South Africa
South Africa is a vast and incredibly diverse country, with far more highlights than could ever be included in a single trip. Most people start with a combination of safari in Kruger and time in Cape Town and the Winelands, but there are many other locations and over 900 good quality lodges.
Tanzania
Tanzania is a truly remarkable country, with far more than its fair share of Africa’s crowned jewels, including Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar, with guest accommodation in around 350 good quality lodges, offering a very wide range of safari, cultural and marine activities.
Kenya
Set in East Africa, Kenya is the second most visited safari country on the continent, a place of great diversity, with some wonderful remote locations, but very busy and touristy in core areas. Guest accommodation is in a diverse range of around 120 good quality camps and lodges, offering a very wide range of safari, active, marine and cultural activities.
Namibia
Namibia is a fabulously diverse and fascinating country which offers a remarkable range of desert scenery, wildlife and culture. The naturally lower wildlife densities mean that it is perhaps best suited to more experienced or less animal-focused safari travellers. The option to self-drive makes longer trips unusually cost effective.
Botswana
Botswana is widely considered to be the finest safari area in Africa, offering the purest and most pristine of wilderness experiences, with guest accommodation in a fabulous range of around 100 very high quality and famously pricey lodges, offering a very wide range of wet and dry safari activities.
Serengeti
Set in the north of Tanzania, Serengeti is the mother of all safari reserves, a most extraordinary place, best known for its enormous wildebeest and zebra migration, but with prolific wildlife year round. Guest accommodation is in a fabulous range of over 100 camps and lodges, offering a range of safari and cultural activities.
Kruger
Set in the northeast of South Africa, Kruger is a vast conservation area, the most popular safari destination on the continent, renowned for easy wildlife viewing and great predator photography. Guest accommodation is in around 150 lodges, most of which are extremely comfortable and reliable, as well as covering an unusually wide range of price levels.
Zambia
Zambia is a substantial land-locked country in Southern Africa, best known for the Victoria Falls, but also with a handful of superb remote safari areas. Guest accommodation is in a range of around 100 largely authentic and earthy camps and lodges, many with a marked leaning towards walking safari.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a substantial land-locked country in Southern Africa, best known for the Victoria Falls, but also offering some of the most earthy, authentic heart-pumping safari on the continent, with guest accommodation in a range of around 50 good quality camps and lodges.
Zanzibar
Set off the coast of Tanzania, Zanzibar Island is a fabulously beautiful and extremely historic place with glorious white sand beaches, coral lagoons and excellent diving. Guest accommodation is in around 120 decent lodges, hotels and resorts, offering a wide range of marine and cultural activities.
Maasai Mara
Set 200 km west of Nairobi, Maasai Mara is the portion of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem that lies on the Kenya side of the border with Tanzania. It contains sweeping savannah scenery and rich wildlife, with guest accommodation in around 150 camps and lodges, spread across the National Reserve and the surrounding private conservancies.
Okavango
Set in the heart of the Kalahari Desert in northern Botswana, Okavango Delta is a stunningly beautiful and vibrant wetland, with intensely rich and varied wildlife, offering a very wide range of wet and dry safari activities. Guest accommodation is in around 65 very high quality and famously pricey lodges.
Cape Town
Set in the Western Cape of South Africa, Cape Town is a fabulous, fascinating city, tucked in the folds of a very beautiful national park, where you are never short of a view and never more than a short walk away from an epic hiking trail. There’s so much to see and do that a few nights will only enable you to scratch the surface.
Madagascar
Set in the Indian Ocean to the east of Africa, Madagascar is a huge and remarkable island with a unique flora and fauna, from the tropical rainforests of the east to the spiny forests and tsingys of the west, all encircled by fabulous coral reefs. A truly amazing place to explore.
Uganda
Uganda is a land-locked country in east-central Africa, best known for its gorillas and chimpanzees, but also containing some superb Rift Valley scenery and savanna safari reserves. Guest accommodation is in a total of only around 30 decent lodges and camps, offering a really wide range of safari, active and cultural activities.
Mozambique
Mozambique is a vast and hugely under-developed country, largely visited for its fabulous and remote tropical coastline, home to around a dozen high quality lodges, which can be reached by air from Johannesburg.
South Luangwa
Set in eastern Zambia, some 850 km northeast of Victoria Falls, South Luangwa is one of the finest safari areas in Africa, with very rich wildlife and some particularly strong walking safari. Guest accommodation is in around 40 mostly small and earthy safari camps and lodges.
