Snuggle up in one of our luxury tents
We want to remind you that staying at Safari West is an authentic safari-style tent camping experience. We are truly amazed when we hear someone say, “I couldn’t sleep because of the animal noises!” It’s not lions roaring or elephants trumpeting, but the marvelous sounds of cranes calling, ostriches booming or lemurs chattering. The animals are what we hope you are coming for!

And when we come in to breakfast on these winter mornings, the thing we really dislike to hear is that our guests were COLD in their tents at night! You will be sleeping in a traditional African safari tent. Zulu craftsmen make our tents of the best treated canvas available. But by nature, canvas is thin compared to the walls of a house—as a matter of fact; your insulated house walls are about 200 times thicker than our tents! So despite the polished wood floors, electric blankets and heaters, these tents can be chilly at night. And the bathrooms are freezing cold because they cannot be heated at all.

That said, the rest is up to you— to bring the right clothes to make yourselves comfortable when visiting this corner of African-flavored paradise…

A few suggestions:
It may rain; it can be quite cold and many nights are below freezing! Bring rain gear; you can leave it in the car if the day turns out to be sunny. Wear long pants, sweaters and jackets, thick socks and real shoes, not flip-flops, for the tour and walking around to enjoy the animals. If you tend to get cold, add long underwear, a knit cap, mittens or gloves, and a wooly muffler.

In keeping with the authentic experience, our roads and pathways are rocky and unpaved; they can become slippery and muddy in winter so you should have sturdy, flat-soled shoes or boots. Also many roads and paths are not lit at night, so be sure to carry a FLASHLIGHT to dinner and when walking around in the evening.

Bring warm clothes for sleeping. We mean really WARM CLOTHES, especially slippers for bathroom visits. Adult beds have electric blankets, but kids’ futons do not, so kids should have thick, cozy pajamas and/or knit caps or hooded sweatshirts to sleep in. You also may want to sleep with a warm hat. When you come down to dinner, turn on the electric blanket to low and turn the heater to low—of course, be sure that the heater is not near anything flammable. (And when you leave in the morning, please turn off everything electrical.) Our bathrooms have good showers with hot water, but you should take your showers at night, not in the morning, or you will freeze your derrière off!