How to pack for a safari in kenya
SAFARI PACKING GUIDE | What to pack for an East African Safari!
Timecodes:
what's up friends so a little while ago
we came back from a African safari 12
days in Kenya and Tanzania haven't seen
the video we made from that trip yet I'm
gonna leave links down below you can go
check out it's a really cool one about
animals in East Africa and the great
migration today
I thought we would do kind of a little
unpack with me / what I packed on our
safari trip so we went to Kenya and
Tanzania but this would be applicable to
let's say a good chunk of other safaris
in Africa as well hey so if you enjoyed
this video don't forget to give a thumbs
up and to hit that subscribe button for
more travel advice and adventures as you
can imagine if you were doing a safari
you're gonna be in a vehicle and a lot
of times the vehicles that you use are
gonna be the same ones that like
transport you and your luggage to and
from your combinations the type of bag
that you want to pack is a duffle bag or
a backpack so a soft sight like it's got
to be a soft bag having a really bag is
really not ideal for safaris since good
chunk of the time you might be going
from your vehicle to your accommodation
and you'll be walking on sand or dirt or
rocks so you can't really wheel your
bags you're most likely gonna be able to
carry them in wheelie bags when you're
carrying them it's just really awkward
and don't really like that another thing
is you might have a weight limit we had
15 kilograms so it's both 33 pounds for
our main bag that being said 15
kilograms is quite a lot like we fit all
our safari and/or Kilimanjaro stuff in
the same bag and we were still well we
were right at the weight limit so I'm
pretty sure you'll be able to fit what
you need in 15 kilograms but now when it
comes to day bags you have a couple
different options if you are bringing a
camera which I will get into and you
definitely should you're gonna want to
make sure you protect it the vehicles
that you ride in are very very bumpy
these are not paved roads for the
majority of the time that you are going
to be driving like 95 percent of time
they're not gonna be paved so you're
gonna want to make sure any camera
you bring is very very protective and
padded you don't really need to pack
like a shoe big day bag just kind of
some of your essentials like some water
some snacks maybe your passport any
other sunglasses you know usual day bag
stuff but just make sure it's padded if
you don't if you're not bringing a big
expensive camera you just have your
phone then just a little side satchel
works great that'll also work no problem
now if you're like us and you have a lot
of camera gear you might have laptops a
bunch of extra carry-on things that you
want with you and your safari vehicle
then you can bring a thicker backpack
like I mentioned make sure your gear is
padded because it will most likely be
placed in the vehicle floor or on the
side and it's it's very bumpy in these
vehicles so it's gonna get knocked
around quite a bit and I would not
recommend bringing any light-colored
bags because the floor of the vehicle is
gonna get quite dirty cuz you're gonna
be standing up and down and up and down
and up and down to look at animals while
we're on the topic of cameras let's talk
about cameras definitely gonna want big
a zoom lens as you possibly can
so we actually borrowed a lens from Sony
it was their 100 to 400 G master and oh
maybe taking photos of animals and that
much easier because while you can get
pretty close to them in the vehicles and
sometimes you get really lucky and
they're just like sleeping beside the
road sometimes you just want they're
just like right there and you just just
need that little extra bit sueb of
course if all you have is a
point-and-shoot that's perfectly fine
even a cell phone is fine because a good
chunk of people only brought their cell
phone so the reason your cell phone is
probably fine is because well you can
pack some binoculars binoculars are a
hundred percent a essential item for any
safari regardless of what camera you
have if you have binoculars
then you can at least see the animals
even if you can't take a photo that
close of them you can see them up and
close so most people they didn't have a
big camera they at least had been off
pretty sure everyone had binoculars
little travel hack for you if all you
have is a cell phone and a pair of
binoculars all you got to do is hold up
the cell phone to the eyepiece so hold
the camera up to the eyepiece of the
binoculars and you can open your camera
up and with a little maneuvering this is
a little bit of a skill required with
this because it's it's not perfect you
only have a small little window you can
actually take a zoomed in photo through
the binoculars and it kind of looks like
this so it's better than nothing right
at least you got an option there
[Music]
so all the clothes that I packed was for
a 12 day Safari knowing that there would
be options to get washing done at least
a couple of the places we were staying
we did a 12 day Safari in January which
was I say mid-january to end of January
which was considered the dry season in
Kenya and Tanzania although we had quite
a bit of rain but that's kind of where
we were and these are the clothings that
we packed for that now that being said
you're in the vehicle most of the time
you're in a safari so even if it is
raining you're kind of covered and
protected you just might want slightly
