The Grown-Up Travel Podcast

Mark Neely had never been to Africa before.

Two weeks later, we sat down in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, on the morning he flew home, and I asked him what he really thought.

This is a different kind of episode: not a scripted safari guide, not a lodge review, and not a polished testimonial. It’s a real conversation at the end of a real trip through Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Mark talks about his first impressions, rhinos at Grasslands,...

Planning an African safari? Here’s how I can help: https://grownuptravel.co/contactPrivate conservancy. Game reserve. Eco-reserve. Wildlife sanctuary. These terms appear throughout safari marketing - and they can mean very different things. At one end: one of the most significant conservation models Africa has produced. At the other: a fenced enclosure where a captive lion eats meat handed to it by a guard.

I’ve experien...

Planning an African safari? Here’s how I can help: https://grownuptravel.co/contact

Africa is life in 4K.That's a slightly ridiculous thing to say. But it's also the most accurate description I've found in 30 years of going back.This episode is about why so many modern holidays have started to feel strangely similar, why screens and routine have dulled some of what travel used to give us, and why Africa still has the power to ...

Planning an African safari? Here's how I can help: https://grownuptravel.co/contact

Kenya or Tanzania — which one should you choose for your safari? It's the most common question in African safari research. And it's almost always the wrong question.

In this episode I explain why anyone who gives you a confident answer to that question either doesn't know enough, or has a vested interest in your choice — including the conf...

Safari pricing is confusing. The range is enormous — from a few hundred dollars a night to several thousand — and the relationship between what you pay and what you experience is rarely what people assume.

In this episode I explain exactly why safaris cost what they do, and more importantly, what that money is actually buying. The answer surprises most people.

I've stayed in the most expensive camps on the continent and t...

Most people who go on an African safari have a genuinely good time. They get close to lions. They take great photos. They come home happy.

But some of them — if they're honest — sensed that something was slightly off. The convoy of vehicles at every sighting. The feeling of being one of many rather than one of few. The quiet thought, never quite voiced, that maybe there was a version of this that was different.

There is. ...