How two women from outside the travel industry built a luxury safari brand from Africa

"The call of Africa was too strong to resist."

Vikki said it years before Marula Hill existed. We are the two women behind the brand. One of us grew up in Manchester and moved south for good because a family holiday refused to leave her alone. The other ran marketing for MARS Southern Africa and quietly planned safaris for friends on the side. We did not come from travel. We came to it because we could not stop thinking about it.

This is the long version of how that happened, and what we have learned designing private safaris for people who could go anywhere.

"Africa had gotten under my skin"

Vikki: I grew up in Manchester in a family of redheads, which ruled out the standard beach holiday. We road-tripped through Europe and the United States instead. The trip that changed everything was three weeks in South Africa as a child. I didn't know it at the time, but the place had decided something about me.

Fourteen years later, with an Honours degree finished and a choice in front of me, I moved. The job was at IBM, in HR and brand communications, and it sent me all over the continent. That part matters. I saw the variety. I saw what worked and what didn't. By the time we started Marula Hill, I had spent years inside the kind of corporate machine that teaches you how to think about brand, service, and the unglamorous middle of a business.

Sian: I came at it from the other side. I was marketing director for MARS Southern Africa, a long way from safari boots. But people kept asking me to plan their holidays. Friends, family, colleagues. I'd do it on weekends, almost embarrassed by how much I enjoyed it.

The question we both kept asking each other, the one anyone in a salaried job eventually asks: would I still do this if I didn't need the money? For us the answer was the same. We wanted to promote Africa for a living.

"We try to sell what we've personally experienced"

We built Marula Hill on three principles, and we will not move off them.

The first is that we work to our guests' clock rather than our own. Safari travel is global-time work. Someone in Singapore researching the Mara late at night is not thinking about our office hours, and we would rather fit around them where we can.

The second is first-hand knowledge. We pay to stay at the lodges we recommend. We sit in the vehicles, we eat the food, we test the bathrooms, we ask the guides the questions a guest would never know to ask. The line we keep repeating to each other: we try to sell what we've personally experienced. If we haven't been, we say so.

The third is staying current. The luxury safari industry moves quickly. A lodge that was the obvious choice three years ago might have changed management, lost its head chef, refurbished badly, or simply been overtaken. We update what we know, constantly.

These three are not marketing language. They are the actual filter we run a brief through before we send a single suggestion to a guest.

"Luxury is in the details"

Sian, on what young women entering this industry should know:

"Luxury is in the details. Personalised service, attention to guest preferences, and creating unique, memorable moments. Avoid taking a purely transactional approach. Spell a guest's name correctly. Remember their favourite drink. These seemingly minor touches show guests they are valued and respected, which is at the core of luxury hospitality."

We design around that idea. The first conversation with any new guest is a long one. We meet virtually, and we go deep into what they actually want versus what they think they want. People often arrive asking for the Big Five and leave wanting to learn to track. We try to hear that early.

The tailoring is not a marketing line. We don't sell from a catalogue. Every itinerary is built from scratch around the brief, the season, the budget, and the kind of traveller in front of us.

What we keep recommending

Our most-requested experiences shift year on year, but five destinations come up again and again.

Sabi Sand and Greater Kruger, for guests on their first safari who want a Big Five record as dependable as any in Africa paired with the comfort of South Africa's lodge infrastructure. The Okavango Delta in Botswana, for second-timers who want the water and the silence. Namibia, for the self-drive crowd with time on their hands and a high tolerance for distance. The Masai Mara during the Great Migration, July through October, for the spectacle. And Rwanda, for the gorilla trek. That last hour, sitting near a silverback in the mist, has changed more guests than any other single thing we book.

Beyond the headlines, the requests we are seeing most often right now are for slower, deeper, more involved trips. Families e-biking through the Winelands instead of touring it by car. Photographers booking specialist guides. Vegan travellers asking us to find lodges that take plant-based cuisine seriously. Sustainability comes up in nearly every brief now. Solar power, recycled water, local sourcing. Guests want to know the lodge has thought about it before they arrive.

"It's an emotional journey"

Sian again:

"Luxury safari travel is more than just a service; it's an emotional journey. Your goal should be to create lasting memories and connections. Avoid taking a purely transactional approach."

This is the part that's hard to teach. A safari is not a holiday in the conventional sense. People come back changed by it, sometimes in ways they can't articulate for months. Our job is to design for that without forcing it. We set the conditions. The bush does the rest.

The conditions, in our experience, are: a lodge that doesn't over-programme the day, a guide who reads the room, a route that gives the trip a shape, and one or two moments that aren't on the schedule. Those last ones are the ones guests email us about years later.

What we would tell a first-time safari traveller

A short list, drawn from years of doing this:

• Go with a specialist. There is no public marketplace for the best private guides, the best suites, the best routes between two lodges. That information lives with people who have done this for a long time.
• Ask what's included, and then ask what's actually included. Conservation levies, park fees, drinks, laundry, and tips vary wildly between properties.
• Don't pack everything you own. Most luxury lodges in Africa have weight limits on the bush flights, and the laundry is usually free.
• Build in a non-safari day at each end. A wine farm, a coastal stop, a city. The contrast makes the safari days hit harder.
• Trust the people on the ground. The guide, the tracker, the lodge manager. They have done this thousands of times.

A note about the company

Marula Hill is based in the Greater Kruger. We are a two-founder business. We do not have a sales team. Every itinerary that leaves our desk has been put together by one of us. That is the point.

We were recently featured in Travel Essence Magazine, which ran the longer version of this conversation. The interview is where most of these answers were first published.

If you are thinking about a safari and want to talk it through, the contact form is here. We answer everything ourselves.

Frequently asked questions

Who runs Marula Hill?

Marula Hill is co-founded by Vikki Jackson and Sian Loehrer. Vikki spent her early career at IBM in HR and brand communications. Sian was marketing director for MARS Southern Africa. The company is based in the Greater Kruger.

Where did the founders come from before travel?

Neither founder came from the travel industry. Vikki moved from Manchester to South Africa after finishing her Honours degree and worked at IBM. Sian was a corporate marketing director at MARS Southern Africa. Both planned safaris for friends and colleagues for years before launching Marula Hill.

What kind of safaris does Marula Hill design?

Private itineraries built from scratch, including vegan safaris, family safaris, photographic safaris, conservation-focused safaris, cultural trips, and treehouse and tented stays. No off-the-shelf packages.

Where is Marula Hill based?

Greater Kruger, South Africa. The founders travel extensively across Southern and East Africa to inspect the lodges they recommend.

Why use a specialist over booking direct?

A specialist knows which lodge is on form this season, which guide to request, which route between properties actually works, and which inclusions hide costs. That information is not publicly indexed.

What destinations does Marula Hill cover?

South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, and Madagascar.

How do I start planning a trip?

A virtual call with one of the founders. The first conversation is a long one, designed to understand what you actually want rather than what you think you should ask for.