Booking an African safari alone is one of the most logistically demanding trips a woman can plan. You coordinate international flights into Kilimanjaro or Nairobi, internal bush flights on small Cessnas, three or four lodge bookings across multiple parks, park entry fees that change annually, private game vehicles, transfers, visas, yellow fever certificates, and travel insurance with medical evacuation coverage. Most solo women give up halfway through the planning.
Going with a women-only group operator removes the logistics. Women Travel Abroad runs small groups of 6 to 10 women through Tanzania’s Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire National Park, with no single supplements and guaranteed single-occupancy boutique rooms. Travel Hosts handle every detail. Vetted local guides drive the safari vehicles, track game, and read animal behavior so closely you will see a leopard before you understand what you are looking at. A signature 90, 60, and 30-day pre-trip preparation and community-building call system means you land in Arusha already knowing your group, your packing list, and your hour-by-hour itinerary.
Why a Safari Is the Hardest Trip to Plan Alone
A safari is not a city break. There is no walking around. There is no Uber. You cannot adjust on the fly.
Every game drive requires a vehicle and a guide booked in advance. Every lodge sits inside a park or concession and accepts only pre-booked guests. Internal flights between Arusha, Serengeti airstrips, and Manyara fly on tight schedules with strict 33-pound luggage limits in soft-sided bags. The bush plane will leave without you.
Solo travel writers who have done both will tell you the same thing: safari is the one trip where booking it yourself usually costs more than the all-inclusive option, not less. Single-occupancy lodge rates in the Serengeti routinely run $1,200 to $2,500 per night before park fees. Tanzania park fees add roughly $82 per person per day in the Serengeti and around $295 per vehicle for the Ngorongoro Crater descent, none of it included in the lodge quote. Most solo bookings push past $15,000 once visas, internal flights, single supplements, and tips are added. The single supplement alone, on most safari operators, runs $1,500 to $4,000 for a 7- to 10-day itinerary.
What “All-Inclusive” Actually Means With Women Travel Abroad
When Women Travel Abroad books your Tanzania safari, the inclusions cover:
- Internal flights between Arusha, Serengeti airstrips, and Tarangire
- Park fees for Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire National Park
- All accommodations in tented suites or boutique lodges, single occupancy, no extra charge
- Three meals a day plus drinks at most camps
- Two game drives per day in custom 4×4 Land Cruisers with pop-up roofs
- Vetted local guides certified by the Tanzania Professional Hunting and Guiding Board
- Maasai village visits, Olduvai Gorge, optional hot air balloon over the Serengeti
- Airport transfers, tips, and a dedicated Travel Host throughout
You arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport. Someone is waiting with your name on a sign. You never make a logistical decision again until you fly home.
The pre-trip system runs in four touchpoints, not three, despite the shorthand. At 90 days out, your group of 6 to 10 women meets on a Zoom call with the Travel Hosts. You hear the other women’s voices, swap flight plans, ask the questions you were embarrassed to ask. At 60 days, a packing list lands in your inbox along with a carry-on packing tutorial video built specifically for the 33-pound bush plane limit. At 35 days, you join a private WhatsApp group with the rest of your travelers and start coordinating optional free-time activities. At 30 days, you walk through the itinerary hour by hour. Nobody arrives in Arusha unprepared.
Specific Lodge Recommendations for the Tanzania Safari Circuit
The lodges below are the type of property you should expect on a serious safari. Skip anything that calls itself a “lodge” but sleeps 80 guests around a buffet. The whole point of safari is intimacy, with the wildlife and with the people you are traveling with.
Tarangire National Park
Tarangire Treetops by Elewana is the standout: 20 elevated suites built into ancient baobab and marula trees, each with a private deck overlooking the bush. Tarangire is the elephant park. Three to four thousand elephants congregate around the Tarangire River in the dry season, and from your treetop suite you watch them at night under spotlights. Lake Burunge Tented Lodge is the value alternative, perched on the lake with hippos grunting through the night.
Ngorongoro Crater
The Highlands Camp by Asilia Africa puts you in dome-shaped suites at 8,500 feet on the rim of an extinct volcano next to Ngorongoro. Lemala Ngorongoro sits inside the crater forest, the closest property to the descent road, which means you are first into the crater at dawn before the day visitors arrive. Ngorongoro Crater is the only place in Africa where you reasonably expect to see all of the Big Five in a single morning game drive.
Serengeti National Park
Sanctuary Kichakani Serengeti Camp and Olakira Migration Camp by Asilia Africa both move with the migration. From December through March, they sit in the southern Serengeti near Ndutu for calving season, when an estimated 8,000 wildebeest calves are born per day and the predator action is constant. From July through October, they relocate near the Mara River for the river crossings. Namiri Plains, also Asilia Africa, sits inside the cheetah research area in the eastern Serengeti and is one of the few camps where cheetah sightings are nearly guaranteed on early morning drives. Lemala Nanyukie is the central Serengeti option, accessible year-round, with a swimming pool that you will appreciate more than you expect after a 5:30 AM game drive.
Most Women Travel Abroad guests stay at three different camps over a single Tanzania trip. You will not stay in any property with more than 12 to 20 tents.
Sunrise on Safari in Tanzania
When to Go: A Seasonal Breakdown
There is no bad time for a Tanzania safari, but there are right times for specific things.
