What is a golf safari?
A golf safari is a journey through Africa that weaves championship golf and wildlife safari into one itinerary — rounds at the continent's great courses by morning, game drives among lion, elephant and leopard by afternoon. It is two of travel's greatest experiences in a single trip, and done properly, each makes the other better.
One day, two halves — that's the whole idea.
The rhythm that makes a golf safari work is simple: golf in the morning, wild in the evening. You tee off early — African light is at its kindest then, and the courses are quiet — finish by lunch, and by late afternoon you are on a game drive watching elephants come down to drink as the light turns gold. At Leopard Creek Country Club the two halves literally share a fence: hippos grumble in the river below the 16th green, and your afternoon game drive starts twenty minutes from the 18th.
Between the two anchors sits everything else Africa does well — winelands lunches in Stellenbosch, high tea at the Victoria Falls Hotel, a mokoro dugout canoe through the Okavango's lily channels, an hour with mountain gorillas that guests struggle to describe afterwards. A golf safari is not a golf tour with a token game drive bolted on; it is the full African journey with golf woven through it. That's our line — safari first, golf woven through — and it is the test we hold every itinerary to.
Built for the people who don't play.
The quiet genius of the golf safari is what happens off the course. While the golfers play, the non-golfers — we call them the Gallery — are on a private game drive, at a spa, tasting wine, walking with a guide or photographing giraffe. Everyone reunites for lunch or sundowners with different stories to tell. It is the only kind of golf trip where the non-golfer routinely has the better day — and the reason couples and mixed groups book it again.
Who a golf safari is for.
Couples where one plays and one doesn't — the Gallery solves the oldest problem in golf travel. Groups of friends and golf societies chasing a once-in-a-lifetime trip with proper scorecards. Families — malaria-free reserves like Shamwari and Madikwe make the safari half genuinely child-friendly. And women's groups, the fastest-growing force in the game, for whom we run dedicated Ladies' Golf Safaris. The common thread: people who want one journey that gives everybody their best week of the year.
Length and intensity flex to suit: six days for Rwanda's gorillas and a Gary Player course, a fortnight for the classic Cape-to-Kruger arc, seventeen nights for a grand multi-country sweep. Every journey on this site can be reshaped and privately priced — nights, rounds, experiences, all yours to adjust.
Asked before you booked
What is a golf safari?
A golf safari is a journey through Africa that combines championship golf with wildlife safari in one itinerary — typically golf in the mornings and game drives in the afternoons and evenings, moving between golf destinations and safari lodges over one to two weeks.
Do golfers and non-golfers travel well together on a golf safari?
Better than on almost any other golf trip. While the golfers play, non-golfers — we call them the Gallery — are on game drives, wine estates, spa mornings or guided walks, and everyone reunites for lunch or sundowners. Nobody compromises.
How long is a typical golf safari?
Most run 7 to 14 nights: a short, intense trip like Rwanda's gorillas-and-golf takes 6 days, the classic South African arc 12 to 14, and grand multi-country journeys up to 17.
How much golf is on a golf safari?
As much or as little as you like — typically three to seven rounds. The defining trips put the wild first: a round at Leopard Creek with hippos below the green means more than seven forgettable ones.
Where are the best golf safaris?
South Africa offers the deepest combination (Fancourt, Leopard Creek, the Winelands, the Kruger); Kenya pairs Nairobi's historic clubs with the Maasai Mara; Zimbabwe and Zambia wrap golf around Victoria Falls; and Rwanda pairs a Gary Player course with mountain gorillas.
Do I need a good handicap for a golf safari?
No. Courses welcome all standards, caddies read the lines for you, and formats flex to the group. The wildlife does not check your index.
Ready to see what yours could look like?
Forty-one journeys across ten countries, every one with exact hotels, named courses and an honest guide price — and every one adjustable to the trip you actually want.
Explore the journeysTell us how you want to feel when you come home.
We'll build the wild, and the golf, around that — and nothing else.
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