Africa Privé · The Collection

Safari Privé

Africa’s Most Exclusive Wilderness Journeys

Ultra-luxury lodges, private concessions and exclusive-use camps across Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and East Africa. Africa’s wild heart, designed around you.

How We Choose

Real knowledge.
Not a website of self-declared experts.

Safari Privé is not the largest safari operator, and we don’t collect industry awards. What we offer is real, boots-on-the-ground knowledge — the kind of knowledge born out of thirty years spent running safaris for guests the world over.

Our selection is a small, hand-picked collection of the very best establishments across the continent. Some of the very best experiences we offer are simple, even rustic — the kind that stays with you for the rest of your life. That, too, is part of what we offer: not just polish, but places and moments of real, lasting substance.

Local Ownership Matters

Conservation that does not include
the people of the land is conservation built on sand

For Africa’s wild places to endure, there needs to be a genuine connection with the people of the land — not website talk about community upliftment, but real, physical ownership. Within our own selection are a number of properties that are 100% citizen-owned and operated.

Local people must fundamentally benefit from tourism — real ownership, real income, real decision-making power. Not the cliché gesture of donated T-shirts and photographs of smiling children.

The Real Choice

A shared sighting, or
a million acres to yourself

In reserves such as Sabi Sand and Thornybush, a typical sighting lasts under twenty minutes — these reserves simply aren’t large enough to guarantee a private safari drive. At the other end of the scale sit places like Botswana, where the wildlife density is extraordinary and the vehicle density is close to nothing.

So here is the real choice, put plainly: the finest establishment in a small, busy reserve, shared with everyone else standing in it that day — or a spectacular private villa, at a fraction of the price, with a million acres of genuine wilderness to yourself. That is precisely why we have built our selection around the true top-tier safaris of Southern Africa — chosen because they deliver the real thing, not simply the reputation.

How We Classify Our Collection

Gold, Diamond
and Diamond Reserve

Safari Privé residences are classified Gold, Diamond or Diamond Reserve according to the quality of the safari experience — not simply the quality of the bedroom. This is not a star rating. It is a measure of the totality of the experience: the residence, the exclusivity, the location, the guiding, the service and the sense of genuine privacy, taken together.

🥇 Gold — Exceptional Private Safari

“This is an exceptional private safari home.”
Gold means a genuinely luxurious private African residence offering exceptional privacy, service and safari — significantly beyond a conventional luxury lodge. The guest gets their own home, their own space, excellent staff and a private safari experience. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be the most extraordinary architecture, the most remote location or the most sophisticated service in Africa.

💎 Diamond — World-Class Private Safari

“This is one of the finest private safari residences in Africa.”
Diamond is where the guest moves into a completely different level: a world-class private African residence where exceptional architecture, extraordinary wilderness, dedicated staff and completely personalised safari combine to create an exceptional once-in-a-lifetime experience. The important difference is that everything is private — private residence, private vehicle, private guide, private tracker, private chef, dedicated hospitality team, bespoke activities. The residence itself must also be exceptional, not simply expensive.

💎💎 Diamond Reserve — The Ultimate Private African Residence

“There are very few places in Africa — or the world — that can offer this.”
Diamond Reserve is Safari Privé’s rarest category, deliberately set to an extremely difficult standard. A Diamond Reserve residence represents the absolute pinnacle of private African hospitality — a rare, one-of-a-kind residence where the wilderness, architecture, service and experience combine at a level few properties anywhere in Africa can match. The key word is bespoke. There is effectively no standard programme: the guest determines the experience. The service should feel less like staying at a hotel and more like having a private African estate, and an entire professional team, at your disposal. The Diamond Reserve category is deliberately kept to no more than 5–10 residences across Southern Africa — a scarcity that is what gives the name real value.

Diamond Reserve Collection

Diamond Collection

Gold Collection

Above the Scale

The Wild Heart Class

“Not a thread count. A count that touches your heart in a way you could never imagine.”

Before Gold, Diamond and Diamond Reserve, there is one category that sits outside this scale altogether, because it is not measuring the same thing.

A small number of our selections are defined entirely by the power of the experience or the location itself, rather than by architecture, exclusivity or five-star finish. These are often simple places — properly rustic, at times — and yet the encounter they offer, a landscape, a community, a piece of genuine wilderness, is so far outside the ordinary that it becomes something close to magical. They may not carry a private plunge pool or a dedicated butler. What they carry instead is the kind of moment that stays with a guest for the rest of their life.

We include these properties deliberately, because Safari Privé was never only about comfort. It is about revealing Africa’s wild heart — and these are, very often, the places that reveal it most powerfully of all.

The Second Scorecard

How We Grade the Full Safari Experience

The classification above measures the residence — its architecture, privacy, exclusivity and service. But a genuinely great safari is decided by far more than the villa. It is decided by how much real wilderness surrounds you, how many other vehicles you compete with for the same sighting, how varied the habitat and water systems are, how the operation actually treats the land, and, critically, who owns it.

That is why every property in our collection is also run through a second, independent scorecard. It does not replace the Gold, Diamond or Diamond Reserve classification above — it sits alongside it. Where that one measures the residence, this one measures the safari itself.

Accommodation, facilities & exclusivity — the residence itself: its size, privacy, staff and service
Reserve bed density & wilderness exclusivity — how much genuine wilderness surrounds each bed, and how many operators and camps actually share it
Freedom at wildlife sightings — whether your vehicle competes with a dozen others at every sighting, or has the moment entirely to itself
Habitat diversity & major natural water — the range of ecosystems on offer, and whether there is a real, permanent river, delta or lagoon at the heart of the reserve
Sustainability — solar power, conservation programmes, anti-poaching work and genuine environmental practice
Local ownership — not community upliftment as marketing, but real, physical, majority ownership by the people of the land

Each property is scored out of 50 and classified — GOLD — 25 to 34 points · DIAMOND — 35 to 44 points · DIAMOND+ — 45 to 50 points.

A property can be extraordinarily luxurious — a genuine Diamond Reserve under the classification above — and still land in Gold here, because thread count was never the whole story. That is exactly the point of running both scales side by side.

Southern Africa’s Premier Safari Destinations

South Africa, Botswana,
Zimbabwe and Namibia

Southern Africa is home to some of the finest safari experiences on earth. While each country in the region offers exceptional wildlife viewing, the character of the experience varies considerably from one destination to the next.

South Africa

South Africa boasts an excellent collection of safari camps and lodges, offering incredible accommodation, impeccable service, and more — including multi-award-winning camps, lodges and private villas. The main differentiators between properties come down to vehicle density on game drives and the level of exclusivity on offer. For travellers seeking sheer luxury alongside outstanding game viewing, South Africa is the destination of choice.

Botswana

Botswana has nearly 40% of its total land area set aside for wildlife management, making it one of the most conservation-focused countries in the world. Comparable in size to France or the state of Texas, yet home to fewer than 2.6 million people, Botswana is ground zero for safari travel. Camps and lodges, often set in remote regions, combine amazing luxury with the added bonus of experiencing truly wild Africa — the real deal.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is home to Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park, and Mana Pools on the banks of the Zambezi River, offering some of Southern Africa’s finest wildlife viewing.

Namibia

Namibia is a land of contrasts, from the towering dunes of Sossusvlei to the stark beauty of the Skeleton Coast and the lush, green Caprivi Strip.

Each of these destinations offers something distinct — from South Africa’s polished luxury to Botswana’s wild exclusivity, Zimbabwe’s iconic landscapes and Namibia’s dramatic scenery — giving travellers a range of ways to experience Southern Africa at its best.

In Pictures