Jet lag plays a factor. If you’re from the other side of the world, it might take awhile to adjust to the time change.

I've been on two safaris, one in Tanzania and one in Botswana. Both of those were 14 days and it was a bit much IMO by the end. I think 5 is too few...7-10 days I think would be the sweet spot for me. It's absolutely amazing, but my safaris were also a bit of a daily grind...up very early for breakfast and on the truck by 6:30am. In Tanzania we stayed out all day and had sack lunches...in Botswana we went back to the camp for lunch and a short rest and then back on the trucks for the late afternoon/evening drive then returning for dinner, go to bed, and do it again.

I’d do 7 days rather than 5. I was mainly in Tanzania and went toward the end of March. The migration was over, but that meant there were less tourists and we had the place to ourselves much of the time. I literally could not have asked for a better vacation, everything was spectacular. I went with OAT - I think there were 10 of us on the tour(ages 18-75).

5 will feel very rushed

Depends on preference but for me 4 days is enough and then the laws of diminishing marginal returns kick in. We did 4 days in the Serengeti and I remember on the way out out of the gates of the national park there was a lion asleep in the long grass just beside the jeep. No one took a photo of the lion because by that stage we had seen 100+ lions over the previous few days.

Safari is not just about the wildlife but also the scenery and I think if you are driving around the same area for 7 days and the scenery doesnt change then it gets tiring. I think it is better to mix it up personally. So for example with Kenya you could do 4 days in the Mara then back to Nairobi and go up to Lake Naivasha and Hells Gate National Park where you can do a cycling safari. Hells Gate is a volcanic area so the scenery is very different to the vast plains of the Mara. Or you could spend a few days in Amboseli which has views of Mount Kilimanjaro and again different scenery than the Mara.

If I were to do a 7 day safari in one park then I think after a few days of seeing the big 5 Id ask the guide to concentrate on finding and tracking a specific animals that are in the park but is hard to see such as cheetahs or rhinos. The guides all have radios so they can call on the radio to other guides to help them find where they are.

yeah 5 days can feel a little rushed if you’re coming from far away and dealing with jet lag, you barely get into the rhythm before it’s time to pack up again. 7 days hits the sweet spot for most first-timers, especially if you’re sticking to one or two spots.

i did a 7-day trip focused just on the maasai mara last year with beyond the plains safaris and it felt super chill – we stayed at the same camp the whole time, did morning and afternoon game drives, and had time to just kick back with a drink at sunset watching the plains. no crazy transfers or early flights, just pure wildlife time. my parents were with us (both in their late 60s) and they said it was perfect, no one felt rushed and they still talk about the leopard we spotted on the last morning.

if you’re doing 5-7 days, one region like the mara or amboseli is way better than trying to bounce around. you get to really soak it in without feeling like you’re on a treadmill. your plan sounds solid either way, you’ll come back obsessed.

A lot will depend on your itinerary. If you're in the car every day for long hours, you'll likely feel like you've had enough by day 5. If you're mixing time in the car with walking, relaxing at camp, or doing other things, 7 will feel "just right".

7 days is plenty. By then you have seen thousands of animals, in many different environments.

For just one example, When we went we saw a lion family relaxing and playing, lions mating, lions lounging in a tree, lions feasting on a wildebeast, male lion walking through a crowd of zebra with his cub trailing behind.

By day 7 if the lions aren’t doing cartwheels, it’s just another lion laying in the grass.

A good safari will have you covered with not just the top 5, but with so many other animals multiple times throughout.

Edited to add- I was in Tanzania during the migration- Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge

We did 11 days. 3 days in each of 3 camps, and two days in Victoria Falls. I enjoyed spending 3 nights in each spot, you dont waste as much time moving between camps. Moving takes a lot of time, usually eats up most of a day.

Fwiw I did 5 days of self drive in Kruger and that was long enough for me. I stayed at 3 camps so I could see all sections of the park, and I went on two organized drives (a morning walk and a sunset drive). By about day 3 I was kind of going "oh, more zebras/giraffes)" vs being excited (which I recognize is pretty sad). It may be different with an organized safari though. 

I did 4 in sabi sands and it was plenty. We saw the big 5 on the first day. Followed that with 4 days in Cape Town and 4 days in Mozambique.

I drove around Kruger for 4 days once and saw absolutely everything. By the end of day 3 I'd had enough.

We did a 7 day safari at Kruger national park when I was a kid in the 80s. It absolutely was magical. We saw a lion pride, a cheetah, and a rhino as well as all the other more common animals. That said, it is not very common to see those 3 types of animals and many people who were vacationing there had been coming for years and had never experienced them. Also we were in south Africa for 5 weeks because my father was working there at the time and his company wanted us to move there. I'm sure they supplemented our vacation to entice us. I know that they paid for our business class flights from toronto to joburg

Edit: we did self driving, not a tour.

It’s enough. We did 5 days and it was enough.

I'd say 8-12 days. It was mind blowingly beautiful.

We did

Amboseli, Nakuru, Hellsgate, naivasha, samburu, treetop and mara

We loved Nakuru, and the lodge inside amboseli. Mara was amazing for the wildlife and Hellsgate was very interesting.

Treetop was a pretty unique experience.

Oh, and we also ate at Carnivore on the last day. Great place.

There are so many variables here. Are you talking about the total length of the trip including flights if you are flying to Africa from somewhere else? And where are you flying from? A five day Safari to Kruger national Park for somebody who lives in Johannesburg will be very leisurely. If you’re taking five days to fly from Chicago to Nairobi and then go to the Serengeti and get home, all within five days, you will be in Serengeti for only a couple of hours. Where exactly are you going, where are you starting from, and what is your budget? I worked in Africa for 30 years and jumping off on a safari for two days to take a break was fantastic. You need to give more information, what you asked here would be like saying I want to go to visit United States national parks, I have one week, is this enough? If you live in San Francisco, and your goal is to see Yosemite national Park only, it’s plenty. If you live in Tokyo, and you want to see Yosemite, but also big bend, Yellowstone, and Acadia, you couldn’t even see those parks just for a single photo op in a week.

I remember my first safari (migration time inTanzania) and how excited we all were when we spotted our first zebra. However, it wasn't long until zebras were ho-hum.

Depends where you're going and the jet lag

I did 3 lodges in the eastern cape recently and I think 5 days would be plenty. If I were in the Kruger or Zim, Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania etc, I think I'd do at least 7 days but probably not any or many more

Depends where you are and how long driving hours you have. But usually 5-7 days is fine and you will see a lot.

I personally would be quite bored after 3 days of driving around.

Not Africa, but 5 days in Las Vegas was way to long, 14 days in Hawaii was way to short. I love the outdoors, would take a longer trip. Stuffing all the plans into a short period for me sucks. I like to take a day or two just relaxing and wandering with no schedule when on a destination vacation.