Below I have posted my actual packing list for our Ultimate Africa trip with Overseas Adventure Travel in September 2025. We were gone a total of 22 days. We spent one night in Johannesburg, then began the bush portion of our trip, which lasted two weeks. We spent three days in each of the four different camps we visited. Laundry services were available at each camp for no charge. The camps will not wash your underwear, which they refer to as “smalls,” and three out of the four camps would not wash bras. The laundry is mostly done by hand and hung on a line to dry, as all the camps run on solar power. We knew all this beforehand, and had no problem hand washing bras and underwear.
You really only need three outfits for the game drives. You will get VERY dusty and dirty, so you need one to wear, one to have ready to change into for the evening or after your shower, and one to be sent out to be washed (or drying if you hand washed). If you change for the afternoon game drive, you will get two outfits filthy per day. Some people change into a clean outfit for dinner, then wear that outfit for the next day’s game drives. A typical outfit for a game drive is a pair of lightweight, quick dry pants, such as Eddie Bauer or Columbia nylon hiking pants (I rolled mine into capris in the afternoon), a short or long sleeve tee shirt, and perhaps a lightweight long sleeve shirt for sun protection. I took two linen blouses, and some of the ladies brought Eddie Bauer safari type shirts. I find linen more comfortable personally.
We went in September, which is late winter there. The temps were forecast to be in the 90’s F during the day in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana, with lows in the 50’s F. We each took two merino wool hoodies for warmth on morning game drives. The wind in the open air jeeps can be quite chilly at 6 am. I also took a lightweight Eddie Bauer safari jacket as an extra layer. This was all we needed. We did not pack puffer coats or warm winter coats and did not need them. We did wear our warm hats, fleece headbands, and buffs in the morning, and our ball caps or sun hats in the afternoon. Definitely need buffs for the dust.
The heat was oppressive during the day and our tents were uninhabitable in the afternoon. They really soak up the heat and don’t let go of it until dark. The most important thing regarding clothing is to bring lightweight and quick dry items. You. Will. Sweat. Your. Ass. Off…during the day, even with only 11% humidity. Our hottest day was 97 deg F. I had envisioned showering in the afternoon and changing clothes for the afternoon game drive (which starts about 4:30 pm each day) and dinner. In reality, we only changed a couple times, and soon learned not to go back to our tents in the afternoon. We would have needed another shower after the second game drive each day anyway, so just washed up in the restroom at the lodges and showered at night, as did most people on the trip.
As far as colors, don’t worry too much about buying a bunch of new stuff in khaki and looking like Indiana Jones for this trip. While the guides all wore earth toned clothing, we were told that the animals see us as one large entity while we are in the safari jeeps, and colors don’t stand out to the animals. Most people did bring shades of beige, brown, pale green, or gray, but many of us brought shades of pink, coral, peach, lavender, blue, and white. They don’t recommend black and navy blue clothing due to attracting Tsetse flies, and this is true as we saw the actual Tsetse fly traps were made of these colors. That being said, we only encountered them in one location, they weren’t bad, and we did have some blue and black clothes. Your mileage may vary depending on where and when you go. My favorite travel pants are black Wool& Summit pants, and I wore them on every flight we took on every travel day. Also, white is acceptable, but just gets super dirty super fast. I wore a white ball cap nearly every day, and our Trip Experience Leader wore white a few times.
We also spent five nights in Cape Town at the end of our trip. Temps were forecast to be in the mid 60’s F during the day. Most tourists who come to Cape Town as part of a longer safari trip do not pack an entirely different set of clothing for the city. We were no exception. Even the nicer restaurants expect the tourists to be in casual pants and tops. I did pack a pair of linen pants, which I wore in the city with a long sleeve tee and a scarf, and one casual pullover black blouse to wear to dinner with my safari pants. I also packed two maxi skirts, which I wore in the city and in the bush in the evenings, both on game drives and for dinner. (As a side, I don’t wear shorts except for yard work, but many of the ladies wore shorts on the afternoon game drives and for dinner.)
