Is a cheaper safari in the rain worth it?

The herds stall on the bank of the Mara River, sometimes for hours. Then one wildebeest jumps, and the rest follow it off the cut bank into fast brown water.

Crossings run from about July to October, so this is the tail end of the season. The clip was filmed in 2025 at Governors' Camp, which sits on a bend of the same river.

From November to April, rates at most lodges sit 20 to 40% below peak, so a camp charging $2,000 a night in August might run $1,300 in January. What you pay for that saving is visibility.

The grass grows tall enough to hide a lion 20 metres away, the game spreads out once water is everywhere, and some camps close outright. A first safari should still go dry; a second is where the green months start to make sense.

Zambia's emerald season, November to April, has a following among repeat visitors for its much lower prices. The catch is access: Mana Pools shuts entirely, and some camps in the Luangwa and the Kafue close for the rains.

So plan around the camp, not the park, and check its dates before anything else. The reward on the way out is the Victoria Falls, at their fullest from February to May.

The Okavango floods in the dry winter, not the rainy summer. The water falls as rain in the Angolan highlands months earlier and takes until around July to arrive, so the Delta and the desert peak 6 months apart.

That makes the green summer the season for a different Botswana. From December to April the zebra migration reaches the Makgadikgadi pans and the Central Kalahari turns green, while some Delta camps close and others cut their rates.

Okavango Horse Safaris has been riding the Delta since 1986, one of the original horseback operations in the Okavango and still family-run. Rides move between fly camps in the NG26 concession, riding alongside giraffe, zebra and elephant across the floodplains, with no vehicle in sight.

It is for competent riders: a steady canter through water is part of the deal. The 5 and 7 night safaris mix riding days with mokoro and game drives, from £4,530 (about $5,800) per person for 5 days, fully inclusive with transfers.

The most common planning mistake is treating Africa as one destination with one best season. June to September suits South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia, but Kenya's January and February are badly underrated, and its long rains in April and May bring the lowest prices.

The cheap months move around the map too. May and June are the shoulder in the south, November and December in East Africa, and Uganda drops its gorilla permit from $800 to $600 in April, May and November.

That's issue 10. If it was useful, forward it to whoever still thinks safari only happens in July. If it wasn't, reply and tell me why. I will read it.

Murray Walker
Editor, Safari Dispatch

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