Luxury Family Safaris: The Best of Kenya without the sacrifice.
Many families with the means to afford a luxury vacation think that a luxury safari and kids are incompatible. They picture either a compromise on comfort for the kids' sake or a trip too grown-up for young travellers to enjoy. Kenya, done at the top of the market, is a rebuttal to both fears.
The foundation of a luxury family safari is a private trip. A private vehicle and guide, all for the family, means the whole thing revolves around the kids, not a set schedule. Drives are as long as young attention spans will allow, stops occur when a child needs them, and the guide explains everything at the children's level. The private format is not a luxury here, it's the point: sharing a car with strangers who want silence and long waits is the quickest way to a miserable family safari.
There is a certain set of camps and lodges that do families well at the high end, and it's half the job to choose them. The best family properties will have connecting tents or family suites, which will allow the parents and children to stay together comfortably. They have pools, and that makes the hot midday hours fun for kids. Many also offer activities for younger guests, junior ranger programmes, guided bush walks, visits to a Maasai community and keep children occupied between drives. If the family books a luxury family safari with an operator who is familiar with these properties, the family will end up in places that are built for them, not tolerated.
With kids, space and privacy are more important, and the luxury level provides both. A small camp or a private house in a conservancy provides a family with room to spread out, staff who adore children, and the freedom to eat when the family wants to, not when the dinner hour is. Some conservancies provide private family villas, complete with their own guide, vehicle and staff, which is almost the perfect combination for a family who want the wild and the flexibility of a private home all in one.
The parks are ideal for families, and a luxury trip allows the family to enjoy them in comfort. Amboseli has massive elephant herds facing Mount Kilimanjaro and elephants are the most attention-grabbing of all animals. The Masai Mara is home to big cats and open plains. A conservancy stay includes night drives and walking safaris, which are exciting for older children. The children will tell the story of a hot air balloon over the Mara for years to come, if the minimum age requirements are met.
A luxury family safari is all about pacing. It's easy to fill the trip with parks. The more sensible approach is to visit fewer sites, spend more time at each, and minimise driving time, with short internal flights between camps to avoid children being confined to cars for hours. A luxury holiday can include a couple of well selected camps and the family can fly between them, meaning that there are not too many days of travel and the family are kept in good spirits. This is what a good operator does without being told.
The parents' silent concerns of safety and health are manageable and can be planned for early. A good safari is one where children are never on foot amongst the animals and game viewing takes place from a vehicle and with a knowledgeable guide. Escorts are brought in at night at high-end camps and grounds are guarded by staff. Health-wise, a trip to a travel clinic well before leaving will arrange the correct vaccinations and malaria precautions for children, and a small kit will take care of the rest. None of this is dramatic, and if it is done early, it is done long before the trip.
The experience is different with age and it is fair to plan accordingly. Some luxury camps have a minimum age requirement, and very young children may not have a lot of recollection, but private homes and family-oriented camps are often open to all ages. Children are fully involved from around 6 upwards, counting sightings and beginning their own Big Five count. Often teens will surprise their parents by getting really absorbed when the phones go out of range and the plains take over. A good operator matches the camps to the age of the children so that the family ends up somewhere that welcomes them.
A beach extension is the perfect way to make a luxury family safari a full holiday and Kenya makes it easy. After the early starts and excitement of the game drives, a few nights on the coast at Diani or Watamu give children the reward of warm, calm water and give parents time to rest. Family resorts are available along the Indian Ocean with pools, soft reefs for swimming and room for kids to run, and a short internal flight to the sand from the parks, no long road trip. Wildlife, then beach is a shape that is particularly suited to families, as it starts with the challenging part and finishes with pure relaxation.
A family safari is smooth when the whole trip is handled by one operator. The logistics of arranging private guides, the right family camps, short flights between them and the beach resort at the end is a lot of moving parts, and if one team owns the chain, parents just arrive and are taken care of. When travelling with kids, a missed connection or a poorly timed transfer can ruin an entire day, so that one point of contact is invaluable and allows the family to enjoy the safari and not the transfer.
The luxury family safari is one of the great shared holidays, just because it provides each member of the family with what they want. Parents receive comfort, privacy and a hassle-free trip. Kids experience elephants, big cats, pools and adventures that they will talk about forever. With a private guide, the right family camps, short flights and a slow pace, a high-end Kenya safari demands nothing of the family. It's the rare luxury vacation that's as enjoyable for a 10-year-old as it is for the adults paying for it.