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YZ Safari Suppliers

We are very proud to have built a strong reputation within the safari industry. As you can see from the below, we work with some of the most respected and biggest names in our industry.

"YZ has always been focused on providing the very best trips to its clients. That starts from the initial itinerary design and the individual skill of the specialists in our offices. The actual delivery of that goal, however, relies on the camps, lodges and guides on the ground in Africa. Over the years we've visited all of the best camps, many numerous times, creating genuinely lifelong friendships with owners of Africa's best safari camps. Those relationships are key; we only work with the best companies in Africa. We rely on them to execute safaris that our own clients repeatedly describe as life-changing. We're proud to say that our suppliers are the very best at what they do."

Click below to jump to a specific safari partners that we work:

Wilderness

Along with Great Plains Conservation and Singita, Wilderness is one of our best high-end operators. It is particularly good in Botswana, offering a perfect balance between luxury and authenticity. Its flagship property is Wilderness Mombo Camp, Botswana.

Wilderness aims at sustainable conservation through responsible tourism. The company provides luxury safari experiences while helping to protect Africa’s wildlife heritage and sharing the benefits of tourism with the communities living close to its camps. Of the 2,800 staff who work for Wilderness, 85 per cent come from neighbouring communities.

YZ favourite properties:

Singita

Singita is quite possibly the most luxurious of all the safari companies. Its lodges all offer exclusive private game viewing in remote areas rather than busy safari in national parks. It’s difficult not to use superlatives when describing the lodges as they are all ultra-luxurious. The company’s flagship lodges are Boulders and Lebombo in South Africa, and Sasakwa and Faru Faru in Tanzania.

Singita operates 15 lodges in total – 6 in Tanzania, 5 in South Africa, 2 in Zimbabwe, and 2 in Rwanda. The company was founded in 1993 when Singita Ebony Lodge was built on family-owned land in what is now the Sabi Sand Game Reserve. Its aim was to share this beautiful area of bush, while respecting the natural environment and challenging accepted notions of luxury. It has grown considerably over the last 20 years but continues to provide the highest levels of luxury, all the while being environmentally friendly, assisting sustainable conservation, and ensuring the empowerment of local communities.

YZ favourite properties:

Nomad Tanzania

Nomad Tanzania is definitely for clients with a sense of adventure, and it’s known for its commitment to conservation and the quality of its guides.

We love this company as it is about as safari focused as you can get. The camps are in absolutely amazing locations – beautifully rugged – but probably too rugged for some people. If you’re looking for high luxury with marble baths and so on, this company is not right for you.

YZ favourite properties:

Asilia Africa

Asilia is well known for its high-quality and good-value luxury accommodation in Tanzania – however, please note that its level of luxury is not in the same league as companies such as &Beyond, Wilderness Safaris, and Singita. The focus is more on value and their camps tend to have great locations. Asilia’s flagship camp is Sayari, but Olivers is also very popular. The company is interested in eco-tourism and conservation of wilderness areas.

YZ favourite properties:

Time+Tide

Time+Time is our favourite Luangwa safari company; it typifies Zambian safaris and gives a real sense of adventure. It is particularly well known for its small intimate camps, walking camps, and focus on guiding.

Time + Tide was first established as Norman Carr Safaris, more than 60 years ago, and was one of the original safari companies in Africa. During a time when most people went on safari to shoot animals, Norman Carr introduced the idea of taking people on safari to look at the wildlife and photograph it. He also saw the importance of involving the local community – when he established his first camp, he did so in partnership with the local chief Nsefu. He also introduced the first walking safari.

The company has continued to follow Norman Carr’s ethos ever since those early days, working closely with the local community and aiming at conservation through tourism.  It’s one of the only big companies that is still owner-run.

YZ favourite properties:

African Bush Camps

We think that African Bush Camps (ABC) offer an amazing experience at a very good price. All the camps are located in prime game-viewing areas and they are incredibly well run, with some of the best guides in the region. The camps offer a high level of comfort, but with ABC it is all about exploring remote areas of Botswana and Zimbabwe.

ABC is a small and independently owned company run by one of Africa’s top safari guides, Beks Ndlovu, and his wife Sophie. ABC’s concept has remained the same over the years, with them focusing on tented accommodation that features high-quality guiding and hosts. The company portfolio has grown over the years and they now have properties in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Victoria Falls.

YZ favourite properties:

Desert & Delta Safaris

Desert & Delta is perfect for guests hoping to experience the highlights of Botswana. The company runs camps in some of the country’s most established safari areas, and among the range of activities you can enjoy are expertly guided game drives, mokoro excursions, boat trips, and walking safaris.

Founded in 1982, Desert & Delta offers luxurious accommodation in the Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve, Chobe National Park, the Savute region, and Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. The company seeks to develop the human potential of tourism across the country, by providing a true wilderness experience in some of the most pristine areas.

All of Desert & Delta’s properties are managed by local citizens. As well as offering deluxe guest rooms, suites, or even chalets, each camp or lodge exudes warm hospitality.

YZ favourite properties:

Great Plains Conservation

Great Plains is one of several independent safari companies operating properties where we like to send our clients. They run excellent camps in Botswana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. Contenders for some of the best camps anywhere!

