As a leading conservation and hospitality company, Wilderness Safaris focuses on immersing guests in their many fascinating environments. Guiding them through each expansive private concession. Creating intimate encounters between them, nature and culture. And ultimately, increasing the world’s wilderness by involving more and more people in their purpose.
It all started in 1983...
40 years ago in Botswana, two passionate guides fell in love with Africa’s wilderness. They set about creating opportunities for guests to immerse themselves in, and make an impact on, Africa’s wild places. First in Botswana, then Namibia and South Africa. followed by Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. Today, we are proud to be a global collective helping to conserve the world’s iconic wilderness areas.
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40 Years of Their Story
What began as a passionate group of Botswana guides in 1983 has evolved into a world-leading conservation and hospitality company. They are responsible for safeguarding and sharing over 6 million acres (2.3 million hectares) of wilderness worldwide. Their primary focus lies on conservation, community development, and enhancing the sustainability of their own operations.
THE HISTORY OF WILDERNESS - Four Decades of Wilderness
They set the bar high in the conservation and hospitality industry by allocating a percentage of their direct revenue to wildlife, land protection, and community initiatives. Their goal is to double the wilderness area they currently conserve by 2030. While they have primarily operated in Africa thus far, their custodial mission is expanding globally.
1983 - Wilderness Safaris is formed in Bostwana
1985 - Wilderness SAfaris builds first camps
1991 - Wilderness acquires Sefofane - later Wilderness Air
1993 - Expansion into Namibia & South Africa, with first community partnership formed at Rocktail Bay, SA
1995 - Expansion into Zimbabwe
1996 - First joint-venture community equity model formed in Namibia at Damaraland
2000 - Expansion into Zambia
2001 - Children in the Wilderness formed. White rhino reintroduction to Okavango Delta begins
2003 - Wilderness Wildlife Trust formed. Black rhino reintroduction to the Okavango Delta begins
2008 - Renewable energy adoption
2010 - Listing on Botswana Stock Exchange. "War on bottled water" commences
2012 - Expansion into Congo Brazzaville (Odzala-Kokoua National Park), and Kenya (Segera Retreat)
2016 - Expansion into Rwanda (reforestation and great apes projects at Bisate)
2018 - The Rise Fund, FS investors and TPG Growth invest on Wilderness Holdings
2019 - Wilderness Holdings delists from Botswana and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges
Conservation and hospitality are deeply intertwined.
For four decades, the focus of their impact has remained unchanged: to restore and conserve invaluable wilderness and wildlife through high-end conservation tourism. They strive to empower and uplift local communities residing in or near these iconic wild places. This collective purpose is shared with guests, partners, donors, governments, local communities, and researchers.
Awards
T+L World’s Best Awards
Wilderness - Top 10 Best Safari Outfitters 2023
Condé Nast Hot List
Wilderness Vumbura Plains - Best New Hotels in the World 2023
Condé Nast Readers’ Choice 2023
Wilderness - Top 15 World’s Best Travel Specialists
World Travel Award
Wilderness Ruckomechi Zimbabwe's Leading Safari Lodge 2023
Wilderness Impact
Earth's incredible biodiversity is in crisis, and the organization is dedicated to doing everything it can to save it. They are determined to have the greatest impact possible on the world’s wildlife, wilderness, and local communities. Their mission is to double the amount of land they help conserve in the next decade. They believe that with the support of their guests, partners, and greater collective, it is achievable—a vision they'll never stop striving to achieve.
Their impact framework revolves around protecting, exploring, and expanding the world’s wilderness. Currently, they contribute to the protection of 6 million acres (2.3 million hectares) of land. They utilize their conservation and hospitality business as a catalyst for enduring positive change. To fulfill this purpose, they concentrate their efforts on three primary impact pillars: Educate, Empower, and Protect, through various conservation and community empowerment initiatives.
Educate
Building the next generation of conservation leaders to sustain the future conservation of the wilderness.