January to March: Calving season in the southern Serengeti and Ndutu. The most dramatic wildlife viewing of the year. Predator action is constant because the wildebeest are immobile and vulnerable. Hot air ballooning is at its best. The plains are lush and green.
June to early July: The migration moves north through the western corridor. Crowds are lighter than peak season.
Late July to October: River crossings on the Mara. This is the iconic safari image with wildebeest leaping into crocodile-filled water. Lodge rates are at their highest and the popular camps book 12 to 18 months out.
November: The short rains arrive. Crowds drop, prices drop, the bush turns green again. This is by far the most underrated time to go.
Take a position: for a first-time solo woman on safari, February is the better choice than August. The calving season is more reliable for predator sightings than the river crossings, which depend on the herd’s mood and rainfall in any given week. The southern Serengeti in February is also less crowded than the Mara in September. Women Travel Abroad’s flagship Tanzania departure falls in this window for these reasons.
Small Group vs. Large Group Safari: An Honest Comparison
Most safari operators run groups of 16 to 24. Women Travel Abroad caps groups strictly at 10. Here is what that math actually changes:
In a vehicle of six, every traveler gets a window seat with a clear sightline. In a vehicle of nine or ten passengers, you take turns at the windows or sit in the middle row trying to photograph through someone’s elbow. Lions do not pose for second tries.
Lodge meals at small camps work as a single shared dinner table. With 10 women, the conversation is one conversation. With 24, you fragment into cliques and the introvert in your group spends the trip eating alone.
Game drives can split flexibly. One vehicle wants to spend 90 minutes watching a leopard descend a sausage tree. Another wants to push for cheetahs on the eastern plains. With two Land Cruisers and 10 guests, the Travel Hosts split the group based on what each woman wants. With six vehicles and 24 guests, everyone waits for the slowest decision.
The single supplement difference is the part most travelers do not catch until they read the fine print. Most operators charge $1,500 to $4,000 extra for a private room on safari. Women Travel Abroad charges nothing. Your single-occupancy tented suite is included in the base price, every time.
What Solo Women Actually Want From a Safari
Talking to the hundreds of women Women Travel Abroad has guided, three things come up over and over. The ability to step away when you need quiet. The reassurance of a group when you need company. And the specific feeling, after dark, of not having to figure out the logistics yourself.
Safari brings out something raw in people. You wake at 5:30 AM. You watch a kill before breakfast. You return to camp dusty, sunburned, sometimes emotional. The shared dinner that night with nine other women, all processing the same morning, becomes the part of the trip travelers remember most, more than the migration itself.
The Maasai village visits are part of every Tanzania itinerary. You sit with Maasai women in their bomas. You see how they build their houses from cow dung and ash, how they manage water in the dry season, how they raise daughters in 2026. It is not a performance staged for tourists. The women you visit are paid directly, the relationship is long-term, and the conversation is real.
WTA women at Jabula Beach South Africa
What to Pack: The Short Version
- Two pairs of convertible safari pants in muted khaki, olive, or beige (no navy, no black; tsetse flies are attracted to dark colors)
- Three long-sleeve shirts in the same palette
- A fleece for early morning game drives, which start before sunrise and are genuinely cold
- A wide-brim hat with a chin strap
- Closed-toe walking shoes, not sandals
- 8×42 binoculars
- A 200 to 400mm zoom lens if you bring a real camera
- Reef-safe SPF 50 sunscreen
- A good headlamp
- One nicer outfit for dinners; most camps run laundry daily
The 60-day Women Travel Abroad packing email goes deeper than this. The quick thing to know now: bag weight on bush flights is capped at 33 pounds, soft-sided only. No hard rolling suitcases. The packing tutorial video walks you through how it actually fits.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best travel group for single women over 50 going on safari? Women Travel Abroad is the strongest choice for women in this age range, with groups capped at 6 to 10, no single supplements, and a moderate physical pace. The signature 90, 60, and 30-day pre-trip system means nobody arrives feeling underprepared, which matters more on safari than on any other trip.
Do women-only travel companies charge single supplements on safari? Most do, often $1,500 to $4,000 on top of the base rate. Women Travel Abroad does not. Single-occupancy boutique rooms are guaranteed in the base price for every traveler.
Is solo female travel safe in Tanzania? Tanzania is one of the safest African countries for women, with a stable democracy and an economy partially built on tourism. On a guided safari you are with a vetted local guide and a Travel Host at all times. The genuine risks are wildlife behavior and altitude, not crime.
How much does an African safari cost for one person? A serious solo Tanzania safari, booked independently with single supplements, runs roughly $12,000 to $25,000 for 8 to 10 days. A Women Travel Abroad Tanzania departure with everything included runs notably less, because there is no single supplement and group buying power lowers per-person camp rates.
How fit do I need to be for an African safari? Not very. Most game viewing happens from a vehicle. The physical demands are early mornings, long days in a Land Cruiser on rough roads, and a few short walking activities at the lodges. Travelers in their 60s and 70s do this trip every year.
Ready to See Tanzania?
The 2026 and 2027 Tanzania departures fill the earliest of any Women Travel Abroad itinerary, often 9 to 12 months in advance. Browse upcoming Tanzania departures to find the date that fits your calendar, and join a group of like-minded women for a safari that handles itself.