4 Day Luxury Photographic Safari
Price
Package Features
- 4 Days / 3 Nights
- Sabi Sand Private Nature Reserve
- Starts: KMIA, Hoedspruit or Skukuza airport
- Ends: KMIA, Hoedspruit or Skukuza airport
Overview
Spend 4 days touring one of Africa’s most exclusive wildlife destinations, in the company of an expert photographer, on this captivating excursion. Throughout the tour, which takes place in Sabi Sands Game Reserve, you’ll learn how to capture movement, light and subjects that make a great wildlife photograph, all while being treated to a world-class luxury experience. This tour is perfect for both hobby and professional photographers.
Tour Features
- 3 full days and 1 half day in the Sabi Sand Private Nature Reserve
- Luxury 4 Star accommodation
- Coffee, tea and rusks before the morning drives, plus a bush coffee break during each drive
- Meals prepared by the in-house chef
- A professional photographic guide
- 1 single traveller is allowed on tour
- At least 2 guests are required for the tour to depart
- This is a shared tour. Unless you’ve made a private booking, you will be joined on tour by other travellers
Activities and Transport
Activities: Morning and afternoon game drives (each morning includes a coffee stop and each afternoon drive includes a sundowner stop), an introductory session with your photographic guide, optional photographic editing and tips sessions, and an optional Big 5 bushwalk.
Optional Activities
- Guided bush walk with an armed guide and tracker
- Photographic workshop covering editing skills and new techniques
Transport: Transfers to and from Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport in Mbombela, Eastgate Airport in Hoedspruit or Skukuza Airport in Kruger National Park are included. Any other pick-up or drop-off points need to be arranged before the tour departs. All game drives take place in open-air safari vehicles.
Rates
Single Supplement: R 108 250.00
Per Person Sharing: R 98 400.00
Accommodation and Meals
During this tour you’ll be spending 3 nights in one of Sabi Sand’s acclaimed 4-star lodges. Rooms are en-suite with air conditioning and the lodge has every facility you’d need to feel at home.
Meals are served in the lodge restaurant or withing a boma, as close to the bush as possible, to give you a true taste of Africa. From arrival to departure, our team looks after you personally.
Route
- Day 1 – Pick-up and arrival in the Sabi Sand Private Nature Reserve
- Day 2 – Morning and afternoon game drives with optional photographic editing session
- Day 3 – Game drives, optional Big 5 bushwalk and optional photographic editing session
- Day 4 – Final morning game drive and departure drop-offs
Day By Day
Day 1 – Arrival at Sabi Sands Game Reserve
Guests are collected at the prearranged pick-up points at the agreed times and driven to the lodge, arriving just as lunch is being served.
Once you’ve eaten, relaxed a while, and dropped your bags in your suite, you can wander around the lodge, getting used to what will be your home for the next few days.
Before the first drive, which will take place later in the afternoon, everyone will gather for an easy-going photography session.
Here you’ll meet your guide, an experienced wildlife photographer, and the rest of the group.
Your guide will find out how comfortable each person is behind the camera and what gear they’ve brought, then they will give each guest custom advice. You can expect practical pointers on photographing animals in the wild, freezing motion, framing a scene with impact and using natural light to your advantage.
As the afternoon cools off, you’ll climb aboard an open safari vehicle and head into Big 5 country for the first time.
Elephants, lions, leopards, buffalo and rhinos all call Sabi Sands home, and the low, golden afternoon light, completely unhindered by pollution, gives you the opportunity to put your skills, and the advice you’ve just received, to work.
Back at the lodge after the game drive, a gourmet dinner awaits. Afterwards, you can retire to your suite for a good night’s sleep before the adventure continues early the next morning.
Day 2 – Sabi Sands Game Reserve
Your second day in Sabi Sands begins with a delicious cup of coffee or tea, and a few rusks, about 45 minutes before the morning drive, giving you enough time to wake up properly and get your camera ready.
You’ll then head out in an open safari vehicle while the bush is cool and the day is just starting to brighten. Midday way through, the group will stop for tea or coffee.
After a good deal of time in the bush, you’ll arrive back at the lodge where a delicious breakfast is waiting.
If you like, later in the morning you can sort through your photos and your guide can give you an editing tips session to help you refine your technique. Otherwise, the late morning is yours to enjoy before lunch.
In the afternoon, you’ll set out on another game drive, this one running into the evening, with a stop for a sundowner as you watch the African sun sinking below the horizon.
When you return to the lodge, dinner is served, and you can look back over the day’s sightings and photographs.
