Exploring Africa
Since 1688
Our journeys are the deeply considered design and delivery of an all African team sharing our home and not simply selling another destination. We weave together the complexities, history, beauty and culture of each country, each thread leading to something unexpected and telling stories that suddenly make the ordinary… extraordinary.
We believe that travel and design as mediums connect not only our outer aesthetic, but also evoke strong inner emotions. In order to fully appreciate the wild awe of Africa, one must be freed from the distractions of everyday life and be assured of a seamless, worry-free, meticulously executed journey.
Our depth of care and lifetime of understanding of the power of a potentially life-changing journey offers the space to our guests to rediscover, reconnect and rewild.
What sets our ultra-luxe safaris apart?
- Our experience comes from 300 years of family heritage.
- We are sharing our home, not selling a destination.
- Each journey is handcrafted and completely unique.
- We offer insider access to Africa’s most precious experiences.
- We are specialists not generalists with a focus only on Africa.
- We have a pioneering commitment to empowering women and changing the face of the safari industry.
- We offer deep inner journeys across Africa’s remarkable, often undiscovered landscapes, and intimate wildlife encounters.
- We founded “Haute Voyage”, private jet travel, taking you beyond first class.
- From start to finish, you are cared for by the same trusted team, ensuring a consistent and personalized experience throughout.
- We offer uncompromising, meticulous care allowing you to immerse fully in the unbridled joy of Africa.
Eleven generations can't be wrong
On May 12, 1688, Daniel Hugo, a French Huguenot and Deborah’s ancestor, traveled to South Africa on a Dutch ship called Brossenberg. Hugo and his family settled in Franschhoek.
Deborah’s maternal great-great grandparents were Hester & Heinrich Hablutzel. Heinrich, the grandson of a Swiss doctor. Heinrich started an auctioneering business in Cape Town that is still there today. His wife, Hester, was born in Cape Town; her cousin was J H Hofmeyr, a Rhodes Scholar and Prime Minister of South Africa before the Apartheid government.
Margaret and Colin Scheppening, who grew up on a farm in the Eastern Cape, were Deborah Calmeyer's great-aunt and paternal grandfather. Colin became a lawyer while his wife, Hestelle, taught English for 33 years in Johannesburg.
Reg and Molly Calmeyer, Deborah Calmeyer's grandparents, moved from a farm in South Africa to a farm in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe (Glenara Estates, formerly owned by Harry Oppenheimer). The Calmeyers lived on Glenara Estates for 48 years.
Deborah Calmeyer's parents, Tish Keth and Geoff Calmeyer, photographed in Harare, Zimbabwe. A year later, in 1973, Deborah is born. She grew up on a dairy farm with a lioness called Carmel (who her father adopted as part of the family), labradors and horses.
Four generations of Calmeyer women photographed in Johannesburg. From left to right: Deborah Calmeyer; Deborah's maternal grandmother, Hestelle Scheppening; her great-grandmother, Mimi Hugo; her mother, Tish Keth; and Deborah's sister, Terry Calmeyer.
The Calmeyers left Zimbabwe due to mounting pressure under the Mugabe regime. The family's prospects looked better in South Africa, the original home of her parents.
Deborah Calmeyer's husband, South African Robert Breen, photographed with mountain gorillas in the DRC on a year-long adventure from the Cape to Cairo. In 1999, the couple moved to New York - with every vacation and spare moment thereafter spent exploring the Africa they both love.
After years of creating itineraries, introducing contacts and advising friends seeking to travel to Africa, Deborah Calmeyer founded ROAR AFRICA. On a more personal note, Deborah created the company to give her father, a retired zoologist, opportunities to introduce the African wilderness he knew and loved to intrepid guests. Underpinning every itinerary is a philanthropic, conservation-led mission, to help women in tourism rise and to contribute toward protecting the precious continent Deborah and the growing ROAR AFRICA team grew up in.
Actor Robert Redford makes an emotional return to Africa for the first time since filming the iconic 1985 film, Out of Africa, in an incredibly touching and humbling moment for the entire ROAR AFRICA team whom Redford trusted to lead his nostalgic journey of re-discovery.
Deborah Calmeyer is invited to Beijing by Lan Yang (the Oprah of China) to address the business elite on the detriments of the illegal wildlife trade. The speech is broadcast online and receives over 191 million views.
