An African Hunting Safari can cost anything from $1 500 to upwards of a $100 000.
In another post (The Ultimate Guide to Understanding African Hunting Safaris) we explore many components of your African Hunting Safari. We also discuss the hunting costs of a Safari in short.
In this post, we will explore the costs of an African Hunting Safari further by breaking it up into multiple factors and attaching real world examples. The cost of your trip is completely dependent on what you are looking for and by using this guide, you will have a much better idea of what to expect. You will also be pleasantly surprised by how achievable such a trip is for you, your family & your friends.
The total cost of your hunting Safari can be understood as four distinct factors: Travel to Africa, the Safari Day Rate, the Trophy Tag Cost, and the Taxidermy Cost.
1) Travel Cost to Africa
Whether you book first class or economy is entirely up to you, however you need to get to Africa. There isn’t much to elaborate on this point, other than to say the average cost of flights to South Africa from the USA is around $1500 – $2500, depending on your ticket and route. We have also found that a good route to fly, irrespective of your home country, is via Dubai. Your port of entry, most of the time, will be OR Tambo International in Johannesburg, South Africa. You may also click here to find up to date airline tickets.
2) The Safari Day Rate
To keep things simple, most African hunting outfitters offer an all-inclusive day rate, which covers your in-country transport, your accommodation, your meals, your drinks, your hunting guide, your hunting vehicle and other gear, and more. Here, the terms “most outfitters” & “and more” is key. When looking for a hunt, make sure to check, and if it is not available, ask for a complete list of included & excluded costs, and explicitly ask for a list of any additional charges that might apply.
3) The Animal Cost
This is where most of the differences in price come in to play. An Impala trophy might cost you as little as $300 depending on the outfitter, whereas a standard Leopard tag costs an average of $30 000. As you can see, the costs of your animal tags are completely dependent on what you want to hunt, and what you are prepared to pay. For an up-to-date Hunting Tag Pricelist, you can click here. An important note on animal tags is to make sure that the price quoted is for a trophy animal, if that is what you are going for. We have caught outfitters, more than once, offering clients extremely low tag costs only for the client to discover that they were purposefully obfuscated. The most popular tactic is to quote clients on cull-animals, and then pretend they didn’t know any better once you are in camp; forcing you to pay any amount they so wish for the trophy variant of said animal.
4) Taxidermy & Trophy Shipping
A good rule of thumb is that your Taxidermy costs will be around 50% of the trophy animal cost. You may also work on an average of $2 000 for shipping of the trophy to your home country. Please note that this is only averages, and exceptions apply. We will speak more in detail about taxidermy later in this post.
As you can see, there are a couple of functions which all come in to play for your final Safari cost. The only costs relevant to your chosen outfitter are the day-rates, and the trophy tag costs. But even then, many factors come in to play.
At Pioneer, we always recommend that hunters who visit Africa for the first time make use of a pre-made hunting package. Hunting packages are usually cheaper than custom made Safaris, but even more important is the convenience of knowing what the final amount is and knowing everything is included.
Let’s now have a look at what hunting packages are, and other ways you can book your Safari:
Hunting is an immensely personal experience which means that nothing is necessarily set in stone. A client can always speak to the outfitter about their specific needs and make sure that your trip is exactly what you want it to be.
That said, there are four main types of Safaris that you can choose to book, all of which are setup slightly different, but with big benefits to each. They are: Pricelist Booking, Pre-made Packages, Cancelation Hunts, Early Bookings.
1) Pricelist Booking
If you are very specific about your hunting Safari, then booking from our pricelist is the best option for you. This method is usually a bit more tedious as we have a lot of details to work out with you, but it also means that you have a Safari exactly as you’ve dreamt of it.
When booking from the pricelist, you simply need to look at which species you wish to hunt, then add on the day rates and number of people that will be part of your group. Not all species on the pricelist is necessarily available at the same locations, so we will make recommendations based on the information you have sent us.