Great Plains is slightly different from other eco-tourism companies, most of which try to run a successful business while helping conservation at the same time. The Great Plains priority is to help conservation rather than make money. The company’s aim is to protect the world’s wildlife, parks, and wilderness presently threatened by the increase of populations and the advent of tourism.

The company was founded by National Geographic photographers, Dereck and Beverly Joubert, and Colin Bell, the ex-CEO of Wilderness Safaris. It has set up conservation projects in a number of diverse and threatened habitats both in Africa and around the Indian Ocean.

YZ favourite properties:

&Beyond

&Beyond is one of our most luxurious suppliers. This company is most famous for its East African properties, such as Crater Lodge, Mnemba Island Lodge, and Klein’s Camp, but it also has excellent lodges in South Africa and Botswana, as well as a couple in Kenya and Namibia.

&Beyond is known for its natural luxury and the quality of its guides, trackers, and naturalists, who help guests achieve memorable wildlife experiences. It’s particularly good for single travellers as there are no single supplements.

Previously known as CCAfrica (Conservation Corporation Africa), &Beyond has the core ethic of ‘Care of the Land, Care of the Wildlife, Care of the People’. It believes that wildlife conservation and ecotourism are vital for Africa’s future, and that low-impact, high-yield tourism helps the conservation of both wildlife and its habitat, by making it economically viable, while at the same time benefiting the local communities.

YZ favourite properties:

Selous Safari Company

This is a small company based in Tanzania. It has two luxury tented camps in southern Tanzania, and a lovely beach lodge on the mainland coast.

We’ve known Selous Safari Company for many years, and believe that it offers one of the best-value safaris anywhere in Africa. You cannot go wrong with a circuit of its properties.

YZ favourite properties:

Robin Pope Safaris

Robin Pope is a great little company, well known for its walking expeditions across the Luangwa and trips out to the Liuwa in western Zambia.

Robin Pope grew up in Zambia and began working for Zambia Safaris in 1975. Ten years later he started his own company, Robin Pope Safaris, and opened his first camp, Tena Tena, in 1986. The company has grown over the years and now has several camps in the South Luangwa, Zambia, as well as a safari lodge just 3 km away from the spectacular Victoria Falls.

YZ favourite properties:

Remote Africa

Remote by name and nature, this family-run safari operator has a handful of intimate camps spread across Zambia’s Luangwa region.

John Coppinger, the founder of Remote Africa, guided and worked, along with his wife Carol, at Robin Pope’s Nsefu Camp until the mid-1990s. Together, they then built and ran their first camp Tafika in the South Luangwa. Although the company remains in the family, Remote Africa has expanded to five camps, two national parks, and over 100 staff.

Remote Africa’s ethos has always been to build camps with local materials and utilise local skills as much as possible. Almost all the wildlife guides are from the immediate area and have received their training from scratch.

YZ favourite properties:

Elewana Collection

Elewana offers a particularly good safari circuit if you use its properties in North Tanzania – Tarangire followed by Ngorongoro, the Serengeti, and Zanzibar. It’s the only company to operate this full circuit.

The company’s ethos is to have as little impact on the environment as possible and to engage with local communities. It tries to use local materials, local craftsmen, and recyclable products. Each camp works closely with local community projects, and tries to employ and train the local people.

YZ favourite properties:

Kwando Safaris

Kwando has built a circuit of intimate and exclusive camps around northern Botswana, enabling guests to enjoy the best of Botswana’s wilderness areas and its wildlife. It even operates two camps in Botswana’s desert areas.

We think Kwando is very good. It is known for being ‘safari focused’ as opposed to solely ‘hospitality focused’. It offers adventure and a little bit of luxury – not on the same level as the ultra-luxurious lodges like Singita – but very comfortable nonetheless.

YZ favourite camps:

Sanctuary Retreats

Sanctuary is an extremely high-end company with a focus on the US market. It has some very good camps in Botswana, Tanzania, and Kenya.

A luxury adventure travel company, it originated in 1999 when its first Lodge, Sanctuary Okenana, was opened in Kenya. The company has grown steadily since then, and now owns and operates an additional 13 lodges and camps in Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, and Uganda.

YZ favourite properties:

Shenton Safaris

Another family-run company based out of Zambia, Shenton Safaris is owned and operated by Derek and Jules Shenton. While Derek is a third-generation conservationist and safari guide, Jules is a zoologist and wildlife photographer. Together, they are the perfect pair to create quality camps that focus on the traditional safari experience.

They established Kaingo Camp in 1992 and Mwamba Camp in 2000, and have developed these properties with the photographer in mind – we highly recommend their hides for Nat Geo-worthy photos.

If you want to book a safari with one of the reputable suppliers above, contact us here - or for more inspiration, take a look below:

Why Trust Yellow Zebra with your African Safari?

"Yellow Zebra are genuine specialists; they know the African bush like the back of their hand."

Brian Jackman, safari expert for The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Condé Nast, and the BBC

'Europe's Leading Safari Tour Operator' at the World Travel Awards

9 years in a row, since 2015

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