What snacks do you take with you on a safari?
This is a difficult question because everyone has different tastes in snacks, and there are many types of snacks found in different places, ranging from packaged goods you might already know to fresh, local options you will only find in East Africa. We can’t simply tell you which snacks to pack, since what works well for one traveler might not suit another at all, and personal taste, allergies, and how much space you have in your bag all play a part. We can suggest things that we believe will be helpful and good for you during your trip, based on what tends to travel well, keep you going between activities, and hold up in the heat without spoiling before you get the chance to eat it.
First, you should know that on safaris, your schedule will usually have a blocked time for meals like breakfast, lunch and dinner, and most camps and lodges plan these carefully around the day’s activities so guests are not rushed or left waiting between them. You won’t go hungry on your journey. Unless you want to. Depending on the itinerary, an early game drive might mean breakfast is served before sunrise, packed up to eat out in the bush partway through the drive, or held back at camp for when you return, so it is worth checking with your guide the evening before what the plan is for the following morning, particularly if you have specific dietary needs or simply prefer to know what to expect before an early wake-up call.
Snacks are just extra food to eat between big meals, not a meal on their own, though on a long day out in the field a well-timed snack can make a real difference to how you feel by the time you are back at camp.
Why do you need snacks?
Safaris can be tiring and wear you out, so it’s important to bring healthy snacks to help give you energy throughout the day. Long game drives, early starts, dust, and hours spent outdoors in the heat all add up, and a small snack partway through the day can keep your concentration and mood up until the next proper meal comes around.
What snacks do you take with you on a safari?
Food on Safari
Also, 70% of the safari activities are in far wild places, where there is no food or anything to satisfy your thirst, since game drives, treks, and boat trips take place well away from lodges and towns. You will only get a snack during your exercise, so whatever you are carrying with you at the start of the activity is genuinely all you will have access to until you return to camp.
Just a quick note: when you get hungry, a trip can be less fun, and it is easy to lose patience with a long drive or an unexpected delay on an empty stomach. That’s why a snack is great to have on hand, even on days when you don’t end up needing it, since it takes up very little space and weighs almost nothing in a daypack.
If you have a health issue and can’t wait for your planned meals, such as low blood sugar or a condition that requires regular eating, having a snack is a good option while you wait. It is worth packing something you already know works for you rather than relying on whatever happens to be available on the day.
What snacks should you bring for the safari?
There are many of them, and they change based on area and availability, since some items are easy to find in Kigali or Nairobi but harder to come by once you are deep inside a national park. Below, we will provide some ideas for you to choose from based on your preferences and budget, covering options that keep well without refrigeration and are easy to carry in a daypack.
Nuts that are high in energy. For example, groundnuts, cashews, pecans, almonds, and more. These are great for keeping your body energized and ready for any adventure you go on, and a small handful goes a long way without adding much weight to your bag. The only problem with nuts is that some people are allergic to them, so they aren’t suitable for everyone, and it is worth checking with your travel companions before packing them for a shared cooler box or vehicle, so that anyone with an allergy can plan around them rather than being caught out partway through a long drive.
Fruit – either fresh or dried. On a tour in East Africa, you can find many fresh fruits like mangoes, jackfruit, bananas, apples, oranges, grapes, guavas, and other sweet fruits, many of them grown locally and sold fresh at markets along the way. You can enjoy these fresh fruits as snacks, and bananas in particular travel well since they come in their own sturdy peel and need no preparation. If you don’t like fresh fruit, you can choose dried fruits like raisins, roasted pumpkin seeds, apricots, or cherries instead, which last far longer in a hot vehicle and don’t need to be finished the same day they are opened, making them a practical choice for longer stretches between towns where fresh produce is not easily replaced.
Energy bars like candy, chocolate, granola, Clif-style bars, and similar products can also be good snacks, and they are light and easy to take since they come individually wrapped and need no preparation at all. They are a reliable option to keep in a daypack for exactly the moments when you need a quick boost of energy between activities, and they hold up well even after a few days of being carried around in the heat.
Bread snacks like sandwiches, bread rolls, plain bread, or French toast are also worth considering, especially on mornings when camps pack a light breakfast to eat out in the field rather than serve it back at the lodge, and a simple sandwich can go a long way toward keeping you comfortable through a long morning drive.
Dried or baked Ugandan foods like cassava, sweet potatoes, matooke, and gonja, which is roasted plantain, can make tasty snacks and give visitors a chance to try genuine local flavours rather than packaged options brought from home. These are often sold roadside in market towns along common safari routes, making them an easy and inexpensive stop between destinations.
Energy drinks can be a tasty way to stay refreshed between meals. Things like soda, coconut water, and some sports drinks help replace fluids and a little sugar on a hot day, though they should not replace plain water as your main way of staying hydrated on safari, since sugary drinks alone can leave you feeling more dehydrated over a full day in the heat.
Other popular snacks include crisps, crackers, pretzels, Pringles, biscuits, popcorn, and roasted corn, among many more. Most items like these can usually be found in supermarkets in Kigali, Nairobi, Kampala, or Arusha before you head out, so it is worth stocking up in town if you have a particular brand or type you prefer, since selection tends to be much more limited once you are closer to the parks, where small local shops may carry only a narrow range of packaged goods, if any at all. Buying a variety in bulk before you leave the city also tends to work out cheaper than picking items up piecemeal along the way.
These are our ideas, but there are many other snacks you can bring for your safari, based on what you like and what you can find locally. Talking to your guide or driver ahead of time is also worth doing, since they will know what is available near your route and can suggest a good stop to pick up fresh supplies before heading into the park.
Please make sure to pack these snacks in clean, sealed containers or resealable bags so they stay fresh and healthy, especially in hot or dusty vehicles where food can spoil or pick up dust more quickly than you’d expect. This is to prevent the snacks from getting contaminated, and it also keeps crumbs and wrappers from spreading around your bag or the vehicle, which your guide and fellow travelers will appreciate on a shared multi-day trip. A small reusable bag set aside just for rubbish is an easy way to keep everything tidy until you reach a bin back at camp.
Make sure to always bring water with you along with your snacks, since staying hydrated matters more than any snack does on a hot day out in the field. Water is essential to everything else on your trip, and no snack, however good it tastes, is a substitute for it over the course of a long, hot day in the field.
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