Egypt
Egypt is way better than most people could imagine. Obviously, the archaeology is incredible, but it’s not the whole deal. The Nile River is hyper-relaxing, the deserts are hypnotising and the underwater world of the Red Sea is incredible. Egyptians are wonderfully warm and relaxed, when not behind the wheel. We do have to work quite hard to avoid the crowds in some locations, but it can definitely be done.
Serengeti Mara
Set in the north of Tanzania, Serengeti Mara is the prime but potentially busy area for migration herds and river crossings during the Jul-Nov dry season and a wonderful quiet backwater at other times, with guest accommodation in around 30 small lodges and camps, offering a good range of safari experiences.
Ethiopia
Set in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia is an extremely diverse country, with a truly remarkable history, incredible volcanic landscapes, a wealth of diverse wilderness areas and some amazing tribal cultures. But visitor infrastructure is thin on the ground, with fewer than a dozen high quality lodges.
Sabi Sand Reserve
Set in the northeast of South Africa, Sabi Sand is the premium private safari reserve to the west of Kruger National Park, with extremely rich and accessible wildlife and containing the lion’s share of the region’s high quality lodges.
Seychelles
Very remotely located in the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles is a group of beautiful tropical islands, renowned for their awesome granite-bouldered beaches and superb marine life. Guest accommodation is in a decent collection of high quality lodges and resorts, the best of which are on private islands, offering a broad range of active, sports and marine activities.
Mauritius
Set way out in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius is a very remote and beautiful tropical island, with a verdant mountain interior, fabulous white sand beaches and rich coral marine life. The island is mainly focused on large luxury beach hotels and golf resorts, which are occasionally combined with safari in South Africa.
Rwanda
Surrounded by Tanzania, Burundi, DRC and Uganda, Rwanda is a highly populous little country best known for its mountain scenery, tropical forests, mountain gorillas, chimpanzees and cultural interaction, plus some modest savanna safari. Guest accommodation is in only around a dozen decent quality lodges.
Serengeti Central
Set in the north of Tanzania, Serengeti Central is the heart of this remarkable reserve, with guest accommodation in around 25 camps and lodges, offering prodigious wildlife viewing year round, but with serious potential for traffic problems in core areas.
Serengeti Southwest
Set in the north of Tanzania, Serengeti Southwest is the main area for migration action during the key Dec-Apr calving season and a peaceful backwater at other times, with guest accommodation in around 30 small lodges and camps, offering a good range of safari experiences. Traffic issues in peak migration months.
Malawi
Encircled by Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, Malawi is a beautiful and very authentic little country, a quiet backwater renowned for its beautiful lake and beaches, as well as some interesting safari areas. Guest accommodation is in fewer than 30 good quality camps and lodges, offering a wide range of safari and marine activities.
Ngorongoro
Situated immediately to the south of Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Highlands is a range of dramatic volcanic peaks which is traversed during private-guided overland safaris through the region, notably passing through the famous Ngorongoro Crater.
Hwange
Set just 130 km south of Victoria Falls, Hwange is the most popular wildlife reserve in Zimbabwe, renowned for the quality of its safari guiding, rich and varied wildlife, authentic walking safari and superb hides, with guest accommodation in around 25 largely earthy and authentic lodges and camps.
Victoria Falls Town
Set in the northwest corner of Zimbabwe, across the river from Zambia, Victoria Falls is one of the most alluring locations in Africa, surprisingly pleasant and undeveloped, with guest accommodation in around 20 diverse hotels and lodges, offering a very wide range of safari, cultural and adrenaline-based activities.
Etosha
Etosha National Park is the best known wildlife area in Namibia, renowned for intense animal scenes around its many waterholes. Unfortunately the national park itself is primarily set up for self-drive and core areas are often unpleasantly busy. A network of private reserves around the periphery do their best to inject some quality into the experience.
Waterberg Mountains
Set in the north of South Africa, the non-malarial Waterberg Mountains area contains several interesting wildlife reserves, with some superb scenery and relatively easy wildlife viewing, as well as options for horse-riding and golf. Guest accommodation is in around 25 decent quality lodges, many of which are relatively well priced.
Mara Reserve
Set 200 km west of Nairobi, the Maasai Mara Reserve is Kenya’s best known safari destination, with exceptional year-round wildlife, very high predator densities and the dramatic Jul-Oct migration season.
