How to plan a safari supper

Step by step

1. Step 1Gather your householdsYou need at least one host per course plus a few guests — three or four households is enough to start; a whole street of twenty-plus makes for a brilliant night. Names are all you need; no addresses or emails required.
2. Step 2Pick a date (or let people vote)A weekend evening usually works best. If you can't settle on one, offer two or three dates and let households say which they can do — then lock the winner.
3. Step 3Decide your coursesThree is the classic — starter, main, dessert — one host per course. Add welcome drinks to start or a nightcap to finish if that's your tradition, or run just two courses. Each course needs a different host household.
4. Step 4Ask who can host whatLet households say which course they'd happily host and how many they can seat. Some love doing dessert; some have the biggest kitchen for mains. Collect this before you plan.
5. Step 5Work out who goes whereThe hard bit: assign each household a course to host and a table for the others, so everyone's seated, nobody hosts twice, and no two households are paired more than once. By hand this is a real puzzle — a planner does it in seconds and guarantees no clashes.
6. Step 6Set the timingsAllow roughly 45–60 minutes a course, plus a few minutes to walk between homes. Share a running order so nobody's left waiting or arriving early.
7. Step 7Share everyone's planGive each household its own printable itinerary — where to go for each course and who they'll meet — plus a master sheet for the whole street. You get these free the moment you publish; no design or spreadsheets needed. On the night, it runs itself.

A few tips from experience

• Keep hosts' food make-ahead — you can't be fussing over a hot stove while guests arrive and leave.
• Agree a spending guide per course so no one feels they have to put on a banquet.
• Put a quick icebreaker at each table — new groups warm up faster with a prompt.
• Note dietary needs up front and pass them to each host with their guest list.
• Send a reminder on the day with everyone's first stop and start time.
• Raising money for a cause? A safari supper makes a brilliant charity fundraiser — hosts cover the food, so overheads are tiny.

Common questions

How far in advance should I plan a safari supper?

Three to four weeks is comfortable — enough time to invite everyone, collect who-can-host replies and settle the date, without losing momentum. A street that does it every year can turn one around in a week.

How do I make sure nobody sits with the same people twice?

That's the core scheduling challenge. With more than a handful of households it's very hard to guarantee by hand. The planner on this site searches for an arrangement with zero repeat pairings and the widest possible mixing, so you can promise nobody's double-booked.

What if someone drops out at the last minute?

It happens every year. Re-plan around the change and re-issue the affected households' itineraries — the tool keeps the rest of the plan stable and only moves what it must.

Do people drive between houses?

Ideally not — a safari supper is best when homes are within a short walk of each other (a single street or close). If some driving is unavoidable, arrange designated drivers and build in a little extra time.