Ellara Safaris Four Generations in the Wild

The Ellis family

Four generations
in the wild

Before Ellara was a company, it was a way of growing up. This is the story we now share with our travellers.

Who We Are

A family, not a brand

Ellara Safaris is a boutique, family-founded safari house curating private, conservation-focused journeys across sub-Saharan Africa. Based in Grand Baie, Mauritius, with a presence in Miami, we serve a small circle of travellers — most of them referred by the last.

The safari industry has consolidated into portfolios and platforms. We have gone the other way. When you travel with Ellara, the people designing your journey, checking your charter connections, and answering your calls at midnight are members of one family — the fourth generation of it — supported by guides and camp owners we have known for most of our lives.

The Legacy

One family, four generations

The First Generation · The 1960s

Among the Pioneers

It began alongside the original pioneers of Southern Africa's private safari industry — almost every holiday in the bush, extended stays in the wild, even ordinary weekends. The first generation learned the wild the only way it can truly be learned: by returning to it, again and again.

The Second Generation · The 1980s

Every Holiday, the Bush

The second generation grew up between campfires and classrooms, every school holiday pointing to the bush — turning a family's private passion into deep expertise: the seasons of the rivers, the movements of the herds, the etiquette of the wild. Never commercially — always for the love of it.

The Third Generation · The Early 2000s

Sharing the Wild

What a family knows, it eventually longs to share. Never as a business — the family simply invited friends, then friends of friends, and travelled with them through Africa and the Indian Ocean islands — planting the seed of what would become Ellara: safari by introduction, never by advertisement.

The Fourth Generation · The 2020s

Ellara Safaris

Today's generation gave the legacy a name. From Mauritius, Ellara curates journeys across all of sub-Saharan Africa — pairing an inherited knowledge of the bush with the standards of the world's finest travel, and a duty to leave the wild wilder than we found it.

A lantern-lit dinner in the bush

How We Work

Quietly, personally, and with complete honesty

We listen first. Every journey begins with a conversation about who is travelling and why — not with a price list.

We tell the truth. If the season is wrong, the camp overrated, or the itinerary too ambitious for young children, we will say so. Our name travels with you.

We stay with you. From the first call to the flight home, one family member owns your journey end to end — and is reachable throughout your time in Africa.

We remain small. A limited number of journeys each year, so that none is ever ordinary.

Meet Us Read the Family Story

Travel with the family

Most of our travellers arrive by personal referral. If you have been introduced, mention who sent you. If you have found us on your own — welcome. Curiosity is its own introduction.

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