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From witnessing the Great Migration to ticking off the Big Five, these are the most memorable wildlife experiences in Africa and beyond
When William Cornwallis Harris set out across South Africa in 1836, he wielded a gun, naturally – hunting was de rigueur back then – but also pencils and paintbrushes, sketching the diverse creatures he saw (and, often, shot). Thus was the safari born – even if the name was yet to be coined.
Safari is, as old Africa hands (and avid pub-quizzers) know, Swahili for “journey”. Today, that means not only intercontinental travel to Africa’s fabled wildlife destinations – the grasslands of Kenya and Tanzania, home to the Great Migration; the gorilla-ranged forests and mountains of Rwanda, Uganda and Congo; the deserts, deltas, waterways and bush of Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. It’s a journey of discovery, with options that have diversified beyond standard 4WD to encompass game-tracking excursions on foot or horseback, by bicycle or even in a hot-air balloon.
Tour operators can stitch together tailor-made itineraries, staying in camps and lodges to suit every preference – some super-luxe, others family-friendly, many wild and remote. Meanwhile, self-drive itineraries and group tours offer affordable encounters with the Big Five: lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino.
Safari holidays can be customised to include almost infinite combinations of habitats, species, travel styles and cultures. The 30 selected here give a taster of the most memorable wildlife experiences in Africa and beyond.
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Ramble Worldwide’s group tour through southern Africa offers a safari smorgasbord of destinations, activities and species – including the Big Five. From thundering Victoria Falls, venture to Botswana’s Chobe National Park and paddle a dugout through the Okavango Delta, spot game at Etosha’s waterholes and roam the vast dunes of Sossusvlei in Namibia, ending with South Africa’s winelands and Cape Town.
How to do it: Ramble Worldwide (01707 331133) offers the 21-night African Journey from £5,999pp including flights, accommodation, most meals and activities.
The Maasai Mara conjures images of lions lounging on kopje awaiting the herbivore tide of the Great Migration. Flanking conservancies offer spectacular game-viewing but a more exclusive experience, showcased in Red Savannah’s holiday visiting Elephant Pepper Camp in Mara North, and Loisaba Tented Camp, famed for “star beds”, horseback safaris, elephants, big cats and Mt Kenya views.
How to do it: Red Savannah (01242 787800) offers the seven-night Essential Kenya holiday from £5,289pp including accommodation, most meals and activities. British Airways flies Heathrow-Nairobi from around £700 return.
For close encounters with thriving herds of Africa’s heftiest creatures, head to Chobe National Park, home, reputedly, to Africa’s densest population of elephants – at least 50,000 of them, plus hippos, lions, leopards and more. With such reliable wildlife sightings, it’s ideal for safari novices – and Newmarket Holidays’ group tour offers a good-value option in this famously pricy destination.
How to do it: Newmarket Holidays (0330 341 1927) offers the 10-day On Safari in Botswana trip from £3,420pp, including flights, half-board accommodation, game drives and river cruise.
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Kids love animals – but also new friends, pools and poo. Stubborn Mule’s Tanzania itinerary leans into those penchants with child-friendly activities: walks in predator-free Arusha National Park, canoe trips paddling past hippos, dips overlooking zebra and giraffes in Tarangire National Park, and art and bush skills sessions with locals. Add Big Five safaris in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, plus sand and snorkelling on Zanzibar.
How to do it: Stubborn Mule Travel (01728 752751) offers the 14-night Tanzania Safari and Beach holiday from £5,600pp, including flights, some meals and activities.
The Eastern Cape is home to bustling wildlife yet malaria-free – ideal for families. Original Travel’s itinerary visits Kwandwe Private Game Reserve, home to the Big Five including both black and white rhino plus child favourites meerkats and even aardvark. Junior Attenboroughs join “Bugs and Bones” guided walks, reserve-wide scavenger hunts and arts and crafts activities, then relish beach time at Plettenberg Bay.
How to do it: Original Travel (020 3582 4990) offers the nine-day Eastern Cape Family Escape from £2,310pp including flights, accommodation, some meals and activities.
If your boisterous young primates can’t sit still, try Families Worldwide’s new action-packed adventure designed to enthral over-10s. Whitewater rafting, ziplining, rock-climbing and paddleboarding in and around Sagana are augmented with animal-spotting by bike in Hells Gate National Park and a boat safari on Lake Naivasha, before learning about the traditional Maasai lifestyle and heading into the Mara for game drives.
How to do it: Families Worldwide (01962 302086) offers the seven-night Kenya Family Adventure & Safari from £3,165pp/£2,545pp adults/children including flights, accommodation, most meals and activities.
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Private Tswalu reserve might be in the Kalahari Desert, but you won’t go thirsty – or hungry. At Loapi Camp, Michelin-class chefs devise gourmet delights, tents have plunge pools, and private guides seek out black-maned lions, pangolins, black rhinos and wild dogs. Cazenove+loyd’s holiday combines with Grootbos Forest Lodge for wild strolls and whale-watching.
How to do it: Cazenove+loyd (020 7384 2332) offers a Tswalu safari from £10,989pp including accommodation, meals, activities and transfers. British Airways flies Heathrow-Cape Town from around £850 return.
Drink in bird’s-eye views of the East African wilderness, spotting big cats on dawn hunts and huge herds of elephants, on Scott Dunn’s new hot-air-balloon safari. Float between five exclusive camps in Ruaha National Park with private guide and photographer James Suter, descending to learn game-tracking and conservation techniques.
How to do it: Scott Dunn (020 3627 9878) offers the 10-night airborne safari expedition from £40,000pp including transfers, accommodation, meals, drinks and activities. Kenya Airways flies Heathrow-Dar es Salaam from around £630 return.
When the dry season parches Etosha, wildlife throngs to shrinking waterholes, providing effortless yet thrilling game viewing. Super-luxe Onguma Camp Kala, in its own private reserve alongside the national park, has its own animal-luring pool. Carrier’s safari adds a night on a wildly romantic Dream Cruiser sleepout under the stars – parked up alongside a waterhole, naturally.
How to do it: Carrier (0161 492 1353) offers a five-night Namibian adventure from £8,495 including flights, accommodation, meals and activities.
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The Luangwa Valley is famed as the birthplace of the walking safari, pioneered by visionary conservationist Norman Carr well over half a century ago. Guests on Mountain Kingdoms’ holiday join some of Africa’s finest guides strolling between characterful, comfortable camps in South Luangwa National Park, watching for the “little five” (including elephant shrews and antlions) as well as really big game.
How to do it: Mountain Kingdoms (01453 844400) offers the 11-day Classic Luangwa Walking Safari in Style from £8,675pp including flights, accommodation, meals and guided walks.
Finding the world’s fastest land mammal on foot is quite the ask – but easier with an expert guide locating radio-collared cats. Not that Aardvark’s new cheetah-tracking holiday is all cheating: on morning walks you’ll also learn to identify paw prints, scratch marks and dung, Watch for the Big Five plus diverse antelopes in malaria-free private Samara Karoo Reserve in South Africa’s Eastern Cape.
How to do it: Aardvark Safaris (0131 297 6229) offers the six-night Cheetah Trail from £4,627pp including flights, transfers, accommodation, meals and activities.
Ruaha is wild, vast – Tanzania’s largest national park, spanning more than 7,800 square miles – little-visited and scenically varied, encompassing plains, hills, bulbous baobabs and thriving wetlands, perfect for active exploration. On Audley Travel’s feet-first holiday, join an experienced guide for long morning walks tracking animals, immersing yourself in the rhythms of the bush and learning how to safely encounter elephants and buffalo.
How to do it: Audley Travel (01993 838545) offers a nine-night Tanzania walking safari from £7,100 including flights, accommodation, most meals and activities.
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Africa’s terrestrial habitats get the lion’s share of attention, but the coral gardens, turtles and hundreds of fish species in Watamu Marine National Park are every bit as scintillating. Hemingways Collection’s itinerary adds a family-friendly stay in a private villa tent in the Mara-adjacent Naboisho Conservancy for Big Five sightings.
How to do it: Hemingways Collection (00254 [0]711 032000) offers the seven-night Bush and Beach holiday from £2,567pp including accommodation, domestic flights, transfers and activities. British Airways flies Heathrow-Nairobi from around £700 return.
Pick your season to meet marine giants off the gilded sands of Ponta do Ouro in southern Mozambique: humpbacks breach offshore from July to November, while whale sharks and manta rays glide through the brine December-May. Bookend a snorkelling safari with wild walking among buffalo and rhino in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park and game drives in Kruger National Park on Exodus’s new tour.