Madikwe
Set in the north of South Africa, Madikwe is one of the best non-malarial safari reserves in Africa. At 750 square kilometres it’s around 4% the size of Kruger, a fully-fenced area which was once farmland, but is now rehabilitated and restocked with a full range of wildlife. Guest accommodation is in around 20 lodges, some of which are unusually well priced.
Franschhoek
Set in the heart of the Cape Winelands, Franschhoek is a beautiful and relaxed village and a very popular place for our guests to stay, with a wealth of high class wineries, restaurants and hotels, plus options for shopping, mountain hiking and biking.
Nairobi
The capital of Kenya, Nairobi is a major city and the primary transport hub for East Africa. It’s a typically hectic place, but with some pleasant quiet suburbs, a good range of hotels and some interesting activities, notably the famous giraffe and baby elephant sanctuaries.
Arusha
Located in Tanzania North, Arusha is a significant and relatively pleasant town, the start point for safaris into the Serengeti region, with guest accommodation in a good range of largely rural lodges. Overnight stops are frequently needed here in order to make flight connections.
Amakhala and Shamwari
Set in the Eastern Cape, the Amakhala and Shamwari area covers several private wildlife reserves that line the N2 highway between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown, with some high quality lodges, but a little low on that critical sense of wilderness.
Timbavati Reserve
Set in the northeast of South Africa, Timbavati is a very strong private safari reserve to the west of Kruger National Park, containing a full range of safari wildlife and hosting a very strong range of relatively well-priced lodges.
Lower Zambezi
Set 120 km southeast of Lusaka in Zambia, Lower Zambezi is a superb reserve, with very rich wildlife. Guest accommodation is in a handful of very high quality camps and lodges which notably also offer excellent canoe safari and motorboat safari out on the river.
South Luangwa North
The northern sector of South Luangwa is relatively remote and very strong for wildlife, with guest accommodation in a fine selection of intimate camps and offering a range of very strong dry safari activities.
Tarangire
Located 200 km southeast of Serengeti, Tarangire is a solid safari area renowned for great baobab trees and prodigious herds of elephants. Guest accommodation is in around 20 camps and lodges, offering a good range of safari activities, notably including walking safari and night vehicle safari.
Mana Pools
Set 460 km downstream of Victoria Falls, Mana Pools is a really impressive wilderness, particularly renowned for awesome safari guiding, wild-dogs, hardcore walking safari and intense canoe safari, with guest accommodation in a dozen largely earthy and authentic lodges and camps.
South Luangwa Central
The central sector of South Luangwa is the most accessible and has the most accessible wildlife, especially during the Nov-May green season, but is also the most busy, with larger lodges and higher vehicle densities.
Livingstone
Set in the south of Zambia and home to the Victoria Falls, Livingstone is one of the most alluring locations in Africa, surprisingly pleasant and undeveloped. Guest accommodation is in around 20 diverse hotels and lodges, offering a very wide range of safari, active and cultural activities.
Little Karoo
Set in the Western Cape, the Little Karoo is an area of very scenic semi-desert scenery with ribbons of verdant agriculture and pleasant rural settlements including Montagu, Calitzdorp and Oudtshoorn. The R62 road is a really good alternative to the busy N2 coastal highway, these rural areas are a world apart from the hectic Garden Route.
Sossusvlei
Set in the southwest of Namibia, Sossusvlei is home to the enormous and iconic orange dunes of the Namib Desert, a truly remarkable combination of desert landscapes. Guest accommodation is in around twenty lodges of various levels, offering a good range of activities including quad-biking, ballooning and scenic flights.
Windhoek
Windhoek is the capital of Namibia and the location of the main international airport, so most visitors pass through here at least once in their trip. It is usually possible to connect through without having to overnight, but actually it is a rather relaxed and pleasant place to break a journey.
Linyanti
Set in the north of Botswana, the Linyanti Waterfront is one of the finest safari areas in Africa, renowned for huge herds of elephants, intense predator action and wild-dog denning. Guest accommodation is in a diverse range of around a dozen high quality camps and lodges.
Mara North
Set 200 km west of Nairobi, Mara North is an excellent private conservancy to the northeast of the main Maasai Mara reserve, with guest accommodation in a good range of camps and offering a wide range of safari and cultural activities.
