Stage one
Twenty minutes that decide the quality of everything after
A specialist can only be as good as the brief. This is how to write one that earns a real first draft.
The nine things worth telling us
- The window. Exact dates, or the fortnight. Everything else narrows from here.
- How many nights, and whether that is firm.
- Who is travelling, with ages. Ages decide camps more than any other single fact.
- Per person per night. Removes ninety per cent of the options and makes the rest useful.
- What you want the days to be like. The question nobody is asked and everybody can answer.
- Whether you have been before, and where. A second safari should not look like a first.
- Fixed points. An anniversary, a flight already booked, a camp somebody recommended.
- What you would hate. Long transfers, small aircraft, early starts, shared tables. All legitimate.
- The one thing that must be right. One or two. Ten is a wish list, not a constraint.
Describing days rather than destinations
This is the part that changes the draft, and almost nobody does it unprompted.
| Instead of | Say |
|---|---|
| "Somewhere luxurious" | "A camp small enough that we are not queuing for breakfast" |
| "Lots of wildlife" | "We would rather spend two hours with one leopard than tick off six species" |
| "Authentic" | "At least one day where we are out of the vehicle" |
| "Romantic" | "Not a communal dinner table every night" |
| "Adventurous" | "We would sleep out one night if it is genuinely comfortable" |
| "Off the beaten track" | "We mind other vehicles at a sighting more than we mind a long drive" |
Why to say the budget
People withhold the number because they assume it will simply be spent. In practice the opposite happens.
Without a figure a specialist builds to the middle and hopes. With one they build to it exactly — and when what you want does not fit inside it, they can say so in the first reply rather than the fourth. That reply is the one that saves you money.
The three that do not help
| What people send | Why it does not help |
|---|---|
| A list of camps from social media | Camps are the output. Naming them first bends the route to reach them. |
| "We want the Big Five" | Nearly every itinerary could produce them. It distinguishes nothing. |
| "Off the beaten track" | Everybody says it; almost nobody means it literally. Say what you are avoiding instead. |
More from our Africa guides
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Each of these is a focused guide we publish. Same Africa specialist behind every enquiry.
Ready to turn this into a real itinerary?
Send us your dates, who is travelling and roughly what you want to spend per person per night. Our Africa specialist comes back within 24 hours with a plan built around them and a costed quote.