Tools to create safari itineraries

Building a perfect safari itinerary takes more than just booking a hotel, organizing game drives, and listing the meals. A professional safari itinerary entails a seamless coordination of several elements of the journey, including distances, destinations, accommodation, flights, airstrips, travelers’ interests, travel seasons, activities, and entrance fees.

A three-day safari to Maasai Mara is easy to plan, but the challenge comes in when other destinations such as Samburu, Amboseli, Zanzibar, the Kenyan coast, or Tsavo are to be included in the itinerary. In such a case, you need a more logical plan to achieve a good safari experience. But that should no longer be a worry to you; safari companies now have access to tools that will make your safari planning easier, accurate, and faster.

Mapping Tools

The first step of planning a professional safari is understanding the map and the routing options. With maps, you can calculate the distance between one destination and the other, approximate the time of arrival, and check the road conditions. However, maps are not enough, as they do not tell you about the best routes and possible traffic. You need tools such as live Google Maps to help you visualize the journey and build a practical travel plan. For example, an itinerary planner can help you to connect a safari from Maasai Mara to Amboseli and save you the time and costs of going back to Nairobi, then proceeding to Amboseli.

Airline booking tools and flight schedules.

For visitors traveling by air, it is important to have accurate flight information. The safari destinations are interconnected by scheduled flights from Wilson Airport to other destinations including Maasai Mara, Samburu, Amboseli and the Kenyan coast. Airlines provide information on flight availability and reservation status to help you plan the best days of flight, departure time, luggage restrictions, possible connections, and available routes. With this information, you can match airstrips with the visitor’s place of stay without having to undergo unnecessary long transfers.

Safari Quotation and Itinerary Software

You don’t have to type the whole safari itinerary manually into a document, as the software can help you generate a practical itinerary by just inserting your travel destination, name of the hotel, list of the activities, and means of transfer into the system. This software helps you list a day-by-day itinerary, approximate costs of accommodation, transport options, and the current entrance fees to the parks or conservancies, and create a professional quotation proposal for your guests. The software is particularly helpful when a client needs different versions of the quote to compare.

Accommodation and Supplier Management Tools

 A complete safari itinerary has confirmed accommodations for all the guests. There is a chance that the selected lodges will be full on the travel dates or the assigned vehicle is already booked for those days. Thus, a supplier database with an accommodation website will help you get accurate information on the availability status to avoid double booking.

Communication and Collaboration Tools

A single itinerary involves collaboration between various safari partakers including the driver-guide, hotel reservations, airport transfers, and the safari consultant. Communication tools such as WhatsApp help to create perfect coordination of the staff. The visitor communicates with only one staff member who collects information from every part of the safari.

Human Expertise

While technology can ease the safari, you need a professional individual who can interpret the logic of the safari operations for a great safari experience. For example, a person who knows the number of nights needed to achieve a successful bush experience and if the time assigned for flight connections is reasonable.