- Published
- 5 March 2026
- Reading
- 5 min read
- Where
- East and southern Africa
- Prices checked
- 16. Sep 2026.
The biggest safari packing mistake is not a forgotten item but the suitcase itself. Light aircraft weigh your bag and cap it at fifteen kilos.
A safari packing list differs from every other trip in one respect: your bag gets weighed. The light aircraft that fly to airstrips inside the parks allow fifteen kilos a passenger, and want a soft bag, because a hard case does not fit the hold.
The bag and the weight
A soft holdall, no rigid sides and no wheels if you can manage it. Fifteen kilos is the usual limit on light aircraft and normally includes hand luggage, but it varies by carrier — check before you pack. Lodges normally do laundry during the day, so you pack three changes of clothes, not seven. Whatever stays behind can be left at the hotel in Nairobi or Arusha — everyone does it and it is entirely normal.
Colours and layers
- Neutral colours — beige, olive, grey; you stand out less to other vehicles and in photos.
- Not blue or black — tsetse flies are drawn to them, and there are tsetse in parts of Tanzania.
- No camouflage — several African countries forbid it to civilians and confiscate it at the border.
- Layers — a morning at 1,500 metres can be ten degrees, midday thirty-five.
- Long sleeves in the evening — the mosquitoes that carry malaria are active from dusk.
Power and charging
Most camps run a generator for a few hours morning and evening, not all day. Sockets in Kenya and Tanzania are British, three rectangular pins; Namibia uses a different, round-pin type, so pack both adapters if one trip covers both. A twenty-thousand milliamp-hour power bank covers a full day of shooting; buy the adapter before you leave, because a camp has no shop.
Health, sorted in advance
Malaria is present in most East African safari parks; prophylaxis is prescribed by a doctor and starts before departure, not on arrival. Yellow fever proof is required on entry if you come from a country where it is present, and Zanzibar requires its own compulsory insurance at €38. All three are settled weeks ahead, not at the airport.
Kenya, in brief
What now
If this sounds like your trip, start here.
Amboseli
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If this sounds like you, there is also Nairobi, Masai Mara and Amboseli
East and southern Africa has no page of its own yet, but the region does. See which of them suits you, then pin what you have already done.
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