"Luxury" is printed on almost every safari brochure, so it's worth asking what actually changes the experience. From the trips we run, these are the things guests notice most:

• Privacy. Your own vehicle and guide for the whole trip, so you stop for the sightings you care about and leave when you're ready.
• The guide. A guide who reads animal behaviour, knows the rangers and trackers by name, and adjusts the day to your energy matters more than thread count.
• Space and setting. Fewer rooms, rooms spaced well apart, and a view you'd happily spend a free afternoon looking at.
• Timing. Permits, park fees and transfers arranged so nothing waits on paperwork at a gate.
• Food and small touches. Meals that work around a 6 a.m. trek, a packed lunch that is actually good, laundry returned the same day after a muddy forest walk.

What doesn't always mean luxury: a big bathroom at a lodge two hours' drive from the gorillas on trekking morning.

Over to you: what made a safari feel genuinely luxurious for you, and what turned out to be marketing?