Can I Self Drive Safari in East Africa? An Honest Review

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A look at what it’s like to self-drive in East Africa and whether it’s worth the money or trouble involved.

Every blog post I write stems from a series of unsuccessful Google searches. Somewhere while I was deep in trip-planning mode, I got frustrated with the lack of useful information available on the internet. I had concocted this grandiose idea of overlanding through the “safari” countries — Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. I imagined it would save me thousands on organized safari tours and offer a more immersive and peaceful wildlife experience. But I had never set foot in East Africa before. I had never even been to proper Africa. My only dalliance with the continent was a backpacker-style trip to Egypt several years prior. I wasn’t even sure that rental cars could cross borders, if you could enter parks without guides, and if it was an ill-advised idea considering potential road conditions.

But my husband and I had a few good road trips under our belt. We spent a month traveling across the vast taiga of Mongolia, motorcycled across Pakistan, and traversed the northern reaches of Iraqi Kurdistan with little plan on previous adventures. So we went for it. And now, I can come back to you with the information that I was searching for before our wheels touched down on African soil.

Read More: Our Ultimate East African Road Trip Itinerary.

This blog post covers all the major concerns we had before we planned our independent trip through the region.

CAN You Plan a DIY Safari Road Trip Through East Africa?

Are you allowed to rent a car and just drive into the national parks and reserves in this region of the world?

The answer is a resounding yes!

Most car rental companies in East Africa (Road Trip Africa, Active African Vacations, etc) offer cross-border rentals of 4×4 vehicles. This East African agreement allows you to freely take your rental car into Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania with little trouble. Just make sure that you arrange the necessary paperwork with your rental company beforehand.

The other major deciding factor in this plan was the safaris themselves. The good news is, not only do you not require a guide to enter most parks in East Africa, we found it actually preferrable to drive ourselves! There’s ZERO difference (other than price) in simply purchasing a park entrance ticket for yourself rather than joining a guided safari tour. The wildlife experiences in the park are the exact same. It’s not like paying for a luxurious safari tour gives you behind the scenes access to the really good animals. It’s just a national park.

Whether you plan to stick to one country or traverse the region, a self-drive safari is easy to arrange.

Read More: The Best Destinations for Wildlife in East Africa.

Why Self-Drive in East Africa?

There are many reasons to choose a self-drive safari in East Africa rather than join a tour or hire a guide. Just the fact that you are reading this blog post means that I probably don’t need to lay them out for you here. But here are some of the less obvious pros to independent travel that we discovered while driving across the region.

1. You Get More Time With the Wildlife.

One thing most people don’t realize about the safari tours is that they are on a tight and highly regulated schedule. Even a private tour personalized with a local guide is going to stick to a timetable. Your guide runs the show. This means that when you come across a cheetah and 3 of her cubs hunting in the middle of the day, you’ll have to desert her to go eat your lunch at a picnic site rather than sit and watch for as long as your heart desires.

But not so, when you drive yourself.

I can’t tell you how many times we waited out all the other safari cars to be the only person in sight. We were first up in the morning and last out of the park at night. If you’re a wildlife lover, then YOU want to be in control of what you look for and how long you stay with each animal. Self-driving is the only way to have that kind of freedom.

2. It IS Cheaper. (Kind of)

This is a question many people have, myself included, when they plan a self-drive safari. Because the truth is East Africa is expensive. Going on safari in this region of the world is expensive. Just the price of the rental car alone is a hefty price tag to pay. And that’s before you factor in park entrance fees, gas, and campsites each night.

The reality is…we paid less per day than if you were to join a typical safari tour. But our trip was far longer than the average guided tour because we were driving ourselves. What shook out to a full drive day for us would likely be covered in half the time by a packaged tour that rushes through the country at the fastest speed possible.

But I wrote a full blog post breaking down the costs of self-driving so you can better understand which route is actually cheaper for you.

3. You Get More of the BEST Experiences in East Africa

African cities are the bane of my existence. Few redeeming qualities can be found even by the most optimistic traveler. But camping in East Africa beneath the stars is an experience that everyone should have at least once in their life.

Self-drivers will get that experience every single night. You’ll spend your trip hopping from campsite to campsite, enjoying the varied landscapes of Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya, and better understand the country than travelers who simply fly in and fly out of iconic tourist destinations. In many cases, the in-between places in these countries can reveal a lot about a place.

While the bucketlist-worthy experiences were remarkable in East Africa, like trekking to see gorillas, it was the unexpected joys of places like Kidepo Valley, elephants munching around our camp in Tarangire, and the twisting roads of Iten that made traveling in the countries truly memorable.

Read More: Which Country is Best for Gorilla Trekking in East Africa?

4. Self Drive Safari is a Better Safari Experience

Many people are worried about not spotting wildlife within the parks if they forgo a guide, but we did not have the problem. Just the opposite, in fact. The two times we hired a guide in East Africa, WE spotted all the wildlife before he did. This is either because we are exceptional wildlife spotters, OR we just happened to be more keenly looking for wildlife.