Day 3 – Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve
The day starts early and again there’s coffee and rusks waiting for you before the morning drive. Once you are ready, you’ll set off into the reserve in an open safari vehicle, in search for some of the park’s wild inhabitants and exquisite landscapes.
After the drive, you can join an optional morning walk through Big 5 territory. Experiencing the bush on foot will give you a completely different view of the reserve than the one you’ve already had from the comfort of the vehicle.
Back at the lodge, breakfast is waiting, and your guide will again be available to give you an optional editing and tips session if you’d like to keep refining your photographs.
Lunch follows, and for the rest of the afternoon you can relax.
Later in the day, you’ll head out for another game drive and sundowner, this time in a new spot. Dinner is then served back at the lodge.
Day 4 – Departure
On your final morning, coffee and rusks are again served about 45 minutes before your last game drive.
This last drive will focus on finding some of the animals you’ve not seen yet, to give you one more chance to add to your collection of photographs.
You’ll then return to the lodge for breakfast and have time to get ready to leave the lodge.
The tour ends with a transfer to the airport.
Inclusions/Exclusions
Inclusions
- A licenced and professional guide and photographer
- Your guide is with you on the whole tour and available at all times to make sure every aspect of your tour runs smoothly, to ensure a memorable stay
- Licenced and professional guides on all activities
- Transfers to and from airports (including Hoedspruit Eastgate, KMIA, and Skukuza Airport) or other pre-arranged points (such as hotels and guesthouses around these airports or in Nelspruit, Hazyview and Hoedspruit)
- All entry and conservation fees
- 3 nights’ accommodation in Sabi Sand Private Nature Reserve
- All meals
- All activities at the lodge including morning drives, afternoon drives and walks as described in the itinerary.
- Morning Big 5 walks are included and must be arranged with your tour host
- Photographic and editing tips sessions by your tour host
Exclusions
- Bar beverages
- Any items of personal nature or purchases at shops at the lodges or enroute
- Gratuities to guides and or waiters
Getting There
Pick-ups begin from 06h00, with the exact time and meeting point for your tour depending on the day’s route plan. Both will be shared with you well ahead of departure.
The tour rate covers all departures from the listed destinations. If a time needs to change, we’ll confirm the new details with you well in advance.
We don’t arrange accommodation or transport for the period before the tour departs. These tours run as shared departures with other guests, unless the tour has been booked as a private group.
Offered By
Wildlife In Focus Safaris is a family run tour company with 26 years of experience guiding guests through the Kruger National Park and the private reserves alongside it. Based in Mpumalanga, the company focuses on photographic and birding safaris, and keeps its groups small so that every guest gets personal attention.
This tour is run together with Kurt Safari, a Kruger safari operator based in Hazyview. Kurt Safari is in its 17th year of operation, is SATSA accredited and has earned a solid standing on TripAdvisor. Its guides are local, and their understanding of the bush comes from many years spent working in it.
Been on this safari? Share your experience and help other travellers plan their trip.
Write a review4 Day Luxury Photographic Safari
What is included in the 4-day luxury photographic safari?
The tour covers morning and afternoon game drives in an open vehicle, a sundowner stop, a spotlit night drive, an introductory photography briefing and a stay in a luxury lodge suite. Meals are prepared by the lodge’s in-house chef, from lunch on arrival to a farewell breakfast on the final morning. Optional extras include a photographic workshop and a guided bush walk.
Do I need to be an experienced photographer to join?
No. Your photographic guide starts with a relaxed briefing, where they look at each guest’s experience level and camera equipment before offering advice suited to you. You’ll pick up practical wildlife photography techniques, including capturing movement, composing strong images and working with natural light, and your guide stays on hand throughout the trip for further tips.
Which animals can I photograph on a Sabi Sand safari?
Game drives take you into Big Five territory, where elephants, lions, leopards, buffalo and rhinos may all cross your path. Wildlife sightings can never be guaranteed, but the early morning and late afternoon drives take place in the soft golden light that suits wildlife photography best.
Is the bush walk included in the tour price?
The guided bush walk is an optional activity on Day 3. It is led by an armed guide and tracker, and focuses on the smaller details of the bush, such as animal tracks, medicinal plants and birdlife. It’s also a good opportunity to use a macro lens on smaller subjects.
How do pick-ups and airport transfers work?
Guests are collected from prearranged pick-up points at prearranged times, which are confirmed well before the tour begins. On the final morning, after a farewell breakfast, guests are transferred to the airport. Tours are shared departures unless a private group booking has been made, and accommodation and transport before the start of the tour are not arranged by us.
