You want a safari. You also want to eat well, and you want the animals you came to see to be protected, not baited for photos or a part of the canned hunting pipeline (yes, it’s a thing and yes, it’s terrible). 

Unfortunately, that combination is harder to find than it should be.

A lodge can serve a beautiful vegan dinner and still run a walk-with-lions program.

A camp can call itself sustainable and still have no idea where its conservation money goes. I

I know, because I’ve been on the good safaris and the bad ones, and I spent years working under a world-renowned elephant conservationist in Thailand learning to tell the difference. Today, I’m a vegan travel advisor curating award-winning safaris in Africa … and I’ve got a lot to share with you!

When I was putting this list together, I used the vetting I require for all the trips I curate. Yes, they must have plant-based options, but it’s more than just that. I checked who owns the land, where the conservation money goes, how staff are treated, and whether the wildlife experiences are observation-only. The full framework lives in my ethical vegan safari guide. But, if you’re looking for a list of where to go on safari, this is it!

I’ve hosted my award-winning South Africa vegan tour since 2022, and Shamwari is the reserve I partner with. It’s first on this list because it’s the one I know best.

Why trust this list

I’ve spent a lot of time in the world of responsible animal tourism, and I plan safaris for a living. I dig deep into the lodges to get a true understanding of what’s going on and whether or not I should send anyone there.

The 10 camps at a glance

Malaria note: Shamwari is the only malaria-free reserve on this list. Everywhere else, talk to your travel clinic well before you go. Whatever you do, do not wait until the week before you leave. And, always always always have Cancel for Any Reason insurance. These trips are too valuable to risk it.

My picks (the short version)

• Best first safari: Shamwari. It’s malaria-free, has the Big Five, plus the Born Free Big Cat Sanctuary and a wildlife rehab center you can visit, as well as six lodges to choose from. This is where I take my own tour groups.
• Best food: Kings Camp. This one has been certified by Vegan Hospitality and is vegan.
• Best for a honeymoon: Matetsi Victoria Falls. Think the ultimate setting– private reserve, falls on your doorstep, and gorgeous suites to unwind after a day of drives.
• Best for families: Shamwari again. The malaria-free distinction is a good one, and they have a house for families to rent.
• Best for conservation: Emboo River Camp. It’s a B Corp, uses carbon-neutral, electric vehicles, and is partnered with the Mara Elephant Project.
• Best for something completely different: Wilderness Bisate. It is different from the other safari camps on this list. Here, you’ll find gorillas and volcanoes.

1. Shamwari Private Game Reserve — Eastern Cape, South Africa

Shamwari is where I take my own groups, and it’s been part of my South Africa tours since 2022. It spans over 25,000 hectares of malaria-free wilderness in the Eastern Cape — land that was degraded farmland and has been restored into one of the most biodiverse regions in Africa. It pioneered private Big Five conservation in the Eastern Cape, and it shows. This is a reserve that spent decades proving large-scale wildlife restoration works outside of national parks.

There are six luxury lodges inside the reserve, from the Edwardian flagship Long Lee Manor to the adults-only Eagles Crag. Vegan dining is available across them, and a greenhouse and herb garden supply the lodges on site. Game drives run morning and evening with expert guides, and the reserve also runs guided walks.

What makes Shamwari different from a lodge that just serves good food is the conservation operation underneath it. The Shamwari Foundation runs a dedicated wildlife rehabilitation center for injured and orphaned animals, protects endangered species, and runs active anti-poaching operations. In 2024, Shamwari partnered with the NGO VulPro to relocate 163 vultures — Cape and African white-backed — in what was documented as the largest vulture relocation in African history. It’s also home to Born Free’s sanctuary, the first big cat sanctuary in South Africa to receive accreditation from the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, caring for lions and leopards rescued from zoos and circuses across two centers on the reserve.

Certifications: Fair Trade Tourism certified — one of the most established ethical tourism standards in South Africa, covering fair wages, working conditions, community investment, and environmental responsibility.