At Pioneer, we’ve made this process even easier for you with our cost calculator. Simply select the options relevant to you, and the calculator will automatically compute your total Safari cost. Send us your enquiry right from the calculator itself, and we will get back to you.
2) Hunting Packages
A hunting package is the easiest, and most affordable way to book your hunting Safari. It does not allow for the same level of flexibility as when you book from our pricelist (because everything is pre-designed) but it does offer the best value and easiest all-inclusive experience. In addition, a well-established hunting outfit such as Pioneer offer multiple hunting packages for you to choose from. We have designed our hunting packages by using our experience of what the most popular configuration of Safaris are and compiled these into excellent value deals.
A hunting package is an all-inclusive offer, meaning one easy price includes your trophy tags, your accommodations, your to-and-from airport transfers, your tracking, skinning and taxidermy delivery and much more.
If this is your first trip to Africa, or you are someone who appreciates good value, then we highly recommend you book an all-inclusive hunting package.
3) Cancelation Hunts
From time-to-time you may see email newsletters or social media posts about cancelation hunts. Due to the nature of hunting trips and all the costs foregone to arrange these trips, outfitters require deposits from clients to secure a booking. These deposits are used for a multitude of things and also help the outfitter in organizing their calendars. This is standard practise in all tourism industries, not just the hunting industry, and for good reason.
However, and unfortunately for the outfitter & client involved, it does happen that life happens. For many reasons, hunters must cancel their hunting trips at the last minute. The outfitter can then offer these cancelation hunts to other hunters at a substantially reduced cost due to the deposit already being paid.
Cancelation hunts are great if you are looking for a bargain but is more restricted than any other option available to you. For starters, they are not readily available, you will have a short notice of their availability, and the dates are more often than not inflexible.
If you wish to be notified of cancelation hunts, the best way to do this is to join the Pioneer Club, which is our regular newsletter. You may also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
4) Early Bookings
At Pioneer we believe in fair and honest relationship with the people who join us as clients, but very quickly become friends. That is why we consistently try to find ways where we can create win-win situations. Our “Early Bookings” program is one such a method.
By booking your hunt in advance, we have a very predictable next year. And as a thank you for being pro-active, we return the favour by giving you special pricing. To see the latest such deal, you can visit our promo’s page:
Pioneer offers a Safari budget option starting from $100 per day! Read on to learn how this works.
When we think of hunting in Africa, the image we conjure up is a bit different than that which an international hunter might imagine. This is rather obvious, because we are local Africans, and in Africa (by Government law) the way we get to hunt is much different than how international clients hunt.
South African law, as in many other African nations, dictates certain standards and requirements for a company to be a legal outfitter. Some of these include fully catered meals, max. two hunters with one guide, daily housekeeping and many other similar laws.
To us, these laws are great, as they set a standard to which all outfitters should live up to. This results in a better experience for all clients. At Pioneer we offer luxurious accommodations with a large staff count to achieve this and make sure you get the best value during your Safari.
However, that image we conjure up when we think of hunting? It is a bit more rugged, a bit more diy, and a bit more self-catered. Yet, it is exactly the same amount of adventure! In fact, it might be even more adventure than you would get with all those luxuries!
That is why we have created the Economy Safari option. This budget option opens African hunting to every hunter from around the globe and breaks down the financial barriers that keep you from embarking on your dream hunt!
With Pioneer Safari’s Economy option, we give you the freedom to make your own choice when it comes to what should be included in your Safari. Our Economy Budget option should not be mistaken as a watered-down experience, however. You make use of the same luxurious accommodations and hunt the same exceptional trophies. The main difference between our other options and the Economy option, is that the latter is not all-inclusive. For example, a continental breakfast is included, but lunch and dinner are self-catering where we give you all the facilities, but you prepare the meals. However, you have the freedom to also order your meals from the kitchen. With Economy, you are in control of the budget.
Africa caters to all hunters, including children, senior hunters & disabled hunters.
Anyone can hunt in Africa due to the variety of hunting styles and types of hunting areas.