with them. In addition, we can arrange for medical back-up on site, including the presence of a doctor if required. One of the main roles we play is in dealing with all the administrative and logistical issues which can otherwise be so time consuming when working several hundred kilometres from the nearest main supply base.

The main season for film making in Namibia seems to be generally between November and May when the country is warm, mainly green, and there are comparatively few tourists about. This dovetails very neatly with our other core business which is busiest between June and November, so there are rarely any problems over our ability to make the necessary resources available to film crews. Apart from anything else, our staff are always keen to be involved and to learn more about film making skills. As a result, we are always prepared to 'make a plan' to ensure that everything works as required.