If you are travelling from North America, short trips to Brazil are relatively feasible. The flight connections are not always smooth, but at least there is no jet-lag. The most popular option is a week on safari in the Pantana, optionally in combination with Riol.

7-11 nights 

If you are able to deploy two to three weeks, then it becomes possible to combine two, three or more locations into a trip, providing greater variety and sense of exploration. All locations in the country become a possibility, although some combinations do require longer.

12-21 nights 

We absolutely love putting together trips of 22 to 50 nights, or even longer. Sometimes we are lucky enough to work with guests who are taking a sabbatical from work or who are retired and just love to travel. In these trips, the possibilities become almost infinite and can include a half dozen or more countries.

22-50 nights 

Tanzania

Set on the East Coast of Africa, Tanzania is a truly remarkable place, the richest and most diverse safari country, with far more than its fair share of Africa’s crown jewels, including Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.

This is the place to head if you are looking for a truly diverse African experience, usually an overland journey, with equal parts of epic wildlife, majestic volcanic scenery, authentic tribespeople, farms, villages and towns.

It’s also top of the list if you want to combine safari and tropical beaches.

In all honesty, Tanzania alone is worth several trips.

Trips from USD 4500

Kenya

Also on the East Coast of Africa, Kenya is the second most visited safari country on the continent, a place of great diversity, with popular reserves including the Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo and Samburu, as well as some much more remote wilderness areas and an extensive tropical coastline.

Unfortunately, the better known reserves in Kenya can get very busy in core areas, so we need to tread carefully to deliver a quality safari.

If you are looking towards the upper end of the budget range, then trips can be remote and fabulous. But if you are looking for value, you may be better off looking at Tanzania or countries further south. 

Trips from USD 5000

Botswana

Moving to the south of the continent, Botswana is widely considered to offer the highest quality safari in Africa.

The experience is not as diverse as Tanzania, but the remoteness and purity of the bush experience is unsurpassed.

If you are looking for either an easy vacation or a deeply immersive wilderness experience, this is the place. We just need to be careful about the very high prices during the Jun-Oct dry season.

Botswana is great in combination with Victoria Falls, the Cape or the tropical beaches of Mozambique.

Trips from USD 6000

Our safari experts have incredible 
first-hand knowledge and an average
of 12 years experience building great 
trips.

Expertise and experience

Since 1999, we have created over a million sample  trips and helped over 120,000 guests fall in love with  safari Africa.

A proud history

Over the years we have polished our operation to be super-reliable. Arranging your trip should be almost as much fun  as going on safari. 

Seamless and fun

Your trip should cost no more than if 
you had booked all the components directly. You effectively get our services for free.

Delivering value

Every single trip that we build is unique. Your trip will be precisely tailored to meet the exact requirements of everyone in your group.

Supremely tailor-made

The first safari company on the internet, we helped to shape the modern safari and we continue to be the prime innovators in our field.

Original innovators

Tell us your whatever you know about your ideal trip. Whether you're drawn to specific wildlife, particular regions, or have preferences about the style of accommodation, the more we understand, the better we can help you to craft the perfect experience.

Share your ideas

South Africa

South Africa is by far the most popular location for safari. It is a vast and incredibly diverse country, with far more highlights than could ever be included in a single trip.

The primary trip shape is a combination of safari in Kruger, with time in Cape Town, the Whale Coast and the Cape Winelands.

There is a huge choice of safari accommodation, right across the price spectrum, including some of the best lower cost options in Africa, so this is often the place to head on a lower budget.

However, South Africa is a much more developed country than those further north and the safari experience can feel significantly less pure and wild.

Trips from USD 3500

Zimbabwe

Also in the southern part of Africa, Zimbabwe is best known for the Victoria Falls, but also offers some of the most earthy, authentic, heart-pumping safari on the continent.

If you are looking for a short safari of 3-5 nights, then Hwange has some great value options.

Otherwise, Zimbabwe is a relatively high-priced location, which appeals most to experienced Africa travellers, who appreciate the extremely high levels of safari guiding.

