Lake Marian, New Zealand
Private helicopter safaris · for 20 years
20 years
of helicopter safaris
13 countries
on four continents
East Africa
our home sky
Great pilots
matched to you, not assigned
The Experience
A helicopter safari is only as good as the aircraft and the people flying it. That is why we never simply charter "a helicopter". For every journey we choose a specific helicopter, of the type that suits the terrain and your group, with a specific pilot, or two pilots if you prefer the extra safety margin. And we match those pilots to you.
Wherever possible we choose helicopters with sliding doors that can be opened and closed in flight. For photographers it means no glass between the lens and the landscape. For everyone else it is simply a more immersive way to experience the land around you: the wind, the scent and the sound of the country below, with nothing in between.
Some guests want a quiet, gentle style and long stops on the ground. Others want to photograph from the open door, chase the light and land on the next ridge. Families need patience, curiosity and a sense of humour. Over 20 years we have come to know the pilots we fly with: their character, their flying and the country they know best. So the person beside you feels like the right companion from the first minute.
The right pilot knows where the water is, where to refuel, and when to simply switch off and listen.
Why a helicopter
The whole point of flying is access. Crater lakes without a track, waterfalls after the first rains, ridges above the clouds, beaches that see no footprints but ours. The helicopter is not the attraction. It is the key to everything a vehicle will never reach.
Good to know
Over many large parts of Africa, Canada or New Zealand, there is no air traffic control assigning routes and altitudes. Our pilot does not need to request clearance or follow a fixed course. We fly with the light, the animals and the landscape: low along a river, up a cliff face, over to the next horizon.
And wherever nature and the landowners allow, we land on a summit, on an island in a lake, on the rim of a volcano or in the middle of the desert. The feeling of moving freely through a landscape like this is unlike anything else.
Visual flight rules, minimum heights over settlements and wildlife, and the permission of landowners and park authorities always apply.
Our Fleet
We do not fly one fleet around the world. In every country we work with local operators who know the rules, the airspace and the terrain inside out, from the weather patterns to the refuelling points and the landing permissions. Their helicopters and their pilots are part of the land we fly over.
What stays the same everywhere is our standard: we insist on turbine-powered helicopters, without exception.
Our first choice. Modern Eurocopters can be fitted with sliding doors that open and close during flight. Open for the photograph, the wind and the sound of the land below, closed again for the long transfer or the cool morning air.
More and more often we also fly the R66, a lighter and more affordable helicopter that can be flown with the doors off. It has a modern turbine engine, which makes it far more reliable than the older piston-engined R44.
Whatever the country and whatever the aircraft, we fly turbine helicopters only. Turbine engines are more reliable and more powerful at altitude and in the heat, and those are the conditions we fly in every day.
Our home sky
No country has shaped our helicopter safaris more. For more than 20 years we have flown Kenya from the highlands to the far north, over volcanic deserts, soda lakes coloured red and pink, palm-lined rivers and waterfalls that only exist for a few days after the rains. We know the camps, the pilots and the hidden corners, and we combine them into journeys that are entirely your own.
Destinations
Africa is our heart, but the same idea works wherever the land is wild and the sky is open, from the fjords of New Zealand and the volcanic highlands of Iceland to the glaciers of Canada and Alaska.
About Michael Poliza
Michael Poliza is a wildlife and landscape photographer whom the German press has called one of the world’s finest nature photographers. His photo books with teNeues, among them Africa, Antarctic and Eyes over Africa, have been praised from The New York Times to Good Morning America. He lived in South Africa for eight years, and for more than 20 years he has planned and flown helicopter safaris across four continents. Michael Poliza Private Travel brings that experience to every journey.
In 2006 he flew with a friend by helicopter from Hamburg all the way to Cape Town: eight weeks, 17 countries, low over the land and landing wherever the country invited them.
That journey became Eyes over Africa, and its spirit lives on in every helicopter safari we plan today.
Shown side by side at true relative scale.
XXL Edition
Approx. 48 × 60 cm, 504 pages and around 20 kg, presented in a suede-covered box. Numbered and signed by Michael Poliza.
Large-format edition
Approx. 29 × 39 cm, 408 pages, about 5 kg. Text in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.
Special Selection
Approx. 26 × 32 cm, 304 pages, hardcover (2017).
What the press says about Michael Poliza's photography
“…might change the way you think about photography!”
“If a book could take your breath away, this is the one.”
“Poliza has taken wildlife and landscape photography to a new level.”
“The most impressive collection of African wildlife photography we have come across.”
Your journey
Every helicopter safari is planned personally, from the route and the camps to the aircraft and, above all, the pilot.
