While I love travelling, I’ve always thought that going on a safari in Africa would be out of my budget. Not only is it far away, meaning the price to get there would be a lot, but I also just thought it’d be just as expensive once I got there. But imagine my surprise when I learned it’s a lot cheaper than you think.

With my boyfriend being from South Africa, he often tells me stories about how wild monkeys would appear in his family’s garden to cause havoc, while zebras are ‘just as common’ as horses are for us. The more I heard, the more I longed to go there to experience it all for myself.

While all of my previous holidays have only taken place in Europe, including cruises, city breaks, and the odd all inclusive to Greece, I was excited to go on a new type of holiday.

So in February 2026, we flew to the other side of the world for three weeks, spending one of those week in Kruger National Park, which is one of Africa’s largest game reserves.

We spent our days driving to see if we could spot the Big Five – lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants and buffalos, as well as other animals, before heading back to where we were staying to chill by the pool and soak up the sun in the 35 degree February heat. And the best part? It was a lot cheaper than I would have guessed.

So how much does it actually cost to go on a safari in Africa?

Well, the main cost will be for your flights. We paid around £800 each for direct return flights with Virgin Atlantic. You might manage to get them cheaper if you don’t mind stops along the way, but I was still pleasantly surprised by this, especially since we accidentally booked it to take place over half term. Of course, this price will also depend on where you choose to go, as there are lots of countries offering safaris.

Then, as you arrive, you will notice that things are a lot cheaper in the UK. As we travelled around the country before heading into the iconic Kruger Park for the safari, an average night in a B&B set us back around £50-£80 for two people in total.

While things are more expensive inside the park, we still paid around £250 for four nights for the two of us, making the cost per person around £125. And this were no basic rooms either.

We stayed in a couple different safari camps, one was a luxurious tent with air conditioning, where breakfast and dinner was included in the price, as well as an incredible pool overlooking the park.

We then moved to Berg en Dal rest camp, where we had our own lodge, complete with a kitchen, bathroom, and an outdoor barbeque, or braii as they call it there.

If you don’t want to cook, there is an on-site restaurant, where meals cost around £5-15 per person. As for grocery shopping, it often ends up cheaper than what you’re used to.

We split food costs with the other people we were travelling with, but our share came to around £40 for a week – including lots of snacks and biltong. And these shops mainly consisted of meats, as braii (barbeques) are a big part of South African cuisines.

There will also be another fee for being in the park, which goes directly to the conservation work done. As I was a foreigner, this came to another £200, which I was more than happy to pay if it means it goes to the animals.

As for the safaris in question, most people will drive their own cars throughout the parks. We rented a car for two weeks, which came to around £100, with an additional £80 for insurance. Petrol is also a lot cheaper than the UK, costing around £1 per litre.

We did also go on one guided safari trip, which I definitely recommend doing, and I know lots of people in the parks opted only to do these types of safaris, which cost around £20-30 per person, depending on where you book it.

So, in total, for the week or so we spent on the safari part of our trip, we spent around £1,500 per person, just for the week of safari, if you also count in our plane tickets to get to South Africa.

And personally, I’d much rather go back for another safari before booking another all inclusive holiday to the Canary Islands, which also can get up to the same price when going during school holidays, like we ended up doing.