Good to know: The reserve is malaria-free, so no malaria medication is needed. If you want to come with me here, there are spaces remaining for my October 2027 and March 2028 tours.

2. Kings Camp — Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, South Africa

Kings Camp holds the first Vegan Hospitality certification in Africa, and it earned it. There’s a Vegan Hospitality consultant leading the vision, and the result is vegan menus for every meal — not a modified version of the regular menu, but food designed for vegan guests from the start. Think jackfruit potjie, a traditional South African stew made plant-based, and a bush breakfast omelette made from chickpea flour. Even the spa products are vegan and cruelty-free.

The camp sits in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, one of the most significant big cat research and protection areas on the continent. It’s unfenced and contiguous with Kruger, so wildlife moves freely. Beyond game drives, guests can join anti-poaching flights, wildlife rehabilitation tours, and rhino notching programs — a conservation technique used to track and identify individual rhinos.

Every stay contributes directly to the Timbavati Conservation Fund, which funds reserve management, perimeter fencing, firebreak maintenance, ecological monitoring, and erosion mitigation.

Certifications: First Vegan Hospitality certified property in Africa.

Good to know: Ask for the vegan field guide option when you book — Kings Camp can arrange a guide who understands the vegan lens on the whole experience, not just the food.

3. Sashwa River of Stars — Greater Kruger, South Africa

Sashwa is the first plant-forward safari lodge on the continent. It’s a former hunting concession transformed into a wildlife sanctuary on the banks of the Olifants River, and the food plays a part in the total experience. Menus draw from Ayurvedic and garden-to-table principles, cooked in a plant-based kitchen with an organic permaculture garden on site. Guests can feast on spiced chickpea omelets for breakfast, a colorful harvest bowl for lunch, and a raw cacao tart for dessert. 

In addition, the lodge runs as a social enterprise with 100 percent of profits funding Koru Camp, an educational program that brings disadvantaged youth into the wilderness for immersive conservation experiences. It also partners with the Black Mambas, the all-women anti-poaching unit protecting wildlife from illegal hunting in the Greater Kruger.

Certifications: Certified by Ubuntu Vegan Hospitality Solutions as a plant-based haven.

Good to know: Sashwa leans wellness — slow mornings, river views, and a gentler pace than a classic Big Five lodge. If you want dawn-to-dusk game drives, pair it with a more traditional camp. If you want a safari that feels like a retreat, this is the one.

4. Emboo River Camp — Masai Mara, Kenya

Emboo is the camp I point to when someone asks whether a safari can be sustainable and still feel luxurious. It’s Certified B Corp, the first carbon-neutral camp in the Masai Mara, and its entire vehicle fleet runs on electricity, charged by solar — which also powers the camp 24/7. There are no generators, so no noise. A closed-loop water recycling system processes grey and black water through natural filtration, and food waste gets converted into energy.

The kitchen is the real story for vegan travelers. Emboo deliberately limits animal-based products across its menus because of their environmental footprint, and it grows ingredients in on-site vertical and hydroponic gardens. You can tour the garden and pick ingredients yourself. 

Conservation and community: Emboo partners with the Mara Elephant Project to protect elephant populations and their habitat corridors across the Mara. In 2025, CEO Valery Super won the Gold Award at the WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards.

Certifications: Certified B Corporation. First carbon-neutral camp in the Masai Mara.

Good to know: The Mara is at its most dramatic during the Great Migration, roughly July through October. Book early — the migration window fills fast.

5. Segera Retreat — Laikipia, Kenya

Segera started as a cattle ranch and has become one of East Africa’s most ambitious private conservancies. It runs on the 4Cs framework — conservation, community, culture, and commerce — and is fully solar-powered. The ZEITZ Foundation manages the operation, running community programs covering employment, education, and medical care for neighboring villages.

The rewilding work here is concrete. Black rhino reintroduction is central to it. In June 2025, Segera and Kenya Wildlife Service completed a landmark black rhino translocation. The conservancy also houses Africa’s first female rangers academy, which trains and employs women from surrounding communities in conservation roles.

