Many people are aware of the Kilimanjaro Safari ride in Disney World.  It loads passengers onto a safari bus, and you travel through a savanna for about 20 minutes spotting random animals in the distance. It’s an enjoyable ride for all ages.

But did you know you can dive even deeper into this experience?

The Wild Africa Trek allows you a three hour experience of walking along a grassland path, crossing a rope bridge, and riding in a safari vehicle across the savanna.

It is amazing, and you should do it.

You get a front row seat to the animals.

You get so much closer to the animals in this trek than in the safari ride. You are still far enough away that you and the animals feel safe, but you can get a wonderful view of these animals in their natural environments on the hike and in the safari vehicle.

There are two guides that lead the way and follow behind.

As you go through your three hour tour (I cannot say those three words without singing the song from Gilligan’s Island), there will always be one tour guide in the front and one at the back. You travel in a group of eight so it’s very easy to ask questions to the guides and have conversations about the park and the animals around you.

You wear special gear.

As you travel you get special equipment to wear to ensure safety and to provide convenience. You get a vest to keep any phones or items you want to bring with you, including the water bottle they provide. They even have a personalized name tag all ready for you when you get there. You wear a headset so when you’re all walking in a straight line your tour guide can just talk in their microphone and you will hear them well enough so you are not alarming the animals.

You get to walk across a creaky bridge over alligators.

Yeah. For real. They harness you in, and the bridge has a net around the sides, but it’s still pretty sweet. I mean, look at those gators!

They feed you.

After you hike for a bit, you finally reach an African post to stop and eat lunch. They will have prepared you a meal of first-class, African-inspired snacks. It will vary but you may possibly indulge in prosciutto, smoked salmon, fig cake with Boursin cheese, Brie and apricot, yogurt, hummus, and/or tandoori shrimp. Delicious.

You get complimentary photo services.

Not only are the guides there to make sure that you are safe, but they continually snap pictures of you on your experience. Typically the front guide leads the tour and the back guide takes most of the pictures. They will snap pictures of you hiking, on the bus, at lunch, and across the bridge. They will make sure you get the website to access these pictures completely free of charge.

If you’re not sold yet, I would recommend you look more into this yourself at Disney’s website. It is a fun experience for adults and children 8 years and older. You need to be in good health, and wear appropriate attire (shorts or pants, comfortable shirt and gym shoes; no flip flops).

You would need to make sure you signed up for a time beforehand because this is not something you can just show up for. It also does cost extra money, but let’s face it; doesn’t everything at Disney World?

If you have any questions or comments, or would like to share about your experience please contact me or leave me a comment below.

Enjoy!

Britta