The walking safari here can be truly extraordinary, with deliberate approaches onto elephants and lions. 

Trips from USD 4500

Zambia

Set in southcentral Africa, Zambia is a delightful backwater, also best known for the Victoria Falls, but with a handful of superb safari reserves.

The camps here have a reputation for intimacy, authenticity and a pleasantly homespun feel, many with a marked leaning towards walking safari, which is always a good sign.

Zambia is a mid-to-high price safari environment, which tends to appeal most to experienced safari travellers in search of new frontiers and first timers who are specifically looking for somewhere unusual for their safari. 

Trips from USD 5000

The December to February period is the wettest time across much of Brazil. In the central Amazon around Manaus, high water levels allow canoe access deep into flooded forest. The Pantanal is at its wettest, with difficult access and dispersed wildlife. Rio and the coast are hot, humid and lively. Iguaçu Falls is at peak water flow with heavy spray.

Dec–Feb : Hot Wet Season

The March to May period marks a transition as rainfall eases. The Amazon remains accessible by river with improving wildlife visibility. The Pantanal begins to dry, leading up towards the prime wildlife season. Coastal Brazil is warm with fewer crowds. Iguaçu Falls still has strong flow under more comfortable conditions. 

Mar–May : Drying Transition

The June to August period is the driest time of year. The Pantanal is at its best for wildlife viewing, including jaguars. In the Amazon, lower water levels open forest trails. Rio and the coast are mild and dry. Iguaçu Falls has lower water levels but clearer walkways.

Jun–Aug : Cool Dry Season

The September to November period sees rising temperatures and returning rain. The Pantanal remains productive early in the season. In the Amazon, water levels begin to rise again. Coastal regions are warm and relatively quiet. At Iguaçu Falls, water volume increases ahead of the wet season.

Sep–Nov : Warming Transition

Your dedicated safari specialist will work with you to build a selection of sample trips. We'll discuss seasonality, wildlife movements, logistics, lodge options, activity levels, whatever is necessary. And we will keep on refining until we are all confident that we have reached the perfect trip.

Crafting your trip

Everything is arranged. All you need to do is turn up. You probably won’t even need to show your paperwork, you will simply glide from one group of friendly and efficient local hosts to the next. And our support team remains on hand throughout, leaving you free to focus entirely on the extraordinary experiences ahead.

Travel with confidence

Many of us here at ATR have travelled extensively with our own kids, so we know for a fact that adventurous travel is great for families.

This is the kind of trip that guarantees to generate memories that you will share for the rest of your lives.

However, there are significant issues to consider in most safari areas, so we need to proceed with caution.

The main concern are the tropical areas, centred on the Amazon Rainforest, where health issues can be significant. We only tend to recommend these areas for kids of 12 years and older.

The other issue is security, with some parts of the main cities being potentially dangerous, but we can easily get around this by exercising sensible precautions, as you might do back home, or we can always provide a guide.

Family trips 

Travel can be an inherently romantic experience that can be endlessly tailored to suit you.

We have been helping guests to build awesome honeymoons for many years. We have intimate knowledge of some of the wildest and most romantic places in the world.

Perhaps the most important piece of advice is to be yourselves. Please don’t feel it is necessary to fit into the usual romantic tropes if they’re not for you. Just focus on having a great trip.

We very much understand the importance of these trips, we know that your honeymoon needs to really hit the heights and be a truly life-punctuating experience.

Honeymoon trips 

In adventure travel, luxury means different things to different people.

The most conventional meaning is that the accommodations are extremely comfortable, with elevated levels of hospitality. This is relatively easy to deliver, there are lots of luxury lodges.

However, simply inserting more luxurious lodges into your trip is no guarantee of a better wilderness experience. In fact, the opposite can be true.

For us, the hallmarks of a truly high quality safari are a suitably slow pace, wonderful remote locations, superb safari guiding, exclusive and intense wildlife interaction, precisely tailored experiences and considered attention to detail. We can do that.

