What’s a Typical Day on an East Africa Safari Like?

If you’ve never been on safari before, you might be wondering how your day will be structured. Will you be in the car all day, searching for animals? What time do you get up? Where do you eat? How in the hell does a safari work? In this post, I’ll go through what a typical day on an East African safari looks like. I’ve been on safari in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and each day is basically structured the same, no matter the country. Let’s begin!

Morning Wake Up on Safari

A typical morning on safari starts with you waking up around 5:30-5:45am to get ready for the day. Depending on your lodge, you may get a wake-up call, or you might just be on your own — so make sure to set an alarm. We never received actual ‘wake up’ calls at any of our lodges, but we had no issues getting ready in time.

Why do you have to get up so early? A few reasons — first, the early morning hours are when animals are most active, since it’s cooler. And because it’s cooler, it’s also more pleasant for you, the tourist, to be out and about, looking for animals.

Dress in layers! We would typically wear a t-shirt or tank top, and layer a sweatshirt or fleece over that. We’d bring a jacket along, too.

You will typically meet your driver/guide in your lodge lobby around 6:30am to go out for your game drive. Because this is so early, most lodges aren’t setup for breakfast at this time of day. That means the lodge will typically provide a boxed breakfast for you to eat sometime during your game drive. Some lodges have tea, coffee and water set out for the early risers.

If you need your morning coffee, make sure to pack an insulated cup / thermos in your suitcase so you can take coffee to-go!

At some lodges, power is cut during the overnight hours. Typically, it’s restored between 5-6am, but there’s a chance, with your early wake up time, that you might not have power in the morning. (Sometimes the lodges say they’ll turn the power back on at, say, 6am, and they don’t do it). It helps to lay out clothing the night before.

Morning Game Drive

You’ll leave your lodge just before sunrise — remember, you’re near the equator so sunrise/sunset times are very consistent throughout the year. Have your camera ready because if the skies are clear, you can get that iconic African sunrise photo during this time!

Safari vehicles will be equipped with blankets, as it can be very cold this time of day.

Your driver will take you around the park on the various roads and dirt tracks. The drivers all communicate with each other, so he might already have an idea of where some animals before you even get into the vehicle. Additionally, he will use a radio where the guides all share information.

Keep your camera and/or binoculars at the ready because you’re definitely going to see some interesting wildlife! In my experience, the morning game drives were much more eventful than the afternoon game drives.

Mid-Morning Breakfast Break

Depending on your safari tour operator, you will either get a boxed breakfast from your lodge or you will have a crew who cooks your breakfast in the bush. Most people on safari are getting the boxed breakfasts; the on-the-go cooked-to-order bougie bush breakfasts are more for the ultra-luxury $$$$ safaris — during my 13-day safari, I only saw two groups doing this! So chances are, unless you’re shelling out big bucks (I’m talking a dollar amount of five-figure per person safari), you’re probably not getting this.

Your driver will find a safe place for you to eat — it’s typically at a picnic site within the park or he’ll find some random spot he deems safe — it depends on the park.

Oh — and the boxed meals are absolutely terrible. This was a consistent theme throughout our safari, from many different lodges. So don’t expect much.

Back on the Game Drive

After breakfast, you’ll continue your morning game drive, looking for animals. Your driver will continue this until about 11 or 12pm, and then return to the lodge.

You can skip game drives if you want. We skipped one game drive and cut one short. Remember, it’s your safari!

To the Lodge!

You’ll have time to freshen up, maybe change into some cooler clothes (at this time of day, the sun starts heating up!), and relax for a few minutes before lunch.

Lunch Time

At nearly all of our lodges, lunch was served at 1pm. The timing is due to accommodate all of the guests returning from their game drives, just like you. Depending on the lodge, lunch might be a sit-down meal or a buffet-style meal. We experienced both during our trip. We preferred the buffets for both dinner and lunch. Some of the lodge chefs cooked up some rather…odd choice of meals that were not good so it was nice to have the buffet because we could always find something to eat.

More Relaxing

After lunch, you will typically have a few hours to relax at the lodge. You can use this time to take a dip in the pool, take a nap, take a shower (you will be dusty from the game drives!), camp out in the common areas and suck up the wifi, or go through your photos. We often opted to take a dip in the pool — it felt so good!

Safari is really rough on the joints, no matter your age. The roads are extremely rough and bumpy. You will really start to feel it in your muscles and you’ll welcome the mid-day breaks!

Afternoon Game Drive

Depending on what you discussed with your driver or what you agreed upon during your safari booking, you may or may not have an afternoon game drive. An afternoon game drive would typically have you leaving your lodge at 4pm. Afternoon game drives are typically shorter than your morning game drives — at nearly all the safari parks, everyone must exit the park before sunset — this is to prevent poaching.

This is also when you may have other activities planning in lieu of a game drive — perhaps a village visit, sun-downers (sunset drinks in the african bush), walking safaris, boat cruise or other cultural activities. Again, it depends on what you had setup with your safari tour company or lodge.

Back to the Lodge & Dinner

After your afternoon game drive, you’ll be brought back to your lodge. Dinner is typically served at 7pm on safari — again, that time is set to accommodate those on afternoon game drives. This was quite an adjustment for me; I typically eat a very early dinner, so waiting until 7pm was a little rough!

While you are at dinner, staff will do a turndown service in your room. This includes deploying the mosquito nets over the beds and delivering any laundry, if you requested.

After dinner, some lodges have evening activities, such as fire demonstrations, cultural talks, karaoke, trivia, and campfires.

Typically everything wraps up around 9-10pm, as most folks have early wake-up calls for morning game drives.

And finally, we save the burning question for last….

Where do I go to the bathroom on safari?

On safari, the whole African bush is your bathroom! If you need to go to the bathroom during your game drive, let your driver know and he will find a safe place for you to do your business. Some parks will have rest areas with bathrooms but the restroom situation varies widely — you will find restrooms with western toilets to rustic squatty potties. Often times, there is no toilet paper and no running water.

I am terrible at peeing in a squatty potty / peeing outside. It gets allll over me. So if you’re like me, pack disposable bathroom wipes (for your bum), toilet paper and wet wipes (for your hands) and a small paper bag to serve as a trash bag. There is nowhere to toss this trash so you must pack it in and pack it out!

So that wraps up your typical day on safari. Be sure to check out my other safari-related posts below: