Safari to South Africa

the most popular safari country in Africa

South Africa is a large country, 2.5 times the size of California, 5 times the size of the UK.

It’s also a very diverse place, bounded by almost 3000 km of subtropical and Antarctic coastlines, backed by verdant farmlands and prominent mountain ranges, all centred on a vast semi-desert interior.

In short, the country contains a magnificent mixture of landscapes, climates and cultures. There really is so much to explore.

South Africa is also by far the most popular safari country in Africa amongst international travellers, receiving around ten million visitors each year, around 15% of the total for the continent, five times that of Kenya, over twenty times that of Botswana.

Although the majority of international visitors to the country are largely focused on wildlife viewing, in truth the safari here is not all that strong. South Africa is a modern developed country and safari tends to be better in the wilder ranges of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and the countries of Eastern Africa.

But there are some decent safari areas, notably Kruger in the northeast, Tswalu and Madikwe in the north and Phinda to the southeast.

Safaris (whether within South Africa or elsewhere in Southern Africa) are most commonly combined with time in the very civilised Cape Town, Cape Winelands, Whale Coast and Garden Route areas. Alternatively it is possible to combine the safari areas with the tropical beaches of the Indian Ocean.

South Africa is a lot more economically advanced than countries further north on the continent, which means that you can expect high levels of service at much lower prices (which in some ways seems counter-intuitive).

Choosing when to visit South Africa is notoriously difficult because different parts of the country experience almost converse seasons.

The Cape region has what could be considered a typical southern hemisphere climate, Mediterranean in style, but with a warm dry summer focused on Dec-Apr and cool wet winter Jun-Sep, so the converse to most of Europe and North America.

The main safari areas in South Africa (Kruger, Madikwe, Waterberg Mountains and Tswalu), as well as almost all safari areas in other countries across Southern and Eastern Africa, all have a completely different climate, which is driven mainly by the monsoon systems of the Indian Ocean. The cool dry season, which is usually considered to be the best time for safari, is May-Sep, whilst the more challenging hot wet green season is centred on Nov-Mar.

If you want to combine these two regions then you can either aim for the shoulder seasons of Apr-May and Sep-Oct, or choose the optimum time for the area which is of more importance and where you are planning to deploy most of your time.

Our general advice would be to worry less about the Jun-Sep winter period in Cape Town (which is usually mild and pleasant), whilst being slightly more concerned about the Nov-Mar hot wet season in the safari areas (which can be much more of an issue for so many reasons).

If you do want to go on safari during that Nov-Mar hot wet season period, you may well be better advised to head to the Kalahari Desert areas of Botswana or the Namib Desert areas of Namibia, which are naturally much less affected by the rains.

Getting there

South Africa is generally accessed via the main international airport at Johannesburg.

For the vast majority of visitors the Johannesburg area holds little of interest and the priority is usually to get in and out as fast as possible, ideally connecting direct to the safari areas or Cape Town. Flights arriving later in the day (notably from North America) often require a quick overnight here, before connecting out next morning.

Johannesburg is reasonably well connected worldwide and extremely well connected within Africa, this is the main transport hub for the southern part of the continent.

Unfortunately that also means that when connecting some popular locations you need to route back through Johannesburg (for example Windhoek in Namibia to Maun in Botswana sometimes involves this serious detour), but on the whole we are able to connect the other places on your trip without this inconvenience (for example with direct flights between Kruger and Cape Town, Maun and Cape Town etc.).

Sometimes it is possible to arrive into the country via other airports which are more convenient for your first stop, most notably Cape Town and Durban, although their international connections are limited.

Quite often it is possible to fly into one airport and out of another, most commonly into Johannesburg and out of Cape Town.

We ask that, if possible, you do not book your international flights before we have had a chance to check routings and availabilities. Usually you would purchase your own international flights, whilst we provide most if not all of the internal flights within Africa.

Where to stay

South Africa contains an incredible range of accommodation options, from very expensive and exclusive spots to genuinely cost effective hotels and guest-houses. The standard throughout, even at the lower end of the price spectrum, is generally very high.

On the whole you can expect the accommodation in safari areas to be relatively expensive, whilst in other areas you should be able to trim back nicely if needed.

The best way to choose where to stay is usually to first select the locations that you want to visit in the section above and work inwards from there, but you can use this link to simply browse all the options in the whole country. Of course you can always fine tune the results by location, activity or price range, which should help …

regions with diametrically converse climates