How to do it: Exodus (020 3411 6734) offers the 11-day Southern Africa Safari: Kruger & Coast holiday from £3,920 including flights, accommodation, some meals and activities.
Liwonde National Park is a heartening conservation success story, having translocated lions, cheetahs, wild dogs and black rhinos. Pelorus Travel’s luxury holiday combines a Liwonde safari with tea-tasting at a highland estate, roaming the waterfalls of the Nyika Plateau on horseback and snorkelling in the inland sea David Livingstone dubbed the “lake of stars”.
How to do it: Pelorus Travel (020 3848 5424) offers the 10-night Malawi Highlands and Islands holiday from £18,000pp, including accommodation, transfers, most meals and activities. Kenya Airways flies Heathrow-Lilongwe from around £760 return.
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Though mountain gorillas hog the headlines, a trek to meet these endangered great apes in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park is only one highlight of World Expeditions’ action-packed holiday in Uganda. You’ll also track chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, and spot tree-climbing lions and cruise among hippos in Queen Elizabeth National Park.
How to do it: World Expeditions (020 8875 5060) offers the seven-day Primates and Wildlife of Uganda holiday from £2,920pp including accommodation, meals, guide, transfers, activities and permits. RwandAir flies Heathrow-Entebbe from about £500 return.
Bustling with curious creatures found nowhere else on earth, the Great Red Island is home not only to diverse species of lemurs – ring-tailed, ruffed, skeletal-fingered, dancing, noisy and mouse-sized – but also goggle-eyed chameleons, humpback whales, giraffe-necked weevils and the elusive, catlike fossa. Rainbow Tours’ comprehensive itinerary traverses rainforests, spiny bush, baobab avenues and inselbergs in search of Madagascar’s unique species.
How to do it: Rainbow Tours (020 3773 7945) offers the Classic Madagascar Overland holiday from £5,565pp, including flights, accommodation, some meals, guide, driver and activities.
Among Africa’s least-touristed safari destinations, Odzala-Kokoua National Park is home to some of the continent’s most charismatic yet endangered species: western lowland gorilla, plus forest elephants and forest buffalos wallowing in the swamping clearings known as bais. Natural World Safaris’ holiday stays in three of Kamba Africa’s comfortable lodges in Odzala.
How to do it: Natural World Safaris (01273 691642) offers the nine-day Western Lowland Gorilla & Bai Safari from £12,480pp including accommodation, meals, activities and transfers. Air France flies Heathrow-Brazzaville from about £765 return.
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Mara Naboisho Conservancy is not only home to one of the continent’s highest densities of lions but also shows how community-led tourism makes for better experiences for all. On Responsible Travel’s holiday, join Maasai guides in search of those maned predators and other game, honing bushcraft and tracking skills via walking safaris and game drives.
How to do it: Responsible Travel (01273 823700) offers a nine-day safari in Kenya from $5,465 (£4,230) including accommodation, meals and activities. British Airways flies Heathrow-Nairobi from around £700 return.
Safari aficionados celebrate the huge elephant herds of Hwange National Park and the African wild dogs of Mana Pools National Park, with Matusadona National Park mopping up the other Big Five species. Timbuktu Travel’s tailor-made itinerary visits these three parks – some of Africa’s quietest safari destinations, boasting arguably its finest wildlife guides – plus Victoria Falls.
How to do it: Timbuktu Travel (020 3993 1848) offers the 10-night Ultimate Zimbabwe holiday from £4,500 including accommodation, meals, transfers and activities. Ethiopian flies Heathrow-Victoria Falls, Harare-Heathrow from around £720 return.
Why settle for just the conventional handful of hefty species? Yellow Zebra Safaris’ Rwanda holiday combines gorilla-tracking in Volcanoes National Park with a Big Five safari across the savannah of Akagera National Park, staying in some of the continent’s most stylish and luxurious lodges and camps.
How to do it: Yellow Zebra Safaris (020 3797 0864) offers the seven-day Rwanda’s Luxurious Big Five Safari and Gorillas holiday from £10,778, including accommodation, most meals, transfers and activities. Rwandair flies Heathrow-Kigali from around £580 return.
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Big Five doesn’t have to mean big bucks – or roughing it in basic campsites – if you get behind the wheel. With smooth roads, diverse habitats and profuse wildlife, Namibia offers an ideal introduction to self-drive safaris. Expert Africa’s greatest hits itinerary scoots between Sossusvlei’s soaring dunes, colourful coastal Swakopmund, Damaraland’s ostriches and elephants, and Etosha’s game-thronged waterholes.