We met travelers who had booked a 7-day safari, and when the car broke down, causing them to miss an entire day of wildlife watching in the park, they were issued no refunds for that day. We also met people whose guided group safaris had changed plans on them at the last minute and they ended up missing out on some really great parks (like Tarangire) for reasons unknown and with no explanation. When you have control of your own safari experience, these kinds of things don’t happen.

You also can’t describe the feeling of being the ONLY car next to a lion or cheetah without a guide. This kind of experience is what safari is all about.

Obviously, there are some excellent guides and wonderful guided tours in East Africa. I’m just sharing some of the stories we heard from others who had booked budget-friendly tours and private excursions.

Is it Safe to Self-Drive in East Africa?

During our 3-month self-driving route through East Africa, we experienced no bribery, no scams, and no safety concerns. Could this just be exceedingly good luck? Of course. However, I think the security concerns of theft, robbery, and assault in East Africa are dramatically over-inflated.

The riskiest place is Nairobi or any East African city after dark. But you won’t be spending your time in cities. You’ll be enjoying the wild spaces and national parks. In these remote areas, everyone we encountered was helpful and kind. Sure, many people were hopeful for handouts or asked for money, but asking is far different from coercing or taking.

Wild camping is not typical or permitted in most of this region, so you’ll spend your nights in secured campsites or national parks, eliminating many potential problems.

Road Conditions for Self-Drivers in East Africa

Arguably, the biggest concern when questioning whether you are capable of this epic road trip.

When scouring the internet for personal accounts of the roads and people who drove them you *might* come across photos like this one. I promise you, if you’re driving in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania during the dry seasons you WILL NOT EVER experience a road that looks like this one.

The vast majority of major roadways in all three countries are paved. Yes, you’ll experience areas riddled with pot-holes and have to contend with truck drivers who treat every road like their own personal speedway, and you’re just an obstacle to pass, but these are relatively easy to navigate.

Outside major cities, you’ll rarely have to contend with traffic, and even within them, the driving is nothing you wouldn’t have seen in Southeast Asia or South America.

As for the dirt roads, of which there are many, you’ll usually just take it slow, navigating around holes, rocks, washboards, and bumps with ease. There are a few potentially dicey areas that I cover in my Uganda Road Trip Itinerary that can be quite muddy after the rains but there are alternative routes to take that I outline if the weather isn’t in your favor.

Read More: How to have an ethical overnight visit with the Karamoja in Uganda.

What It’s REALLY Like to Self-Drive in East Africa

Here is a collection of photos taken while on the many roads of East Africa that give you a good idea of what to expect when driving in the region.

Here’s the IMPORTANT need-to-know information about self-driving in East Africa.

• There will ALWAYS be people around. We worried (unnecessarily) that our car would break down and we would become stranded with no way to contact anyone for help. But in three months, there was not a single road so untraveled that we would have broken down and starved to death in the wild.
• If you take it slow…every road is fairly easy to navigate.
• Mud will not be the problem you think it will be. As long as you are not traveling in the rainy season.
• Know how to change a tire. This is likely the only vehicle problem you will have.

We LOVED traveling this way while in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. While navigating yourself through a country can be more challenging, it opened the doors to all kinds of different experiences and made our time in East Africa really special. I highly recommend giving at least a short road trip a try.

Country Roads Ranked Best to Worst: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda. This is based solely on the destinations we visited in each country. Kenya’s main roads are very good.

Our Favorite East Africa Road Trip Routes

These are our recommended routes through specific East African countries.

Self Drive Safari Guides to Specific National Parks

We’ve got in-depth self-drive guides to some of the most popular parks in East Africa. (*Serengeti coming soon*)

Cost of Self-Driving in East Africa vs Joining a Tour

If you’re considering self-driving in East Africa just to save some money…I have some bad news for you. This is NOT a cheap trip. No East African safari is truly budget-friendly. Depending on how many countries/parks you want to visit, it can easily teeter into the multiple thousands of dollars per person for even a short 1-2 week trip. While day-to-day road-tripping through the region may be cheaper, you’ll be traveling for far longer than a packaged guided safari would. And with a car rental ranging from $80-$200 per day…costs can add up.

Read More: Is a Self-Drive Safari ACTUALLY Cheaper? A complete cost comparison of self-driving and guided tours.

I recommend self-driving to everyone considering a long trip to East Africa. The experience was one of my favorite to date, and I didn’t find it that difficult. Mongolia is a road trip that IS NOT for the faint of heart. But while it definitely wouldn’t hurt to have some previous road-tripping in the countryside under your belt, I also think that pretty much everyone with a license can figure it out and drive in East Africa. Don’t let people who haven’t embarked on a self-drive safari in East Africa dissuade you from the adventure of a lifetime!

Save This Self Drive Safari for Later!