Luxury trips 

Brazil is one of the more expensive countries in South America, mainly due to the high proportion of nights usually spent on safari. You can expect to spend anywhere in the range USD 250 to 1500 per person per night. Twelve night trips can range from USD 5000 to 20000 per person.

We are more than happy to work across this range of prices. The only important thing is that we help you find the very best safari to suit your budget.

The main problem is a shortage of accommodation across the board. There are more good lodges in the Serengeti than in the whole of South America. Tourism here is much less developed and there is a severe shortage of decent options in most locations, especially at the lower and upper ends of the price spectrum.

If you have a higher budget, we will help you determine which camps do actually deliver elevated levels of service and experience. We will also highlight other subtle ways in which your trip can be raised to another level, including the use of private guides and vehicles, helicopter explorations of remote areas etc.

If you have a medium budget, the best ways to keep a lid on costs are to carefully choose lower-priced lodges. You can also reduce the number of core safari nights and deploy time in more cost-effective beach, town and rural locations. We will help you understand where to trim and where to splash, in order to achieve the best overall experience.

If you have a lower budget, we can focus on fundamentally less pricey locations and lodges, or maybe focus on a lower cost country like Argentina or Peru..

The Pantanal is the best place on Earth to see jaguars in the wild. Wildlife concentrates along rivers and lagoons, allowing exceptional sightings of these magnificent big cats, along with giant anteaters, capybaras, caiman and prolific birdlife.

Jaguar spotting

The Amazon offers immersive rainforest adventures, from comfortable lodge stays around Alta Floresta to exploratory riverboat journeys from Manaus. This is vast, atmospheric wilderness travel, rich in wildlife, scale and a strong sense of place.

Jungle fever

The safari guides in Zimbabwe are on another level, there is no better wildlife qualification on the planet. The top guides here, particularly the famous Stretch Ferreira, will deliberately approach potentially dangerous wildlife like elephants and lions on foot.

Party town 

Set down on the border with Argentina, the Iguacu Falls are an incredible sight and well worth including in a trip. This part of Argentina is subtropical, and the surrounding Atlantic rainforest is home to exotic wildlife including coatis and toucans.

Epic falls

Pantanal

Set in the south of Brazil, Pantanal is one of the world’s largest wetlands and one of the prime wildlife-viewing areas in South America, best known for its incredible jaguar sightings and with other highlights including giant anteaters, giant otters and capybaras.

Guest accommodation is in around a dozen lodges of diverse styles and cost levels, each providing a different way to access the ecosystems and wildlife of these wetlands.

This is the prime safari area in Brazil, so most trips include at least 3-7 nights here. A single lodge option is possible, but a two or three camp combination in the different sectors is ideal.

Lodges USD 300-1200 pppn

Alta Floresta

Set in the far southeast of the Amazon Basin in Brazil, Alta Floresta comprises a patchwork of reserves, which provide some interesting wildlife experiences, notably including some unusual primate and bird species.

The Alta Floresta area is much easier to combine in trips with Pantanal than the central Manaus Amazon area. Guest accommodation is in just two main lodges, one rather high-end and comfortable, the other being much more adventurous and wildlife-focused.

Alta Floresta tends to feature in relatively few trips, since most people prefer to deploy extra days in the Pantanal. But it can certainly work in longer trips, or if you particularly want to experience the impressive rivers and huge trees of the Amazon.

Lodges USD 500-1200 pppn 

Iguacu Falls

Set in the far south of Brazil and straddling the border with Argentina, the Iguacu Falls is one of the great natural wonders of South America, a really popular hub for visitors to the continent.

The falls are surrounded by a very large region of Atlantic Rainforest, which has a different cast of animal characters from the main Amazon Rainforest, and is certainly worth of explroation.

The Iguacu area has a good range of hotels, with the famous Belmond hotel on the Brazil side and most of the other good properties over on the Argentina side. Most guests split 3-4 nights either on both sides or focus on the Argentina side.

There is a wide range of activities in the area, most of which can be accessed from all the various properties.

Lodges USD 250-1200 pppn