The kitchen works from an organic garden and accommodates plant-based guests with advance notice. 

Certifications: Long Run Destination with Global Ecosphere Retreat (GER) certification, one of the most rigorous third-party sustainability audits in travel, endorsed by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

Good to know: Laikipia is quieter than the Mara and feels wilder for it. Fewer vehicles, bigger skies, and a conservancy model where the community holds a real stake.

6. Singita Sabora Tented Camp — Grumeti Reserve, Tanzania

Singita has been in the Grumeti Reserve since the early 1990s, working with the non-profit Grumeti Fund to protect 350,000 acres of the Serengeti ecosystem. When Singita took over management in 2003, the land was depleted — uncontrolled hunting, wildfires, invasive vegetation. Today it’s a thriving wildlife corridor, and the Fund is fiscally independent of the lodge operation, funded by guest donations, NGOs, and philanthropists.

On the food side, roughly 50–60 percent of lunch menus and 35 percent of dinner menus are plant-based. Ingredients are largely organic and locally sourced, and the brand’s Community Culinary School trains aspiring chefs from local communities, so the plant-based shift is building local careers, too.

The camp runs on solar power, and Grumeti Air which handles the aviation, has a Carbon Smart certification through Plan Vivo. A carbon-neutral levy has been automatically included in every guest booking since 2021.

Certifications: Long Run Fellow (all Singita properties joined in 2025). Carbon Smart certification for Grumeti Air. Carbon-neutral guest stays since 2021.

Good to know: Singita has lodges and camps in South Africa, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe too. 

7. Matetsi Victoria Falls — Zimbabwe

Matetsi is the honeymoon pick on this list, and the Falls are only part of the reason. The private reserve covers 136,000 acres of wildlife habitat in northwestern Zimbabwe, and the lodge itself is family-run, with suites and villas that reflect the landscape with work from local artisans, as well as featuring natural materials, and space to breathe.

Dining is seasonal, menus change daily, and vegan options are plentiful. The chefs have shared dishes like butternut arancini, house-made gnocchi, and pannacotta with sorbet — all vegan. 

The conservation work is long-term and unglamorous. They spent six years of intensive work rehabilitating land devastated by poaching and illegal hunting, including a clear-roads network for anti-poaching and game viewing, and  added 16 solar-powered boreholes providing water for wildlife. The reserve also runs the GRACE Foundation for community empowerment and participates in Pack for a Purpose, so guests can bring supplies for local schools and healthcare projects. A Natura water bottling plant supplies still and sparkling water in recycled glass bottles so there’s no single-use plastic.

Good to know: Pair Matetsi with two or three nights at the Falls themselves. The lodge is a short drive from Victoria Falls, and the combination of private reserve plus one of the world’s great natural wonders is hard to beat for a honeymoon or a big trip.

8. Nimali Tarangire — Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

Nimali started as a passion project to restore farmland in Tarangire National Park, and it became an eco-friendly safari business focused on conservation and empowering the local community. The camp runs entirely on solar power, single-use plastics are banned anywhere on site, filtered water is used throughout, and even the waste is creative. They take empty wine bottles and send them to Arusha, where local artisans cut and polish the glass by hand.

The menus are plant-forward and change daily. Expect dishes like spicy bean breakfast tacos, house-made sweet potato and butter bean burgers, and a flavorful curry with a slice of decadent chocolate cake. 

They also invest in the community. Nimali helped build the local community school and funded a clean-water borehole for the surrounding area. Conservation partnerships include the Randilen Wildlife Management Area, Honeyguide, and The Nature Conservancy, funding anti-poaching patrols and addressing human-wildlife conflict.

Good to know: Tarangire is famous for its elephant herds and ancient baobabs, and it’s far less crowded than the Serengeti. If you want space and silence, come here.