ROAR AFRICA celebrated a successful decade of sharing their home continent – the people, wildlife and untamed spaces we know and love – with curious, open-hearted travelers.
ROAR AFRICA is celebrated by the top-tier press as a global leader in the industry, winning Travel + Leisure's World's Best Award and celebrated as one of Condé Nast Traveler's Top Travel Specialists. The accolades continued with ROAR AFRICA recognized as one of Robb Report's 21 Travel Masters for 2023 and again making Robb Report's Best of the Best list. Deborah was recognized as one of the 30 most powerful women in travel by Condé Nast.
After a lifetime of frustration at the patriarchal traditions (both tribal and Western) that shaped her childhood and continue to anchor much of the safari industry, Deborah launched the ROAR AFRICA Women's Empowerment Retreats using the power of perception to shift cultural change forever. Now an annual journey in a different African country, the concrete impact of the trip and subsequent empowered community continue to ripple far beyond our dreams.
The world shut down and travel to Africa came to a hard stop at a detrimental cost to conservation and the livelihoods dependent on tourism. ROAR AFRICA buckled down and supported our partners, friends and suppliers as much as possible while retaining 100% of the team. During this terrifying time, the team challenged themselves to remain positive and plan for a brighter future, pushing beyond limits and boundaries. A webinar series, ROAR PRIVÉ, launched, alongside creative new products like ROAR VILLAS and The Greatest Safari on Earth.
A landmark year marked a cautious, deeply emotional return to African travel. ROAR AFRICA introduced and sold out the first adventure of its kind in the world, The Greatest Safari on Earth aboard the Emirates Executive Private Jet. Elevating the luxury safari experience to new, never been seen before heights, the epic 12 night journey saw just 10 guests traveling beyond first class, exploring the continent's most iconic wildlife experiences in Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the Maasai Mara in Kenya, and the mountain gorillas of Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.
Two Greatest Safari on Earth trips are completely sold out and the team launched a spectacular new journey aboard the Emirates Executive Private Jet, Sand, Sea, City & Safari, set to take off in 2024. ROAR AFRICA grew to exceptional new heights in the post-Covid era.
We launched Into to the wild with David Whyte - a renowned philosopher, poet and writer, putting words to the human experience in the wild, mentally, physically and spiritually. Assouline also launched their first ever book on safari with an entire book dedicated to our ultimate ‘African Adventure’ – The Greatest Safari on Earth.
Our breathtaking journey, Sand, Sea, City & Safari, is delivered to wild acclaim and the second ‘Return to the Wild’ experience with David Whyte takes place in Kenya. The team launched The Journey Beyond in partnership with One&Only aboard the Emirates Executive Private Jet, another world-first.
Trust our team of African travel experts.
We continue to innovate and expand on never-been-seen-before experiences. Life-changing journeys like The Greatest Safari on Earth, touching the continent's four most iconic destinations on board the Emirates Executive Private Jet, have changed the face of luxury travel in Africa forever. Our Women’s Empowerment Retreats pioneer female change agents, shattering both tribal and western norms and shifting the culture of the industry forever.
We firmly believe that nature is our nurture. No other experience on earth delivers the profound peace and forced surrender one can find amidst artistry of one of our journeys. We share our friends and hidden gems, immersing you deeply in ways only a local can. Our dedicated team, whose logistical expertise we liken to the Navy SEALs of travel, removes any grind and stress. Finally, our hand-picked properties that echo our values are the crucial backdrop to the set and setting. These potentially life changing experiences have the magnitude to put you back in your body, crack your heart open and elevate your mind.
“If African women rise, wildlife will thrive”
To share Africa's wild beauty and wonder with intrepid explorers is a privilege that comes with great responsibility. As a female-founded and led company, our commitment is to empower African women in tourism, ensuring they are given the wings to soar. Whilst we specialize in executing extraordinarily epic adventures across our home continent, our prime motivation is a breathless urgency to conserve uplift and protect the source of our greatest joy – the wild. These beliefs inform every itinerary we create.
By traveling with us, you will become a custodian of the wild, directly helping to solve some of our planet's most critical social, economic and environmental problems.
We have long been committed to conservation, humanitarian work, economic education and development in Africa.
We choose to partner exclusively with people and properties that echo our values.
Discover what the world is saying
Discover what the world is saying about ROAR AFRICA in our press section, from glowing reviews to distinguished features in premier publications.
