The dunes are the easy booking. The animals are the hard one.
Which Dubai desert camp feeds you properly. What a Yala jeep really costs once the park fee is added. Whether the Serengeti is worth the flight in the month you can actually travel. Reviews of every safari you can book.
Red dunes, a leopard block, the migration plain, the Sahara camp.
Four drives that sit at the top of four completely different trips. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first eveningDesert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma CampDune bashing, a quad, a camel and a fire-lit camp outside Dubai. The most-booked safari on the planet, and it deserves it.
02The leopard blockYala National Park: Half, 7-Hour, or Full-Day Safari & MealsYala at the gate before dawn, when the cats are still on the warm track. Half day, seven hours or the full day out.
03The Sahara runMerzouga 3-Day Desert Safari with FoodThree days out of Marrakech over the Atlas, a night on a dune at Merzouga, camels at both ends of it.
04The long game drive3 – Days Maasai Mara Group Safari by 4WDAn open Land Cruiser, a spotter on the roof hatch and a plain that does not end. The trip everything else is measured against.
Six countries that run a safari every single day.
Two hours from a Gulf hotel lobby to a red dune. A leopard block in the south of Sri Lanka. Big Five country three hours out of Johannesburg. A Rajasthani dune camp, a Turkish riverbed, a Tanzanian plain. Six places, and the best drive in each.
One desert, four completely different afternoons.
Every Gulf hotel desk sells "the desert safari" as though there were one. There are four, they cost different money, and only one of them involves being thrown around a dune.
The one everybody booksDesert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 68,962 reviews
Dune bashingA deflated 4x4 down the red slip faces, then the camp.
Camel and campSlower, flatter, and the one that suits small children.
Your own quadYou drive. Helmet, goggles, a marked loop in the sand.
Vintage Land RoverOpen-sided, unhurried, usually with a falcon at the stop.
All 230 Dubai drives →
Sand is the busiest safari on earth, and the cheapest.
From Merzouga to Jaisalmer to the Empty Quarter, the desert drive is the one that runs every evening of the year, takes an afternoon and still ends with dinner. Here is what is booked hardest.
The drives that fill up before anything else does.
Every safari we have reviewed →The drives that travellers keep coming back for, from the Dubai dune afternoon to a full day at a park gate.
1
Desert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp
Ride from Dubai, Sharjah, or Ajman into the red dunes with an English-speaking driver. Expect 30 to 45 minutes of dune bashing, sandboarding, a short camel ride, and optional quad biking. The seven-hour version adds Al Khayma Camp, falcons, henna, camel feeding, BBQ dinner, and evening shows. Guides such as Shan, Adeel Awan, Farman, and Azam are noted for photos and friendly help.
From · $32
Read our review →
2
Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride, and Buffet Dinner
from $46
3
Red Dune Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride, BBQ Dinner
from $29
4
Premium Safari, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp 3-Buffets
from $79
5
Desert Safari with BBQ Dinner & Quad Biking Options
from $30
6
Half-Day Desert Safari, Camel Ride, ATV & Dune Buggy
from $30
7
Dubai Desert Safari – Camel Ride, Sandboarding & 30 Min Quad
from $36
8
Dubai Premium Red Dunes Safari, Camels & 5* BBQ at Al Khayma camp
from $75
A game drive is two hours of nothing and then a lion.
Nobody guarantees you a leopard, and anyone who does is selling something. What a good operator sells is a competent spotter, a vehicle that can leave the main track, and an early enough start to be there when the animals still are.
- 1Teide National Park Sunset & Stargazing with Dinner (Star Safari)from $95
- 2Sunrise Desert Jeep Safari with Wildlife Experiencefrom $51
- 3Pilanesberg Nature Reserve Game Safarifrom $186
What a safari actually costs, from a $15 dune run up.
Every drive on the site, grouped by what it costs a head. The gap between the bottom band and the top one is a Gulf afternoon against a week in the bush.
Gulf dune afternoons, Sri Lankan park jeeps, quad loops and the short camel runs out of a resort strip.
Full-day game drives, premium desert camps with a proper dinner, and the private 4x4 with a guide who knows the animals.
Multi-day bush trips, the Sahara overnights, chartered vehicles and the once-in-a-life crater days.
Three drives that exist nowhere else on the map.
Deserts and zoos are everywhere. A sea that sits inland behind a dune wall, a block of jungle with the densest leopard population on earth, and a plain two million animals walk across are not.
