The growth of eco-tourism over the last few decades has led to a proliferation of so-called private game reserves across Southern Africa. It has seen many areas previously not under conservation, being turned into game reserves made commercially viable through tourism, rather than the traditional conservation funding model of government taxes combined with nominal entrance fees. In many places hunting farms have been turned into no-hunting-allowed private game reserves (although hunting is still a big money spinner in other places and not necessarily bad for conservation).

Private game reserves vary widely in terms of size, exclusivity, affordability and quality. We at Africa Deluxe Tours are of the opinion that a big five reserve should ideally be at least 10 000 hectares in size, preferably much larger, to have some ecological integrity. The larger a reserve the more freedom animals have to migrate for food and water, establish territorial domains, hunt, etc.

A very encouraging development in South Africa over a couple of decades has been the extension of national parks through the establishment of private "add-on" reserves. In such cases a particular national park's boundary fences are dropped where it borders a private reserve(s) thus expanding the area where animals are free to roam. Similarly private reserves drop fences between each other creating much larger combined private reserves. Good examples of both are the Sabi-Sands and Timbavati-Klaserie Reserves. Both consists of smaller private game reserves grouped together (e.g. Mala Mala, Sabi Sabi, Londolozi, etc, in Sabi Sands) and both feature open un-fenced borders with the huge Kruger National Park (±2 million hectares). Thus visitors to these reserves can experience the magic of the Kruger's wildlife, which inhabits one of the largest protected eco-systems in the world, combined with the exclusivity that most private reserves offer.

Exclusivity and cost normally goes hand in hand. The more exclusive a reserve (i.e. the fewer people it accommodates at any one time) the more expensive it tends to become. Mostly the quality of both the accommodation and the wildlife experience improves the more expensive it becomes. However, you can often have a top-class wildlife experience at much more affordable rates if you are willing to make do with simple accommodation and food. Africa Deluxe Tours has various wildlife and regular tours that include private reserves. We can also arrange tailor-made tours for you to include specific reserves.

(All images on this page courtesy of Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, an Africa Deluxe Tours preferred destination)