For shoes, I took two sneakers and two sandals. I wore my white leather Birkenstocks on the airplane, as they are the most comfortable pair of shoes I own. Once there, I mostly wore my old Skechers sneakers on the morning game drives, and the EVA material (plastic) Birkenstock sandals on the afternoon game drives. They were easy to wash in the shower every night. You only get out of the safari trucks for morning coffee and evening sundowners (sunset drinks), so no need to worry about closed toe shoes all the time. Many of us wore sandals in the afternoon. You will be walking through a lot of sand at all the camps, so your shoes and feet will get dirty. I wore the Birkenstock sneakers and the leather Birkenstock sandals in the city and on some of the internal flights. As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Merino wool, and packed a lot of it for this trip, as well as every trip we take. All the tees were Merino, and I slept in heavier Merino leggings and a tunic for warmth. Our hoodies, socks, and underwear were also Merino.
We checked our bags for this trip. OAT requires you to take a frameless rolling duffle, and they gift it to you, along with water bottles, about a month before your trip. It’s too large for carry-on. You can take your own bag, but it must be a frameless duffle to fit into the bush planes and the safari jeep trailers. Everyone on our trip brought the OAT supplied bags. Put something colorful on it to easily identify it from all the others. We used reg luggage tags and a shower pouf on the other end. We had more room than we needed, so filled our bags with several pair of old eyeglasses (prescription and readers) and several pair of older but good condition shoes that we donated at the first camp. We asked our Trip Leader and the camp director privately before doing so and they were very appreciative. While I am normally not a packing cube fan, I used them on this trip because that duffel was like a huge black hole and had no organizing pockets of any kind. Without the cubes, all my stuff would have just been thrown in all willy nilly, and we can’t have willy nilly.
Additional notes about the packing list: The black cashmere tights were for an extra layer under my pants if needed for the early morning game drives, and while I never wore them, I was glad to have packed them. The under shorts were worn under my skirts. I wore the linen blouses over the short sleeve tees or the tank tops. I never wore the swimsuit, although some people did go to the pool in the camps. I wore the slippers every night and morning in the tents, as there are random (large) spiders and bugs that tend to crawl around. (Also keep a flashlight beside your bed for this reason!) I took very minimal makeup and only wore it in Cape Town. I had some fabulous lashes put on right before the trip, and let me tell you, this blond haired clear person looked pretty good with some eyelashes for a change. So I didn’t pack any mascara or my lash curler, as I normally would have done. Game changer and I will do it again! Who knew???
Even though we checked our bags, I still pared down all my liquids and carried most of them with me in my backpack. No sense carrying extra weight, it’s easy to do, and I like to have them with me in case my bags are lost. We also cross packed our clothing. We normally pack one outfit in each other’s bag, and one outfit in our backpacks. In the case of a lost bag, we both still have clothes to wear.
In the airplane pouch, I put only the items I would need for the long flights to and from Africa. That way, I could pull it out of my backpack and put it in the seatback pocket to have access to everything I needed, while I put my backpack in the overhead. I waited until we got through security to add the lip balm and lotion to the pouch. I also put my crossbody bag into my backpack, as I didn’t really need anything out of it for the flight. I do always keep my ID and phone on me at all times on the airplane, in the case of an unlikely emergency evacuation. Loops (in the little round case) are ear plugs, not the noise canceling kind, just regular reusable earplugs that are more comfortable. We purchased them on Amazon and we wear them at concerts to save our ears. On the airplane, they drown out just enough noise to really help me sleep, but I can still have a conversation with them in. Peeps (in the pink case) are glasses cleaners that are amazing and better than using your tee shirt, plus you can’t clean glasses with merino tees due to the lanolin.
So that’s what I packed. Overall, I think I packed about right for this trip. I wore most everything multiple times, and in different combinations, as did others on the trip. The only thing I could have used was my regular short nightgown, which is also lightweight merino wool. I planned for warmth in the tents, but forgot my regular sleepwear for the hotel, so just wore a tee shirt.
Because I’m and RN and like to be prepared, I packed a veritable pharmacy with me for this trip, including lots of medications that could have been potentially needed when we had no access to an actual pharmacy. We took antimalarial meds daily, as did many in our group. We were never sick and didn’t need any of the other things we packed, but I gave my antibiotics to another traveler who didn’t bring any, and shared my Imodium with a few folks who needed it. Quite a few folks experienced diarrhea, and one of our group needed an ER visit in Cape Town for severe dehydration. She was OK, but glad she got the treatment she needed.
Let me know if you find these packing tips helpful!
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