Timing changes everything
The same lodge can be exceptional in May and the wrong choice in November. We know which is which, and which weeks of the year suit the way you want to travel.
Safaris, the way we’d plan our own
We live in the Greater Kruger, a short drive from many of the lodges we recommend. The same small team plans your safari from first email to last transfer.
Who we are
Small by choice
Marula Hill is a small team, and we have kept it that way on purpose. Vikki and Sian founded it out of a shared love of safari and built it in the bush rather than from a city desk. We live in the Greater Kruger, forty minutes from many of the lodges we book, and we are on the road in the regions we plan as often as we can be. Roxanne keeps every booking moving, and Alon is our kosher safari consultant. That is everyone, and we like it that size.
The person who answers your first email is the person on WhatsApp the day you arrive.
In their words
192 reviews. Rated five stars on Google
5
Vikki and Sian listened attentively and paired me up with the most compatible travel agent, Roxanne, who found me the full moon in the Magkadikgadi Salt Pans of the Kalahari. I came back re-energised, highly inspired, and immensely thankful.
Sian planned our honeymoon across Tanzania and Rwanda. The proposal arrived as an interactive page with photos, accommodation links and optional activities, all in one place. The trip itself was extraordinary from arrival to take-off.
Why a safari specialist matters
A safari is not a hotel booking
A good safari is shaped by hundreds of small decisions. We make them for you.
The right room matters
A standard suite and a private villa are two completely different holidays. We pick the room that fits your group, your pace, and how you like to travel.
You skip the costly mistakes
We do the hard thinking up front. The wrong combination of lodges, the dry season pretending to be the green season, the family room that sleeps four on paper. By the time you arrive, the decisions left are which lens to use.
How we travel
Which of these sounds like you?
Most of our work starts with one of these. None is a finished package. Where you go, who guides you and how the days run is decided with you.
Shape your safari
Not sure which is yours? A few questions, and we will point you at the closest fit.
Where we work
A short list of places we know
We do not pretend to know every corner of Africa. We work the regions we have lived and travelled in, with operators and lodges we know well. Many we have slept in ourselves; the rest we know through people we trust on the ground.
How we work
Safari planning, done properly
A real conversation first.
A call or a long message. No commitment, no quote forms.
A proposal that surprises you.
Options you would not have found yourself, and a reason for each.
We refine until it’s right.
We only confirm when you are completely certain.
We are with you in country.
A direct line to us while you travel. If anything changes, we handle it.
Caps for a cause
Fewer than 7,000 wild dogs remain. We make a range of Marula Hill caps and the proceeds go to their conservation. Read the story
What does it cost to work with Marula Hill?
Our answer
There is no planning fee. Our commission comes from the lodges we book, and we are lodge agnostic: we recommend what suits you, not what pays us most. Tell us your dates, your budget window and what matters most, and we will tell you what is actually possible.
Your safari begins with a conversation
Tell us who is travelling, when you would like to go, and what kind of trip you have in mind. We will listen first, then shape a considered route with availability and a day-by-day plan.
Guides
Planning your first safari? Start with the people who can hear the hyenas
What we would tell you about your first safari if you sat down at our kitchen table. There is usually gin.
Voices
What we would tell a young woman starting out in safari travel
Both of us came out of corporate, one of us with travel experience already. This is the advice we give when a young woman writes and asks how to build a career in luxury safari travel.
Guides
Botswana has water again. Here is what that means for your safari.
Botswana is having a stronger water year. Here is what that changes, and why the right lodge and the right week still matter more than a brochure month.