Should you hire a guide for your African Safari?

An African safari is a once-in-a-lifetime travel experience, and hiring a guide for your trip can help you make the most of your trip. Seeing exotic animals like lions, elephants, and giraffes roaming in the wild is unforgettable. When we went on our first safari-centric trip to Uganda, we compared the prices of renting a car and traveling on our own versus hiring a guide who would provide the car. (See our itinerary for our Uganda trip if you’re interested!)

I can honestly say the best decision we made was hiring our guide, Emma. He was, to put it succinctly, awesome. He made a good trip great, and I cannot begin to express what a difference it made having an expert guide like Emma to introduce us to the Pearl of Africa. But heck, I’m going to try!

While it may be tempting to try to save money by self-driving, hiring a professional safari guide is strongly recommended for several key reasons:

Local Expertise 

Safari guides have an intricate knowledge of the local wildlife, terrain, seasons, animal behaviors, and more. They know the best spots to track elusive animals and ensure you have the best chance of wildlife sightings. Guides have experience finding animals and navigating off-road through parks and reserves.

I cannot tell you the number of times Emma noticed a gorgeous bird or a monkey hanging out in a tree that I never would have seen without him pointing it out. If I was trying to drive on my own, there would be no way I’d notice the animals Emma noticed. He literally had eagle eyes. If you get a reputable guide, you will notice immediately just how talented these individuals are at spotting wildlife and taking you to all the right spots.

Which is another reason hiring a guide for your African safari brings you such fantastic local expertise. They are often familiar with animals’ movement throughout the parks. Emma knew just what time we needed to be in what part of the park to increase our odds of seeing hyenas and lions or leopards going after prey. Where are the elephant herds at 4pm in Queen Elizabeth Park? Emma knew. How could we improve our chances to seeing a pride of beautiful lions? Oh, yeah, Emma knew.

We never would’ve spotted a quarter of the gorgeous animals we did if we had not hired a guide for our African safari. Emma made all the difference in Uganda.

Animal Knowledge

But part of the beauty of an African safari isn’t just seeing the animals. It’s learning about them. I was always enthralled by nature documentaries as a kid (and still love ‘em). Having an expert guide with us in Uganda gave us insight into the behaviors and lives of the creatures we were watching. When we saw giraffes swinging their necks at each other, Emma told us why. He explained the habits of various birds and predators, how these animals interacted with each other, and how the populations of animals had changed over the years as human civilization sprouted around them. 

If we had questions, Emma had answers. It was awesome to have in-depth conversations about the animals without having to resort to looking at Wikipedia articles.

Community Engagement

Your guide will know the local languages, dialects, and communities well. When traveling in Uganda, for instance, there are over 70 estimated languages spoken. Emma was able to communicate in nearly a dozen. There was nowhere we went that Emma couldn’t find a common language with someone. Without a safari guide, it wouldn’t have been so easy to communicate with everyone we encountered.

Not to mention our local safari guide knew more than just facts on wildlife. He recommended markets and cities we could stop it. During our gorilla trek, he worked with his contacts at the park to place us in a group that visited a specific family of gorillas that had just had babies. Whenever we were in the Uganda parks, Emma was in constant contacts with other guides. If someone spotted an elusive leopard or a pride of lions chowing down, the guides let their other guide friends know. Tapping into a guide’s community knowledge and engagement ensures a great safari trip!

Safety

Wildlife in Africa can be dangerous, from lions and elephants to venomous snakes. Plus, the infamous bot flies.  A guide provides protection should animals approach too closely and know what to do in risky situations. They ensure you follow park rules for safe viewing. Guides also provide security against potential human threats in remote areas. We never encountered in crime or safety situations, but it was also good to know we had Emma to look out for us and guide us safely.

Convenience 

When you hire a guide, they handle all the arrangements including transport, lodging, park fees, and meals. Guides have relationships with vendors, rangers, and locals which helps facilitate a smooth trip. You get to relax while guides manage logistics. Having always planned my own trips, it was wonderful to have Emma make recommendations and ensure we stayed on schedule with our Uganda safari itinerary.

You can always do a bunch of research on the internet to plan your trip. (Which I invariably do.) But you can’t beat the convenience of having an expert help you plan–or even take the full reins–of planning your trip. You should definitely hire a guide for your African safari if you’d like someone who knows your destination intimately to help you make decisions on which parks to visit, what activities to do, and how many days you should spend in each location.

Cultural Insight 

Experienced safari guides provide context to enrich your experience, like the history of tribes and settlements, animal habits and hierarchies, conservation efforts, folklore, and more. They offer insider perspectives into local culture. I always appreciated Emma’s insights into the history, politics, and cultures present in Uganda. I learned far more from Emma acting as our safari guide than I would have bumbling my way through Uganda on my own.

Equipment

Guides bring high quality safari vehicles, binoculars, telephoto lenses, and other gear to improve wildlife viewing during your safari in Africa. Their equipment often surpasses what average tourists have access to. You’ll get great photos with their help and insight, too. And of course, they’re the ones taking care of the vehicle, so you don’t have to worry about traversing the sometimes rough roads–or places where there are no roads!

Saving money 

Hiring a safari guide in a place like Uganda or another bucket-list country in Africa is more expensive than self-driving, so why how does it save you money? Unfortunately, we had some troubles with our vehicle during our safari trip, no fault of our guide. But Emma was on top of it. He knew where to go to get a quick repair and negotiate the right price.

I couldn’t imagine how hard that would’ve been for us without Emma’s local knowledge!

Plus, Emma made sure we were always on time for every trek and appointment. Missing your very, very expensive gorilla, chimp, or golden monkey trek because you misjudged the time it would take to get there–or didn’t know about a road that was under repair–is not a mistake you want to make! Emma knew when Google Maps was wrong about routes or paths. He knew when there was construction going on that we wouldn’t have found out about. We were always on time to all our scheduled excursions, so we didn’t miss anything that we paid for. If we’d been trying to do everything on our own, there’s a good chance we would’ve missed an excursion or too due to timing–which wouldn’t be a cheap mistake.

Saving Time

You can save a lot of time by hiring a safari guide in Africa, just like we did in Uganda. First off, when you’re in the parks, your guide will know where all the animals are liable to hide. Read our first point about our Uganda safari with Emma!

Of course, an African safari isn’t like going to the zoo. There’s no guarantee you’ll see the Big Five or any other specific animal you’re searching for. But rather than driving aimlessly throughout a park, a guide will take you right to the best spots to maximize your chances of seeing your favorite animals.

We never got lost with our guide in charge. No wrong turns over almost two weeks! Which meant more time in the parks or relaxing at our lodges. This isn’t something I normally deal with on most trips, but with the unpredictable landscapes and road conditions around some safari regions, it’s great to have someone else who knows exactly how to get you from one place to another as efficiently as possible.

Conclusion

With so much to gain by hiring a local specialist, the cost is well worth it. Do ample research to find reputable guides that suit your needs. Read reviews and look for recommendations. Then get ready for an unforgettable African adventure you could not experience as well on your own. Hiring a guide ensures a safer, stress-free journey where you can simply focus on admiring Africa’s captivating wildlife. We hope you enjoy your own trip as much as we enjoyed our trip with Emma in Uganda! (Side note: If you are interested in our guide for our Ugandan safari, Emma gave me permission to share his email: a_emmy2011@hotmail.com. His WhatsApp is +256 772 662441.)