The Travel Butlers ‘Rough Guide’ To Tipping Your Safari Guide
Sunday, September 27th, 2009Tipping in a private safari lodge is one of those grey areas that always catches people out, and can send even the calmest person into a complete panic.
Your time on safari will probably be the most expensive part of your trip. Once there, however, you will forget all about the cost, as you luxuriate in your wonderful accommodation, eat more food than you ever thought possible, forget all about the problems at work as you relax by the pool in the African sunshine inbetween game drives, and experience wildlife encounters that you could never have imagined seeing, or that you only thought you would ever see on The Discovery Programme.
Your last night comes, and you reluctantly return from your last evening game drive to a (yet again) perfectly turned down bed … and then you spot the envelopes, thoughtfully left there by the turn-down staff, with ‘that’ word emblazoned across the front … ‘GRATUITIES’ …. Help !!
You don’t want to ask your fellow guests what they are leaving, because it is just ‘not the done thing’ and tipping is a personal matter; you feel too embarrassed to walk into Reception and ask someone there … so what to do ??
Some lodges will put a ‘guideline’ in their brochure, which we honestly think are sometimes a bit OTT in their expectations, so our general ‘rule of thumb’ is as follows :
Your Ranger - by the end of your stay at the safari lodge, he or she will probably be your new ‘best friend’. And of course you want to thank them profusely for having shown you the best ever lion / leopard / elephant / rhino sightings in the entire history of mankind.
However, there is no need to go overboard and give them the equivalent of a month’s salary (even if you CAN afford it) as this could set a level of expectation that future guests just could not match.
What we normally recommend is think about it in terms of what would your ranger really appreciate, and that could be something like the money to cover a really good meal out for 2, with a nice bottle of wine, so that he / she can treat themselves (and their boy / girlfriend !) on their valuable time off.
Your Tracker – he will have proved himself to be invaluable, as he will no doubt have spotted things that the normal human could never hope to see – a chameleon on the lowest branch of a tree on the way back to the lodge at night, or a leopard hiding behind a rock – again, tipping too much would not be appropriate.
We would therefore recommend tipping something equivalent to giving him a good night out in a local bar, where he can buy himself and friends a few round of drinks !
Cleaning Staff - if they have kept your room spotless, then a tip is certainly a nice gesture – but maybe just the equivalent of a couple of drinks.
We do hope this helps – but please note this is just a personal opinion, and we are not for one minute promoting the partaking of alcohol beverages … but we have found, having been on a lot of safaris, that this rule of thumb works pretty well and it is a relatively easy way of estimating a tip amount that should not offend anyone.

A growing number of safari lodges now offer children programmes for their younger guests. These obviously vary from lodge to lodge, but in general the majority of the programmes will include ‘bush bumbles’ - a shortened version of the adults game drive, plus the vehicle will not get as close to the larger animals of the African bush (such as elephants, lions, buffalo and rhino); short bush walks in search of insects and animal spoor (what child wouldn’t just LOVE the opportunity to be able to pick up some zebra dung !!), and story-telling about
If you really do want to share the safari experience with your little ones, you can ask the lodge if you can hire a Land Rover for a day, and the ranger will only take you and your family out on your own game drives.
Of course (whisper it quietly)…not everyone likes football! Given the huge number of teams, fans, and media that will invade South Africa next June/July, careful planning is required to make sure that anyone thinking of visiting the country in 2010 gets the most out of their trip regardless of whether they are travelling to follow the World Cup or not.
The recent British & Irish Lions Rugby tour of South Africa saw a 40% increase in visitors from the home nations to South Africa. Given the immense popularity of football and the number of nations taking part in the World Cup, fans that are planning on going out to follow their team are strongly advised to plan their trip and book accommodation as early as possible to avoid disappointment, especially as flights are now available.
The World Cup will run from 11 June to 11 July 2010, and it is expected that the whole region will be extremely busy with teams, fans, and the media from 1 June until 15 July.
The results were published in the magazine’s June edition, and
Marketing director, Jacques Smit attributes this international recognition to several factors: “People form the heart of our business. The majority of our team hail from nearby villages and they have an inherent connection with the reserve. They bring a special brand of African hospitality to our lodges that make guests feel instantly at home”. 
Fourthly, allow enough time from leaving the gate to reaching the lodge. You obviously will need to stick to the speed limit (normally around 40 km/h), but you must also allow extra time just in case you meet some wildlife on the way – for example, you may have to wait 10 minutes while a herd of zebra cross the road in front of you ! Under NO circumstances should you drive off-road to get past any wildlife – instead, if you do encounter anything, slow down and maintain a good distance and wait until they have moved off in their own time.