9. Wilderness Bisate — Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda

Bisate is the outlier on this list — it’s not a Big Five safari, it’s a gorilla trekking base. The lodge sits at the foot of the Virunga volcanoes on the edge of Volcanoes National Park, and it has planted more than 70,000 indigenous trees across a 42-hectare reforestation corridor. Guests can join guided reforestation walks and plant a native tree during their stay.

Since opening in 2017, Bisate has collected 34 international awards, and it was nominated in the Travel + Leisure 2026 World’s Best Awards. Community revenue sharing, local employment, and educational programs run alongside the conservation work.

Plant-based dining is available on request. Your travel advisor can confirm it when you book. Bisate’s strength is the gorilla experience and the reforestation story.

Good to know: Gorilla permits are limited and expensive, and they sell out. If Bisate is on your list, the permit is the first thing to secure. You’ll want to get that before flights, and before you book the lodge.

10. Klaserie Drift Safari Camps — Klaserie, Greater Kruger, South Africa

Klaserie Drift is inside the 60,000-hectare Klaserie Private Nature Reserve, part of South Africa’s Greater Kruger. If you want to experience the park, you can here — it’s the same ecosystem, but far fewer vehicles, and a quieter, more private feel than the public Kruger.

The camp is committed to sustainability and community involvement. It runs on 100 percent solar power, and supports conservation projects including the Ground Hornbill and Elephant initiatives, with a close working relationship with local communities. And in 2025, the team went through the Vegan Hospitality training program and overhauled its dining menus to better serve vegan guests. 

Good to know: If Kings Camp is booked out, or you want a quieter Kruger experience at a different price point, Klaserie Drift is the first place I’d look.

How I chose these 10

Every camp here passed the same checks I lay out in my ethical vegan safari guide. They must offer a structured plant-based menus (not a plate of vegetables when asked), a community conservancy model or direct community stake, conservation programs with traceable money, verifiable third-party credentials, and observation-only wildlife experiences. 

Before you put down a deposit anywhere, ask these questions:

• What percentage of guides and camp staff come from the local community?
• Which specific conservation programs does the lodge fund, and how much goes to each?
• Has a third party independently verified its sustainability claims, and when was the last on-site audit?
• What has the lodge done for the local community since it opened?
• Does the kitchen design plant-based menus proactively, or accommodate vegan requests when they come in? 

When to go

Southern Africa’s dry season, roughly May through September, is the classic game-viewing window. It has thinner bush, animals gathering at water, and cooler days. The Masai Mara migration runs roughly July through October. Tanzania’s dry season runs June through October. Rwanda’s gorilla trekking is best in the dry months, June through September and December through February, when the trails are passable. Shoulder seasons can mean better rates and fewer vehicles, but check with the lodge as some camps close or run reduced operations in the rains.

FAQ

Can you really do a vegan safari in Africa? Yes! The difference between a good one and a miserable one is whether the kitchen designs plant-based menus proactively. Every camp here does, or it has a structured vegan program with advance notice. 

Do I need malaria medication? For Shamwari, no. For everywhere else on this list, talk to your travel clinic. Don’t take medical advice from a blog post, including this one.

How far ahead should I book? For peak season — Mara migration, Southern Africa dry season — at least six to nine months is realistic for the best camps. Gorilla permits for Bisate should be secured as early as possible; they are limited to protect the gorillas.

Can I bring kids on a vegan safari? Yes, and Shamwari is the easiest starting point because it’s malaria-free. Many lodges have age minimums for game drives, usually around six, so check before you book.

Is a vegan safari more expensive? Not inherently. You’re paying for the lodge, the conservation levy, and the guiding. The food is part of the stay. The camps on this list range from mid-luxury to ultra-luxury, and the price differences come from the property and the season, not from the vegan menu.

The bottom line

The best vegan safari lodges are out there. 

If you want me to plan it — the lodge, the region, the flights, the whole thing vetted before you land — that’s my specialty. Start by sharing more about your trip. Or join me in person on my award-winning vegan South Africa tours that feature five nights in Cape Town and four nights on safari at Shamwari. See the itinerary.