Safari vs Palace
Two ways to run a company offsite, side by side — group size, budget, where each concentrates, and the estates worth booking.
Plan a RetreatSafari
Big-game conservancies — game drives and once-in-a-career awe.
- Venues
- 20 exclusive-buyout estates
- Typical group
- 10–450 guests
- Indicative budget
- $1,200–$2,000 pp/night
- Concentrated in
- Africa & Middle East
- Best for
- leadership, celebration, team building
Palace
Heritage palace hotels — ceremony, service, and old-world scale.
- Venues
- 14 exclusive-buyout estates
- Typical group
- 20–600 guests
- Indicative budget
- $425–$1,025 pp/night
- Concentrated in
- South & East Asia · Mediterranean Europe · Africa & Middle East
- Best for
- celebration, leadership, strategy
Anantara The Royal Livingstone Victoria Falls Hotel
173 colonial-luxe rooms strung along the Zambezi, with private lawn access to the lip of Victoria Falls and conference space for up to ~450 delegates. This is the rare safari-adjacent property that hosts a full company at one address — plenary, gala under the spray, then sundowner cruises and game drives in Mosi-oa-Tunya as breakouts.
Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve
Four distinct lodges on one of the Big Five's most reliable traversing areas, owner-operated since 1979. Bush Lodge (the flagship, ~25 suites + conference facility) anchors the plenary while Earth Lodge, Selati Camp and Little Bush Camp absorb breakout groups — a coordinated full-reserve buyout that scales past the single-camp ceiling without losing the genuine wilderness feel.
MalaMala Game Reserve
The largest private big-five reserve bordering Kruger, MalaMala shares a 19-kilometre unfenced boundary with the national park and runs three camps — Main Camp, Sable Camp and Rattray's Camp. Taken together they host a full company on one of the highest-density wildlife tracts in Africa.
Taj Falaknuma Palace
The former Nizam of Hyderabad's palace on a hill above the city, with a 101-seat state dining hall, a Durbar Hall and gardens that host events from 60 to 1,800. Guests arrive by horse-drawn carriage into one of India's grandest heritage settings.
Umaid Bhawan Palace (Taj)
One of the world's largest private residences, still partly home to the Jodhpur royal family, with a 64-key Taj wing set in 26 acres of formal gardens above the blue city. The plenary moves between the Majestic Banquet Hall (400) and the floodlit Palace Grounds (up to 1,200), and a full evening can be staged as a royal durbar with the Mehrangarh Fort lit on the skyline. Cultural immersion here is genuine, not themed.
Jai Mahal Palace
A restored early-20th-century palace on 18 acres of Mughal gardens in the heart of Jaipur, with about 100 rooms, seven meeting venues and lawns that stage evening functions for up to 2,000. Room for a full company kickoff with a genuine Rajasthani celebration built in.