NATIONAL REPORT -- The Safari West in Santa Rosa, California attracts vacationers looking for a safari experience without the long travel to Africa. The resort’s promise of giving guests a close encounter with wild African plains animals is exciting, but getting guests to accurately understand the notion of sleeping in a luxury tent stirs up nervousness about comfort, privacy and hygiene.

Frequently, the Safari West’s staff provide detailed descriptions of the properties luxury tents before they book prospective guests at the 31-unit Bed & Breakfast. With accommodations inside authentic African safari tents, and an absence of such amenities as room service, television sets and telephones, guests may not completely understand the experience of staying at the 400-acre, American Zoo and Aquarium Association-accredited wildlife preserve.

“Hospitality’s biggest challenge is describing what a tent is like,” says Aphrodite Caserta, Safari West’s director of marketing and public relations.

Actually, the 31 canvas-walled tents are decorated, luxury accommodations with hardwood floors, bathrooms and showers, Caserta says. For $225 a night, double occupancy, guests at Safari West are treated to a green-tourism adventure featuring animals from the African continent including cheetah, white rhino, cape buffalo, blue wildebeest, impala, lemur and warthogs.

The property straddles Northern California’s Napa Valley and Sonoma wine regions, so sorties to nearby wineries are an option. But most guests are transported by seeing the giraffes from their bungalows.

“Giraffes are such gentle, graceful creatures,” Caserta says “If you ever sit down to see a giraffe at twilight, it’s a sight to be seen.”

With ecotourism’s continuing rise in popularity, domestic resorts linked to African- style safari adventures are offering guests “Lion King” thrills sans passports, inoculations and expensive plane trips.

Travelers can trek to African Safaris at bed & breakfasts and inns in California, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas, according to iLoveInns.com.

The biggest lion in the pack, of course, is Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge in Orlando, FL.

Located at the Walt Disney World resort, about 80 percent of the rooms at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge offer views of a 33-acre tropical savannah with 30 species of “docile” animals including antelope, giraffe and zebras, said Disney spokesman Geoffrey Pointon. Guests can also meander on pathways through the habitat.

“It’s very popular,” Pointon says.

Pointon said that because destinations such as Orlando have a number of tourism products, guests are often willing “to pay a little more to get something more exclusive so they can experience it for a limited group.” Among the premiums is a special early morning safari and lavish breakfast buffet for Disney’s Kilimanjaro club concierge-level guests.

At Wild Things & Vision Quest Safari Bed & Breakfast in Salinas, CA, the big star is Josef, a full-grown lion that was the model for The Lion King, and also appeared in “George of the Jungle” with Brendan Fraser, says Wild Things owner Charlie Sammut.

On some days the animals double as wait staff.

“In the morning the elephants deliver a continental breakfast,” Sammut says.

Sammut, whose father owns two California inns, is a former Seaside, CA, police officer who did classroom visits with a baby lion. He eventually bought the lion and rented it out for commercial work, and still offers his Wild Things animals for film and television work. But Canada-bound Hollywood productions are calling less often now, so his furry friends, including an anteater, leopard and baboons, go on walks to the bungalows at Vision Quest.

The 51 acre Bed & Breakfast’s four bungalows are “canvas walled hotel rooms,” says Sammut. “They have everything a hotel suite has -- regular furniture, bathrooms, hardwood and tile floors, refrigerators, televisions and VCRs.”

Guests can also combine a stay with visits to Monterrey’s half dozen or more wineries or the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas.

Sammut says, “our guest books are filled … (people) can’t believe it’s here and can’t wait to tell how they didn’t have to go to Africa” for a safari experience.

Jim Merritt is associate editor of Hotel Interactive.

Courtesy of Hotel Interactive. www.hotelinteractive.com.