What is a Kite Safari
25
юли

What is a Kite Safari

A kite safari is a kitesurfing holiday where you will visit different kitesurfing spots: typically with a boat, but in some cases by car, you will move from spot to spot. Here we will talk about kite safari in Egypt, the most common and popular way of going on a a kite safari.

What is a kite safari and why is called like that?

A Kite safari is tipically a 1 week long cruise (8 days/7 nights). We use a luxury motor yacht to move from kite spot to kite spot, choosing the best kitesurfing areas for that specific days. That is why it is called a safari – cause we don’t stay in the same spot for the whole week. We have several kite spots to choose, and some beautiful non kite spots, in case of that special day when there is no wind or when we decide to have a break from kiting.

How does a day on a kite safari looks like?

A day on a kite safari is a very intensive one – if you are ready for it, it will be a lot of kiting. I normally wake up at 5:45, have a few coffee alone and then meet up everyone that wants to join me for an early morning session. This is optional of course, breakfast is at 8am and everyone can sleep till then, but there is always someone that wants to join me at 6am, when I will prepare the kite material and bring it down to the beach.

We set up all the gear on the beach and have a good hour kiting – at 8am the zodiac (called also a tender) will take us back to the main boat for breakfast. There is no better sensation than looking at the people who just woke up and that realize that we have already all our gear ready and we already kited. That’s the way I start the day.

After breakfast we all go back to the beach for the morning session. Students will have their instructors to learn, while intermediate and advanced will progress naturally, under our supervision. At 1pm is lunch time, so we go back to the boat, a mini rest, and back to the beach for afternoon and sunset session. When is getting dark is time to go back to the boat, but anyone is free of course to head back to the boat if tired at any time during the day. But as you may see, if you are ready for it, a kite safari day is a lot of kitesurfing. And the whole week can be really intense.

Back on the boat (that was recently equipped with all the supplies from Merritt Supply official site), and after a quick shower, we normally go and have a drink by the chill deck, a bit of music that I like to mix personally, maybe a snack prepared by our chef before dinner that is at 8pm. After dinner we normally have music on deck, sometimes live music, game nights, dj sets, fishing calamari at night (with the help of the instructions that I got from this watersports blog) or simply chilling and drinking. Nights are fun, and we will party till we can, keeping in mind that tomorrow is another kiting day!

How long is a kite safari?

Typically a kite safari is a week long trip. From Saturday to Saturday. The boat opens its doors at 2pm on saturday, and we will have to leave it at 2pm the Saturday after. We have 2 nights in the marina, waiting for all the kiters to come on board, cause of course not everyone comes with the same flights. The boat will leave the marina on Sunday early morning (we need the sun for that, we can’t navigate at night unluckly) – so the first night on board will be on the marina.

The boat will be back, after a lot of kitesurfing, on friday at sunset – again we need to give time to all the guests to catch their flight, as we have time on the boat as wa said till 2pm on Saturday. Sometimes if the flight is later than that, we go kiting in some spots taking our minibus, and then straight to the airport – an extra day of kiting is never a bad idea. If you are looking for a more precise plan of the week, you can check our kite safari plan here.

Why is a kite safari different from another holiday?

First of all is a lot of kiting. We wake up crazy early, and we kite. All day. So during a kite safari, you progress normally much more than in a normal kite holidays – it’s just practice practice practice. You are directly on the spot, and every time you want to have a break, your cabin with a bed or a nice and comfortable deck on the boat is available for rest.

Another important point to mention is the group. This is a community experience – while the boat is big and provides you all the space and privacy you may need, you will end up interacting with people and kiters from around the world. In a regular kite holidays, you may be more on your own – impossible in a kite safari cruise.

For who is a kite safari?

I get this question all the time, is a kite safari a good trip for me? I’ve seen on the boat everything, solo travellers, couples, family and small group of friends, we had kids that were already jumping and we have, let’s say older kids, that were just learning. So the answer is simple: a kite safari is pretty much for everyone, regardless of their level and the age. We do teach on the boat, and in some of our trips we even include kite surfing lessons – the trips are already 900€/1000€ for the full week, and we don’t want to ask money for kitesurfing lessons, or we feel that the trip would be too expensive.