different pair of shoes and as well as
you kind of need a pack for everything
because when you're doing morning
safaris as you find out it's gonna be
cold you're doing evening ones it's
gonna be chillier as well during the day
sun's out you kind of want like variety
of everything so I packed two pairs of
shorts one was a little gene short
another was these like green khaki
shorts as well as four different short
sleeve tops so I have one t-shirt just
like that and then a couple of kind of
like sleeveless shirts that look really
really good these were awesome for
mixing and matching with the pair of
shorts for like a daytime outfit they
looked really cute on and I was pretty
happy the next thing that I packed was
eight one little romper I thought it
would be fun to have a nice romper and
it turned out really adorable in photos
not always the most practical I wore
these when we kind of were like well we
had most of the things that we were
doing was in the middle of the day not
in the morning or in the evening because
I couldn't really put like pants over
top I could put like a sweater over top
but it's more of like a good day outfit
next I had a light long-sleeve shirt so
this was so amazing I wore this quite a
lot because sometimes in the mornings it
would just be a little bit
as morning sometimes are so I didn't
really want to just be in my t-shirt or
like my short-sleeved shirt for the day
so I put this on and it was really
lightweight so worked very well I highly
recommend a lightweight long-sleeve
shirt then I also packed one long pair
pants for chillier mornings like when we
went hot-air ballooning at like 4:00
a.m. you're gonna want some pants also
because we were getting out of the
vehicle in the hot air balloon you
needed to cover your legs because if
you're walking in tall grass you know
eat normally find in tall grass tics
speaking of keeping ourselves warm this
sweater was my favorite sweater to wear
oh my African safaris because it was
very warm it zipped up so I could take
it off as soon as it started warming up
and it was just all around a very
versatile sweater I wore it in the
evenings award in the mornings I wore it
a lot because it cooled off quite
quickly when we were staying in Africa
now if you noticed all the clothes that
I showed you were very neutral colors
khakis earth tones that big because well
I originally I thought that's what
you're supposed to wear at safari and
the idea behind that was it was supposed
to not scare the animals away because
like bright reds or other unnatural
colors might scare the animals away I
learned that it doesn't really matter
because you're in a big vehicle that's
loud and it moves and you're inside it
and so just doesn't matter like the
animals are not gonna run away from your
red colored shirt so if you really want
to wear bright red on your safari do it
however there is one instance that you
do want to avoid certain colors and
those colors would be blacks and blues
dark blues that's because of the tet see
fly a very annoying pest that they have
in Tanzania we didn't run into a Kenya
but it has any we were at
but in a couple spots and tipsy flies
bite no one really wants to be bitten by
any bug but you really don't want to get
bitten by these flies because they carry
a parasite some of them some of them
carry a parasite that when they bite you
causes a disease that leads to called
African sleeping sickness and it's not
very good
now the areas we were in don't the bug
the tittie flies there don't really
carry it but other areas that you could
be venturing in could carry it I would
read up more about the flies if there is
if there are concern on the safari that
you're gonna be going on these were just
my outfits that I wore when I slept the
biggest thing to note is that you're
gonna be sleeping in a variety of
temperatures if you were like doing any
kind of glamping or camping or tenting
on your safaris
so pack warm clothes I packed warm
fleecy pants and another longest sleeve
shirt because I get quite cold at night
and when you're not like when you're
sleeping in a tent even if it's a little
giorious tent they're not insulated so
but also have like t-shirts to sleep in
because it can get quite hot if you're
not in a tent rain jackets this was very
important I feel like we didn't really I
didn't really and I got only wore my
rain jacket once but if we were
traveling in the rainy season we could
wear it quite a bit you never know
always bring a rain jacket a lovely
safari hat I love having a hat as
annoying as this exact one was because I
can't really pack it so I had to carry
it with me it was rather enjoyable to
wear also it protects my head from like
Sun yeah generally a wide-brimmed hat
with a neck strap as you see in many
other Safari photos is the recommended
hat because it can get a little windy a
little breezy on the on the vehicle but
if you know how to stay on your head ok
then you'll be fine without a strap so I
brought 2 pairs of shoes with me one
pair of sandals and one pair of trainers
this was a big debate for me when we
were going into the safari of what
I wonder Briggs I really wanted to bring
like a cute pair of combat boots but I'm
very glad I actually brought these
trainers because most of the time it was
pretty warm when I was wearing these
shoes and if I wore like a pair of like
timberlands or my roots boots my feet
would be pretty sweaty also when you're
in the vehicles at least the vehicles we
were in you're allowed to kind of stand
