Stay bite-free. Not being bitten is your best protection against disease-carrying flying and biting insects. Protect yourself with our choice of anti-insect products. As part of your anti-insect strategy combine our best-selling BUGTech™ range of clothing with the ultimate protection afforded by Australian-made repellents. Bushman™ repellent is available to all of our clients, while RID™ is only available to clients outside of the UK.
If you are not sure which features to look for in a safari shirt, then you have come to the right place. In this article we discuss the safari shirt features which are important for all safari shirts - and provide a visual summary of the most important safari shirt features - plus we chat about the additional safari shirt features which add to your comfort & enjoyment of the outdoors. After all, while our safari shirts are made for Africa, they are also the best performing outdoor & lifestyle shirts too. We also answer your frequently asked safari shirt questions, tell you a little bit more about why we are best placed to offer you advice & the best safari shirts, and provide a guide to the best safari shirts based on client reviews. We also then list our full range of expedition-tested™ safari shirts further down this page for you to choose from. Shop confident in the fact that you are buying the best.
Safari Shirt Introduction: Safari shirts are definitely the most important safari clothing essential for all safari - and outdoor - activities. The following advice is true for men's safari shirts, women's safari shirts, and children's safari shirts.
We provide answers to questions we are frequently asked about safari shirts
Up to 4-day safari: x 2 safari shirts; Up to 8-day safari: x 4 safari shirts; Up to 12-day safari: x 6 safari shirt
Note: This includes a mix of long sleeve safari shirts & t-shirt type safari shirts. So for example for the 8-day safari we would pack 2 long-sleeve safari shirts & 2 t-shirt safari shirts. The number of times when you are able to wash your safari shirts also makes a difference, plus of course whether or not you pack other shirts too or only pack safari shirts.
The short answer to that is "no". From a game viewing perspective white and black are the two most conspicuous colours on safari and so are best avoided. Your guide may not allow you to go on a walk if you are wearing white. From a practical perspective white gets dirty quickly and can be ruined by the dust & mud on a safari. Around the lodge you may of course wear white shirts - and we actually love to do just that as there is nothing better than having a hot shower after a long day on safari and then dressing in a crisp white shirt.
Please do not pack thick, heavy, safari shirts made from heavier weights of cotton and other fabrics. You will be hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable on safari. As a general rule cotton also performs way worse than modern fabrics and does not keep you cool through high-level wicking - which explains why you get big sweat patches when wearing cotton as moisture is not moving away from your skin fast enough to keep you cool. Shirts made from cotton - and other thick fabrics - do not provide built-in insect protection, nor do they have built-in anti-bacterial properties. Wearing thick cotton versus wearing modern manmade fabrics is pretty much the same as using an old typewriter to write a letter rather than a modern laptop.
We recommend safari shirts made from fabric which is between 80 and 130 grammes per square meter (gsm). Any heavier and the shirt will be too hot and bulky. Most of the safari shirts we stock are made from fabric which is 83 gsm - such as the Mens's Explorer & Everything Shirts; and the Women's Pioneer & Everything shirts.
Absolutely yes. Gone are the days of tent-shaped shirts for men and women. Our modern safari shirts use cuts & fabric which combine timeless safari-style and high-level outdoor performance to make sure that you always look good and are comfortable on safari. What is more, safari colours never go out of fashion and are often at the forefront of colours chosen by fashion designers. For women our safari shirts use designs which are cut to flatter. Smaller sizes are more fitted to accentuate the body, while larger sizes use a straighter cut for added comfort. For men rugged explorer designs are combined with subtle finishes which are in keeping with today's fashion trends. The best part about our safari shirts is that they really do combine fashion and functionality to ensure that you are able to wear your safari shirt in the city, the countryside, and on safari in the Serengeti.
With Africa as our testing ground - and expeditions our preferred testing method - our safari shirts have passed the ultimate testing regime with flying colours. All the technical features listed above ensure that our shirts are the best you can buy for general outdoor & adventure wear too. In fact well known explorers - such as Steve Backshall - have been spotted wearing our safari shirts just about everywhere: from the English countryside to the forests of Venezuela.
Our main reason for existing - and the very reason why Steve founded The Safari Store - is to improve the enjoyment for all our clients of the safari & outdoor experience. To achieve this we are constantly testing and trying new designs, ideas - and make it our primary focus to study new technologies and apply them through clever garment engineering in the products we make for your next adventure. Our process can be summarized as: research, design, sample, discuss & expedition test, refine sampling, wearer test for comfort, and then make and stock ready for your next adventure.
We also have a unique understanding of safari. We have experienced Africa & Safari not only from birth - as we were all born & raised in Africa - but also on every level. Steve spends two to three months of each year camped in a tent under a tree with his partner Claire - with no back-up or facilities - in the wildest places he can find in Africa just to live in our clothing and gear. This provides another layer of lifestyle & comfort testing for our products and it is an invaluable part of our process. We have also done it all: from grassroots sweating it out on expeditions to staying at the finest lodges. We have broken down, got lost, been stuck in mud/sand, had tyres puncture, walked our way out of car trouble, paddled, walked, ridden bicycles and horses, climbed sand dunes and mountains - just to understand Africa and the outdoors better. We have needed cotton wool to stop bleeding from cuts and scrapes on expedition, and experienced what it is like to be treated like cotton wool by luxury lodges. This grass roots to gold taps understanding of safari is what sets us apart. We apply all this knowledge into creating quite simply the best products and providing unbiased, well thought out advice. We sweat, so that you don't have to.
We value all our client reviews highly, and use them to guide us as we tweak existing products, and create new products. They are also a great way for you to see what other clients have thought about our safari shirts. Here is a selecttion of our safari shirts which have been highly-rated in client reviews
Review by client Kirstin Sercombe: "I love this shirt - the fit is perfect and it is stylish and easy to wear. I am just about to buy another one!"
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Review by client David: "I bought 2 of these shirts in 2011. They are still in regular use, though coming to the end of their life. They were bought for the ease of washing/drying. I had not expected them to last this long. I use them at least twice a week every week on a ranch in Kenya."
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