Wouldn't claim you see more animals, at least to make a difference. One exception would be Ngorongoro Crater, which is spectacular. But once you've seen 100+ elephants then it's a wash how many more you see. The number of people is also highly variable. If there's a wildbeest crossing the river then of course you will see plenty of other safari vehicles, but even in the same park 10kms away you can drive for hours and not see another vehicle. And Ngorongoro is pretty "crowded" with safari vehicles too.

The parks themselves do not allow off-road driving, but Kenya also has the private conservancies surrounding the main parks (tens of thousands of acres in size) where off-roading is accepted and that offers a different drive experience than sticking to the main park roads). Some of the conservancies have their resident lion prides, which makes it more likely to see groups of lions, whereas at the parks it's more of a hit or miss as lions are mainly nocturnal. The conservancies are also private so you will only see the other guests at your lodge/camp when you do the drives.

I still vote for Kenya for the first time because you can split your time between Amboseli and Masa, which are two quite different ecosystems. And it's a bit easier from a logistics perspective. And spending a day in Nairobi at the onset of the trip offers some distractions (Elephant Manor, Karen Blixen museum, the bead factory), if animals aren't your thing or you only have a low tolerance for looking at so many giraffes and elephants.

Scamp - it's a bit tricky doing safaris that combine Kenya and Tanzania these days. If you're keen at finishing a safari with a few days in Zanzibar then it makes sense to be based in Tanzania the entire time. I remember you mentioning you weren't keen on beaches so what about Zambia as an alternative? South Luangwa easily rivals Masa/Serengeti (potentially even better with bigger leopard populations and plenty of lions and a much better chance of seeing the ever so elusive African wild dogs). Then wrap it up with a few days at Victoria Falls.

Girth versus length?

You can convince yourself that neither matter if you have 20stone to pound it home with......Just ask IKnowNothing.

Or dependant on where you intend to ram it

We stayed in this place a couple of years ago:
https://www.asiliaafrica.com/east-af...ncy/ol-pejeta/

It's a small privately run camp, in a private reserve. The owner is a 3rd generation Kenyan of British extraction. It was extremely good value compared to many of the other places we looked at, and could not have been a friendlier place to stay - he treats you as an honoured guest (more like an old friend than a guest), price includes all the food and drink you could want (really, really good food), the staff are the friendliest people you can imagine. They'll take you out as often as you like. We saw lion, elephant, buffalo and others without even leaving our tent (there is an electric fence around the outside!), and much more on the drives. As Ol Pejeta Conservancy is privately run, and is not one of the bigger tourist destinations, it is not at all crowded - we rarely saw other people. He'll arrange collection and return to the airport if you want that, and if you want to do a multi-park holiday he'll advise you on other good places also (for a while we thought about doing that, and he made several introductions to other, hard to find, small private lodges). Can't recommend it highly enough - one of the best holidays I have ever had.

This is the conservancy website: https://www.olpejetaconservancy.org/

But which of you was pounding what into whom? Then again, maybe I'd rather not know...

I think you're confused. I was just insulting IKN, nothing more, nothing less. He gave me karma for it though so it's all good.

Safari chat! Awesome! So want to do this next year after a jaunt up Kilimanjaro.

Top info DtoD

Luangwa Valley is less touristy but beware of tsetse fly bites.

Namibia?

I heard somewhere that Nambia's nicer.

South African colleague said to me you get the big 5 but it's just a much nicer place, quieter and 'better'.

Namibia is visually stunning in a way the traditional safari countries aren't. The landscape is much more desert with a deep red coloured sand in parts. As a drier nation you won't see the animals in the volumes you find in the big parks in Kenya/Tanzania/Zambia/Botswana and South Africa and birdwatching isn't anywhere as good.

I would not say no to a Namibia safari and it may actually be ideal for someone who isn't keen on solely animals but wants to mix it up with a geographically distinct place. It's currently a "hot" place to go to. But I'd pay careful attention to what wildlife and in what volume and decide how important it is to you.

Etosha Pan.

It's the bestest.