on the seats
some of them but you have to take your
shoes off so having a shoe that you can
kind of like easily slip on and off was
very helpful a slightly better option
than these trainers because they are
like mesh here would have been a light
hiking shoe sort of like a trip not
quite like a trail runner but a light
hiking shoe I feel like would have been
more of a perfected option but these
were kind of all that I had so I went
with them another very very important
thing to note though if you're bringing
any shoes any footwear with white soles
they're not gonna be white when you
leave Africa they're gonna be read at
least Mayan art and everybody else is
white shoes that were in many other
safaris are very red because the soil is
red so if you encounter any kind of mud
they're gonna stay in your shoes red and
this was after washing and scrubbing a
pair of sunglasses to protect your eyes
from the Sun a battery pack for extra
battery I'd also recommend getting a
pretty big battery pack because
sometimes some of the accommodations you
can stay at might not necessarily have
power 24/7 because they could be running
off a generator especially if they're
more remote which is a case with a
couple of our combinations so at least
you have the option to charge up your
phones
cameras etc from the battery pack you
can't plug into the walls as well as and
recommend bringing adaptors whatever
else you need water bottles now this is
the water bottle that we brought on our
safari which I wouldn't not recommend
this one it's just we were going to
Kilimanjaro right after so
we needed a sturdy one however though
the wide mouthpiece here made it very
tricky to drink when we were in a in our
vehicles because the vehicles were
shaking so it's just very messy just got
water everywhere what not recommends I
would however recommend something more
like this that has a smaller mouthpiece
much more practical for drinking in a
vehicle as well as show you it can't or
cannot have a filter this is really up
to you and it depends on where you're
staying all of the places that we had a
refilled water jug so a lot of the
accommodations would have just big water
jug so you could refill at your water
bottle with so those are all filtered
they were all clean drinking water you
don't really need a filter but if you
weren't necessarily staying in
combinations with that or you're just
feeling a little bit you know uneasy
about the water situation you can get
yourself a water bottle that has like
these really good bacterial viral
filters life straw is one of the brands
that we've used many times before I
don't know if this one is specifically
Lystra but you can google them any
outdoor store will have them and that
will filter like 99.9% of all the bad
stuff out of your water another nice
thing is you can get collapsible water
bottles so this folds up like that
amazing like it's tiny my water bottle
back together sunscreen and bug spray
two very essential items hand sanitizer
and like wet wipes these are very
important just for cleaning your hands
like a lot some of the times we were
doing picnics so we'd be like on safari
all day and then we do picnics and
sometimes our washrooms other times not
it's just always a good thing to kind of
have a little bit of hand sanitizer and
the wet wipes specifically cuz then it
kind of cleans your hands a bit more
then on our at least on our trips cash
and specifically US Dollars Kenya and
Tanzania
they preferred US Dollars
to their own local currency although
they still accepted their own local
currency it's just good to have cash on
hand and small bills like when you go to
the bank and they give you like hundreds
ask them for smaller bills because they
will it was very very difficult to break
hundreds 50s even 20s when we were
staying at these lodges or dealing with
local vendors like if you're buying
souvenirs they're not really gonna have
change for a hundred US dollars or even
to give you that much change back in
their local currency so small bills in
cash and your own first-aid kit
most likely any of the tour providers
the guides the hotels anyway you're
staying will have first aid kits but
it's always a good idea to have your own
personal kit with you work you know
emergencies and that sort of jazz so
that's pretty much everything that I'm
going to cover in this packing video and
now there are several things that I did
leave out such as a power adapters now
the countries we went to we needed a UK
adapter but it could be different
depending on the countries that you're
going to so pack accordingly as well as
all my toiletries but because I did a
video just recently about what I packed
so you can go watch that links down
below there I'll also leave it in the
card as well as all of the day bag carry
on things like passports my phone cables
but these are typically things that I'd
bring on any trip so not safari specific
if you are interested in seeing an
updated packing guide on that I can do
it like a day bag carry-on as well as if
you've been out in a safari and you
think there was anything missing here
that was super helpful for you when you
went on safari let me know down below
and they'll help other people as well
thanks for watching hit that subscribe
button and I'll see you guys later bye
Related queries:
what to pack for kenya safari in august
what to pack for kenya safari in july
how much does it cost to go on a safari in kenya
what to pack for masai mara safari
how much is a safari trip to kenya
