Dunes, deltas and reefs. Which day out is worth it?
What a night in a Sahara camp really costs. Whether the balloon over the Serengeti is worth six hundred dollars. Which Giza tour gets you inside the pyramid. Reviews of the tours you can book across Africa.
Four days out that decide the shape of the trip.
A dune camp, a pyramid, a game drive and a balloon at dawn. What each one costs and what the people who took it say.
- 01Three days south3-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert TourMarrakech to Merzouga and back, sleeping in the erg. The long drive is the price of the only dunes that look like the photographs.
02Pyramids before the coachesPyramids & Great Sphinx Private Tour with Camel RideA private car, the plateau and the Sphinx before the coach parties arrive. Camel time is included and entirely optional.
03Nairobi, half dayNational Park & Optional Elephants & Giraffe CenterLions inside the city limits, with the skyline behind them. The cheapest real game drive on the continent.
04Sunrise over the SerengetiSerengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfastAn hour above the migration, then a table laid in the grass. The one splurge nobody regrets.
Ten countries carry most of what Africa sells.
Morocco and Egypt between them hold more than half the tours on this site. Below them sit the safari countries, the Cape, and the islands out in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic. Pick a country and the best day out in it comes first.
Stony, sandy or three days south. Pick your desert.
Every desert trip in Africa is really one of three decisions. An afternoon on the flats an hour from town, a dune camp you sleep in, or a full crossing that eats three days of the holiday. Here is what each costs to board.
Eight days out that book faster than anything else here.
All the reviews, every country →Eight tours, four countries, and a good sense of what Africa actually books. Prices are per person and current.
1
Agafay Desert Sunset, Camel Ride, and Dinner Show
Leave Marrakech by air-conditioned bus for the Agafay Desert, about 40 minutes away. Ride a camel for 15 to 20 minutes, visit an argan oil cooperative, sip Moroccan tea, watch sunset, and eat dinner beside a campfire with Berber music and a fire show. Guides such as Youssef Koboy, Abdillah, Akoun, and Ayoub are frequently assigned.
From · $20
Read our review →
2
Ouzoud Waterfalls Guided Hike and Boat Trip
from $17
3
Atlas Mountains, Ourika Valley, Waterfall & Lunch
from $16
4
3-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert Tour
from $134
5
Luxor Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun Tomb Trip
from $76
6
Majorelle Garden Entry Tickets
from $31
7
Marrakech Quad Bike Experience: Desert and Palmeraie
from $14
8
Day Trip to Ouarzazate and Ait Benhaddou
from $21
The Red Sea reef is twenty minutes from the hotel door.
Hurghada and Sharm sit on coral that would be a long-haul trip anywhere else. Further south the boats change shape: a dhow off Zanzibar, a catamaran out of Grand Baie, a felucca on the Nile at Aswan. Cheap, half-day, and almost always the best value on a coastal week.
A safari is a spend. These are the ones that hold up.
The gap between a half-day at Nairobi National Park and a week under canvas in the Serengeti is a factor of fifty in price, and both are in here. Read the drive times before the star ratings: most of a cheap safari day is spent on a road.
- 1Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfastfrom $550
- 2Big Five Game Reserve with Lunchfrom $236
- 3National Park & Optional Elephants & Giraffe Centerfrom $80
What a day out in Africa actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A Marrakech quad afternoon and a Serengeti balloon are both here, two hundred dollars apart.
Medina walks, quad afternoons, camel rides, reef boats out of Hurghada and the half-day park runs.
The full-day standards: Giza with a guide, Cape Point and the penguins, Chobe for the day, the Atlas passes.
Balloons, multi-day desert crossings, Nile cruises and private camps with a vehicle to yourself.
Three sights the rest of the world has no version of.
Deserts, reefs and big animals turn up on several continents. A pyramid you can walk inside, an erg the size of a country, and a mile of river falling into a gorge do not.
The Pyramids and the Sphinx
The plateau sits at the edge of the Cairo suburbs, close enough that the last stop on the tour is usually a traffic jam. Entry to the plateau and entry inside a pyramid are two different tickets, and the inside one is capped daily, sold at the gate and gone by mid-morning. Anything sold as a private tour is really a car and a guide, which on this site is worth the difference.
- 1Pyramids & Great Sphinx Private Tour with Camel Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 6,335 reviews
- 2Tour to Giza Pyramids and The Egyptian Museum★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,016 reviews
- 3VIP All inclusive Best of the best Giza Pyramids,Sakkara,Memphis★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,164 reviews
Sleeping in the erg
The dunes that everyone pictures are at Merzouga and Erg Chigaga, roughly ten hours from Marrakech through the Tizi n Tichka pass and the Draa valley. That is why almost every trip is three days: two of them are the drive. Camps range from a shared tent with a bucket shower to a suite with a plunge pool, and the stars are identical from both.
- 13-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 15,308 reviews
- 2Merzouga 3-Day Desert Safari with Food★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 12,232 reviews
- 33 Days Desert Tour From Marrakech To Merzouga Dunes & Camel Trek★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 10,125 reviews
Victoria Falls
A mile and a half of river drops into a gorge and throws the spray back up as rain, so the walk along the rim soaks you between February and June and the flow thins to rock by November. The Zimbabwe side has the long viewpoint path, the Zambian side has Devils Pool at low water, and the day boats up the river run into elephant almost every evening.
- 1Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 12-13 minutes Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,391 reviews
- 2Victoria Falls: Dinner Cruise on the Zambezi River★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 925 reviews
- 3Victoria Falls: Chobe National Park Day Trip with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 518 reviews
Four African bookings that will not wait.
Most of this continent can be arranged from a hotel desk the night before. These four run on baskets, convoys, park quotas and fixed departure days that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Balloon Flight, Berber Breakfast & CertificateBaskets fly at first light and carry a fixed number of seats. In the dry season they are full weeks out, and a cancelled flight is a weather call, not a choice.
- 023-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert TourTwo long driving days bracket one night in the dunes, so these run on set departure dates rather than on demand.
- 034-Days Nile Cruise From Aswan To Luxor including Abu Simbel and Hot Air BalloonThe road south of Aswan is run as a timed convoy that leaves before dawn. Miss the assembly point and there is no later one.
- 04Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfastPark fees, a vehicle and a camp bed are booked as one block, and the crater rim has a fixed number of beds on it.
Two in the afternoon in Marrakech, and nothing outdoors is a good idea.
From May to September the middle of the day is unusable across North Africa. Both halves of the answer are indoors and cheap: a covered souk, a hammam, a cooking room, a museum with the shutters down. Walk at eight, eat at one, and start again when the call to prayer goes at six.
Choose a country
By city, park and landmark
Six places people plan a whole trip around.
Table MountainReviews that landed in the last few days.
Everything filed since →
Full Day Small Group Wine Tour Cape Town and Stellenbosch
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Best of Cape Town Full-Day Private Tour with Table Mountain
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Drumstruck at Silvermist. Live African Drum Show & Wine tasting
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Cruise and Dine Dinner / Cape Town: Sunset Champagne Cruise and 3-Course Dinner
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Cruise and Dine Lunch / Cape Town: Coastal Motor Cruise and 2-Course Lunch
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Cheetah Outreach Tour Somerset West, Gordon’s Bay and Strand Beaches
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Cape of Goodhope Tour a Full Day Exploring the Cape Peninsula
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