About Us
The art of the private Tanzanian safari
African Polecat Safaris designs private, tailor-made journeys through northern Tanzania, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar. From our home in Arusha, the gateway to the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire, we arrange every detail ourselves: the lodges, the guides, the vehicles and the pace of each day.
Travel Deep. Feel More.
Our Story
Crafted on the ground, not from a brochure
Arusha is where every northern-circuit safari begins, and it is where we have chosen to build ours. Being here means we know the circuit as it is this week, not as it was described in last season's brochure: which gates open earliest, how the crater roads are running, where the herds have moved and which lodges are at their best. That knowledge shapes every itinerary we write.
Our journeys are paced the way a safari ought to be travelled. Tarangire in the soft early light. A full day on the crater floor rather than a hurried morning. At least two nights in the central Serengeti, so there is time to watch rather than simply pass through. Every element can be refined around you, before you travel and on the day itself.
And every journey is private: your own expert guide, your own vehicle, your own rhythm. It is the only way a guide can linger for two hours at a leopard sighting because you wished to stay, and it is why our guests return, and send the people closest to them.
We are proud members of the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators, featured on SafariBookings and rated 5 out of 5 on Tripadvisor, where guests so often name their guide personally. Of all the recognition we receive, that is the one we value most.
How We Work
Our commitments to you
Three standards that define every journey we design, and that we hold to without exception.
-
Exclusively private
Every journey is reserved for you alone: one vehicle, one dedicated guide and your party. It means the days, the lodges and the pace can be shaped around you, before you travel and on the morning itself.
-
Deep, not wide
We focus on northern Tanzania, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar, and we know them intimately. Every park, camp and lodge in our itineraries is one our team works in week after week. We never resell a circuit from afar.
-
Guides of distinction
Our guides are the heart of every safari, and our guests remember them by name. They are our own team, chosen for their knowledge, their warmth and their eye for the moment, and never subcontracted.
Beyond The Journey
What a safari can leave behind
Helping young Tanzanians take the next step, and the one after it
A fortnight in Tanzania ought to leave more behind than a set of photographs. The part of this business that has nothing to do with selling safaris goes to children and teenagers here who are growing up with very little room for error.
Schooling, mostly. The encouragement that keeps a young person in it when a year goes badly, and the openings that let them carry on once school is behind them. Most of the difference gets made at the point where someone would otherwise have quietly stopped turning up.
Our guests come for their own reasons and leave with their own memories, and we would not dress that up as charity. But the same journeys are what make the work possible, and we would rather you knew it was going on than found out about it afterwards.
Leave something behind that keeps going.
