Looking back at the last 8 years of working at Sunway Safaris i (Dirk) often had agents and clients asking me why it is better to travel in a small group rather than on a self drive safari in Southern Africa. There are a myriad of reasons why traveling in small groups may be ideal for you AND for the environment. When booking a self drive safari there are benefits being that you have time on your side and you can travel at your own speed and stop when you want. There is however the disadvantage of creating a larger carbon footprint & cutting out the services of local guides which robs the guides and his family of an income.

The small group dynamic is an exciting way of meeting like minded people embarking on an adventure throughout southern Africa. It is a particularly good and efficient way of travelling in this part of the world, too. Your guide more than often has either lived in the country or region you are visiting, or has spent a considerable amount of time there. This means they have an intimate knowledge of the places you’ll visit and will share this wealth of knowledge. Try to imagine all the logistics involved in vehicle papers, insurances, border crossings – not to mention being self sufficient for extended periods in often dramatic and remote areas. Not to mention the expense – traveling with Sunway Safaris is the informed choice.

But it gets even better than that! One often overlooked aspect is the carbon emissions per person per style of travel. For example, consider the following:

 Small Group Tours.

Safari Truck – 20l/100 to move on average 10 clients per tour =2L/100km per person

Self-Drive Safari.

Hire car – 7L/100 div 2 = 3.5L/100km per person.
Hire 4x4 – 12L/100 div 2 = 6L/100km per person.

 So while the consumption of the truck is greater than smaller vehicles, the fact that you can effectively split the total emissions by the number of travellers, shows a distinct benefit to the environment. It costs less in fuel emissions per person than if you were to conduct a self-drive safari.

Travel responsibly, travel with Sunway Safaris