Empower
Building a conservation economy with empowerment programs that work to create self-sustaining communities.
Protect
They are committed to ensuring the world always has a version of its wilds that is unfenced, untamed, and unpredictable.
Impact Beneficiaries
Conservation and community non-profits:
The threats to the planet’s wilderness, wildlife, and people are diverse, complex, and highly interrelated. Their carefully selected impact beneficiaries help them achieve their goal through specific programs of fieldwork and implementation.
Children in the Wilderness
Children in the Wilderness addresses vital life skills training, leadership development, and environmental education for children from villages neighboring the Wilderness landscapes.
Wilderness Trust
The Wilderness Trust is their independent, dedicated fundraising arm, created to extend the reach and capacity to support deserving conservation initiatives.
Partnerships
From best-in-class airlines transporting guests to discover the world's ultimate untamed places, to acclaimed and sustainable adventure outfitters providing exhilarating experiences to intrepid travelers, to courageous non-profit organizations making a difference daily, Wilderness aims to partner with like-minded brands to ensure our guests get the most out of their Wilderness journey.
They engage partners who share their mission to protect wild places and empower local communities. Working together with a collective purpose, they believe they can achieve more in bringing awareness and support to the wild destinations of the world.
Travel partnerships
Their travel partners help them bring their guests in comfort and ease to the most unique destinations.
Impact partnerships
Their impact partners are recognized for their efforts in protecting wildlife and sustaining communities.
Lifestyle partnerships
They surround themselves with purpose-driven brands to bring meaningful products and services to their guests.
Industry partnerships
They partner with the best travel organizations and agent communities from around the world.
Wilderness Family
Their group of brands:
What started as a passionate group of African guides in 1983 is now Wilderness: a world-leading conservation and hospitality company.
Their brand family encompasses non-profit community and conservation entities, our private airline, destination management companies, and several travel trade partners.
Children in the Wilderness
Twenty years of inspiring sustainable conservation through leadership development.
Wilderness Trust
Supporting community & conservation projects in areas that Wilderness operates in, and further.
Governors’ Collection
Kenya’s first luxury safari and conservation tourism operator - 50 years & counting.
Wayo Africa
A leader in authentic private safaris in beautiful, remote areas of Tanzania.
Jacada Travel
Global luxury travel experts specialising in private groups, honeymoon and family tours.
Yellow Zebra
Tailor-made African holidays carefully curated by professional safari experts.
Ukama Travel
A not-for-profit travel concierge service dedicated to the conservation of Africa.
itrvl
An innovative online booking & payment platform, offering live availability & in-depth video itineraries.
Beyond expectations! Then again we weren't sure what to expect. Lovely stay at the lodge, met other like-minded travelers (many had their trips planned by Adventure Life) and the owner was a gracious hostess. It felt like you were one happy family, visiting with a favorite aunt.
Nancy Sin
TrustScore 4.9 | 193 reviews
TrustScore 4.9 of 5
Based on 193 reviews on
1 day ago
Amazing assistance! Kevin and his team were so helpful and really gave us great advice. They quickly understood exactly what we were looking for and within a matter of days we had booked our holiday of a lifetime. I would definitely recommend to others.
Kathryn
1 day ago
I was on a trip to the UK while arranging another trip for next year. Was able to work with email and a short call to secure our spot on a tall ship cruise. Good company to work with so far.
Steve Beal
2 days ago
I think it was very helpful that Franny and I spoke on the phone. I think she had a better idea of what we were looking for, and she planned a great itinerary for us!
Elizabeth
3 days ago
I've just started the process, but Tilly has been very helpful and has a great personality that puts a traveler at ease. I think the paperwork has just begun so I can't give an overall rating of the whole experience. So far, so good.
Christine Allen
5 days ago
Claire made sure she knew what my expectations and priorities were and offered options based on that. She also suggested a visit to a city i did not know about. She was pleasant friendly informative and helpful