The Inland Sea
Khor Al Adaid is seawater that has pushed inland until the dunes close around it, and the only way in is over the sand. Convoys leave Doha in the afternoon, drop tyre pressure at the edge of the dune belt and drive down to the shore, where the water is warm and shallow and the Saudi border sits on the far bank. It is a protected reserve, so the vehicles stay on the agreed routes.
- 1Safari, ATV, Camels, Sandboarding and Inland Sea Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 5,291 reviews
- 2Qatar Gold Dune Safari, Dune Bashing,Camel Ride,Sand Boarding,Inland Sea Desert★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,807 reviews
- 3Safari, Camel Ride, Sandboarding and Inland Sea Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,254 reviews
The Yala Blocks
Yala is divided into blocks, and Block 1 carries a leopard density that nowhere else can match. That is also why it is full: jeeps queue at the Palatupana gate before it opens and the sightings draw a crowd. Block 1 shuts for several weeks each year when the water runs low. Udawalawe, an hour west, trades the cats for elephants and far fewer vehicles.
- 1Yala National Park Safari Tours: Morning/Evening/Full Day★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 818 reviews
- 2Udawalawe National Park: Elephant Safari with Expert Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 641 reviews
- 3Full day Safari – Yala National Park – 04.30 am to 06.00 pm with – Janaka safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 603 reviews
The Migration Plain
Close to two million wildebeest and zebra move in a loop between the Serengeti and the Masai Mara, and the loop does not care about your calendar. Calving is on the southern short-grass plains around February. The river crossings that everyone has seen photographed run in the northern corridor from roughly June to October. Book the month, then book the camp.
- 1Balloon Safari & Bush Breakfast in Serengeti – Miracle Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,646 reviews
- 24 Days Group Camping Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,101 reviews
- 3Day Selous Game Reserve Safari with Flights★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,025 reviews
Four safaris where the month matters more than the operator.
Most of this catalogue can be booked from a hotel lobby the same afternoon. These four cannot: they run on animal movements, water levels and a season that was set long before your flight was.
- 01Balloon Safari & Bush Breakfast in Serengeti – Miracle ExperienceThe herds move on a loop. Calving is on the southern plains around February; the northern river crossings run roughly June to October. Pick the month before the camp.
- 02Yala National Park Safari Tours: Morning/Evening/Full DayBlock 1, the leopard block, closes for several weeks each year when the water drops. Out of that window you are driving a different park.
- 03Kruger National Park Full Day Private safariJune to September is the dry season: thin bush, hard ground and animals pinned to the water. The green summer is beautiful and far harder to see through.
- 04Overnight Safari, Dinner, Stargazing & Al Khayma CampDesert camps run on a fixed number of beds, and the Gulf and Saharan cool season, November to March, sells them out weeks ahead.
Park fees, jabs and which vehicle you actually ride in.
Three things catch people out. Park entry is often collected at the gate and is not always inside the price you paid. Bush routes want anti-malarials and, on some, a yellow-fever certificate on arrival. And "safari vehicle" covers a closed air-conditioned 4x4, an open-sided game viewer with no doors, and a thirty-seat dune convoy that will throw you around. Check which one before you pay, not at the pickup.
By country — desert, bush and park
Two hours, an afternoon, a night out, or a week in the bush.
Sunrise run
A night outThe safari reviews that went up most recently.
Everything we have added lately →
Afternoon Dune Drive Safari with SunSet Photo & Sand Boarding
Read our review →
Morning Desert Safari with Buggy Ride & Sandboarding – Shared Car
Read our review →
Dubai Desert Safari with Dune Bashing, Camel Rides & BBQ
Read our review →
Desert Safari, Open Desert Quad Bike Experience with BBQ Dinner
Read our review →
Morning Dubai desert safari – camel rides, quad bikes, dune buggies,dune bashing
Read our review →
Premium Desert Safari Dubai: Desert Camping & Dune Bashing
Read our review →
Adventure Quad Bike Safari, Camel Ride & Sandboarding
Read our review →
Private Adventure Red Dune Desert Safari With BBQ Dinner & Shows
Read our review →
Evening Desert Safari with Belly Dance and BBQ Dinner and Camel Ride
Read our review →
Morning Desert Safari, 25 Minutes ATV with 20 minutes Camel Ride
Read our review →
Morning Desert Safari with Dune Bashing and Sand Boarding
Read our review →
Dubai Evening Desert Safari with BBQ & Live Entertainment
Read our review →