Movement
Everyone plans with places. The flights decide whether it is a trip.
Which circuits exist, which days they run, how long a border really takes and what each move costs in days — the least glamorous part of a bespoke safari, and the part that separates eleven good days from eight.
The connective tissue
Four things that decide what is possible
None of them appears on a camp’s website, and all four will reshape a wish list within a day of it reaching a specialist.
Light aircraft circuits
Internal flights are scheduled circuits, not charters. They run in one direction, stop where they like, and not every pair of strips connects daily.
How circuits work
The 15kg soft bag
A weight limit and a shape requirement, both enforced. Camps do laundry daily, which is the reason it is survivable.
What to pack in
Borders that work
Mara to Serengeti by air, Rwanda to Uganda by road, Nairobi to Kigali by jet. Three joins that are genuinely easy.
Which borders
Borders that do not
East Africa to Botswana is not a crossing, it is a long reconnection through a hub, and it costs the better part of two days.
The hard joins
Combinations that work
Seven routes that hold together, with the number of moves each one contains and the shortest length it can be done in.
See the routes
What moves cost
In days and in money. On a short trip the joins matter more to a total than the nightly rate does.
The arithmeticThe arithmetic
Three countries in ten nights is seven nights of safari
It is the commonest shape of an over-ambitious itinerary, and the mistake is arithmetic rather than taste. Each border crossing costs most of a day at both ends; three countries means at least two crossings plus the arrival and departure days.
What remains is roughly seven usable nights spread across three places — two of which will be three-night stays and one of which will be a two-night stay that feels like a transit stop, at the price of a three-country trip.
The same fourteen days with one crossing gives you eleven. That is the entire argument for fewer places.
- Airstrip to airstrip in one country: half a day
- Across a border by air: most of a day
- Across a border by road: a full day, plus a vehicle change
- A long-haul reconnection: a day and a night
Free download
Joining It Up
The unglamorous half of a bespoke trip: which joins exist, which do not, and how many days each one costs.
- Why the joins decide the trip
- How light aircraft circuits work
- The soft baggage rule, and why it is real
- Border crossings that are easy
- Border crossings that are not
- Visas and the East Africa single visa
- Repositioning flights and empty legs
- How many days a move really costs
- Combinations that work, and three that do not
No cost, no obligation. We ask for an email so we can send it and, if you want it, follow up once.
Before you ask
The logistics questions
Can we combine Kenya and Botswana?
You can, and it is worth knowing what it costs before you commit. There is no direct route: it is a long connection through Nairobi, Johannesburg or Addis, generally with an overnight at one end.
Budget the better part of two days for the join. On a trip of under a fortnight that is a large proportion of the holiday spent in airports, which is why we usually suggest one or the other and a genuinely different second stop.
Why did my flight land somewhere I was not going?
Because internal safari flights are scheduled circuits rather than charters. One aircraft leaves a hub in the morning and touches down at several airstrips in sequence before returning.
It is normal, it is not a mistake, and it is the reason a forty-minute hop can take ninety minutes door to door.
Is the 15kg baggage limit really enforced?
Yes, and so is the requirement for a soft-sided bag — the hold is a curved space with no room for a rigid frame. It is a weight-and-balance matter rather than a preference.
Almost every camp does laundry daily, which is what makes the limit workable. Leave a hard case in a city hotel store if you need one for the international legs.
Do we need separate visas for each country?
It depends on the combination, and the rules change often enough that we will confirm the current position for your specific route rather than publish something here that may have moved.
What we can say generally: a single visa covering several East African countries has existed in various forms, and Zanzibar is a separate immigration formality from mainland Tanzania even though it is the same country.
Who actually arranges my safari?
This site is a planning guide. When you send an enquiry it goes to Nomad Africa, our partner travel agency in Kenya, who prepare your itinerary and quote and handle the booking, the payments and you on the ground.
You deal with one team from the first email to the airport transfer home.
Start planning
Send us the places you want to join
We will tell you plainly whether the route works at the length you have, what each join costs in days, and where a substitution would buy you back two of them.
Our Africa specialist replies within 24 hours with a route, the moves named, and an itemised price.
- Every internal flight and transfer shown, not bundled
- An honest answer where a route does not fit the days
- Alternatives that keep the trip and lose the airports
- No deposit to see a plan, and no obligation at any point
Who answers
Nomad Africa, our partner travel agency in Nairobi, builds and prices every itinerary we send. You deal with one team, on the ground, for the whole trip.
Get your tailored itinerary and quote
Our Africa specialist replies within 24 hours with a costed plan built around your dates.
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Each of these is a focused guide we publish. Same Africa specialist behind every enquiry.