How to do it: Expert Africa (020 3405 6666) offers the 14-night Caracal Self-Drive Safari from £2,360pp including accommodation, most meals and car rental. Ethiopian flies Heathrow-Windhoek from around £800 return.
Overland tours offer young (at heart) travellers affordable access to Africa’s most rewarding reserves. G Adventures’ “Lando” trundles between Jo’burg and Victoria Falls, watching for horned behemoths in Khama Rhino Sanctuary, drifting through the Okavango Delta in a mokoro (dugout) and meeting the elephants of Chobe National Park, en route.
How to do it: G Adventures (020 7313 6953) offers the eight-day Botswana and Falls Overland tour from £949pp including transport, accommodation, most meals and some activities. British Airways flies Heathrow-Johannesburg, Victoria Falls-Heathrow, from around £900.
Experience oversized wonders on Explore’s overland tour: the soaring rock palisades of the Drakensberg range, the Big Five – including both black and white rhino – in Hluhluwe–Imfolozi Park and Kruger National Park, humpbacks breaching offshore near St Lucia. You’ll also walk among zebra, wildebeest and warthog in Eswatini’s Mliliwane Wildlife Sanctuary.
How to do it: Explore (01252 240850) offers the 10-day South Africa and Eswatini tour from £1,195pp including accommodation, guide, some meals and activities. British Airways (ba.com) flies Heathrow-Johannesburg return from around £750.
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The great sea of wildebeest, zebra and antelopes that circles the Serengeti is as varied as it is extraordinary: one month the highlight is calving, another it’s the mass crossing of crocodile-infested rivers. A Tent with a View’s Bush Rover Migration Camp moves luxury tented suites accordingly.
How to do it: A Tent with a View (00255 713 323318) offers the eight-day Serengeti Calving Season safari from £5,751 including accommodation, most meals, transfers and activities. Ethiopian flies London-Kilimanjaro from around £725 return.
Tick off countries and species on an overland odyssey visiting some of Africa’s finest reserves and beaches. On The Go Tours’ camping adventure scoots from big-five nexus Kruger National Park to Mozambique’s golden sands – watch for whale sharks – then into Zimbabwe to spot rhinos and leopards in Matobo National Park, plus lions and elephants in Hwange.
How to do it: On the Go Tours (020 4586 8085) offers the 14-day Mozambique & Zimbabwe Discovery from £2,795pp including camping accommodation, most meals and activities. British Airways flies Heathrow-Johannesburg, Victoria Falls-Heathrow from around £900 return.
Keep your eyes peeled for leopard, honey badger and perhaps even aardvark on a night drive through Khwai Concession – one highlight of Naturetrek’s twin-centre mammal-centric safari based at wilderness camps in that community-managed site and adjacent Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta. Expect close encounters with all manner of creatures: lions, hyenas, elephants, giraffes, various antelopes and possibly “painted wolves”.
How to do it: Naturetrek (01962 733051) offers the 10-day Botswana’s Desert & Delta holiday from £4,495pp including flights, accommodation, meals and guided safaris.
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Iwokrama Rainforest in central Guyana is a haven for jaguar – only one of many oversized creatures in this lush, largely pristine South American destination. Vast harpy eagles, giant otters and giant anteaters are among eye-catching species to spot on Journey Latin America’s adventure, which also visits colossal Kaieteur Falls.
How to do it: Journey Latin America (020 3553 9647) offers the 12-day Signature Guyana holiday from £5,800pp including accommodation, transfers, most meals and activities. British Airways flies London-Georgetown from around £630 return.
Shere Khan, Bagheera and Baloo – or at least tigers, leopards and sloth bears – prowl and amble among the teak woods and rivers of Pench National Park, setting for Rudyard Kipling’s timeless Jungle Book. Abercrombie & Kent’s cat-centric safari starts in Pench, continuing to Kanha and Bandhavgarh – two more tiger hotspots – plus Gir National Park to find rare Asiatic lions.
How to do it: Abercrombie & Kent (01242 386469) offers a 12-night Indian safari from £7,995pp including flights, transfers, accommodation, most meals and activities.
The lush forests of the planet’s third-largest island are home to some of our closest relatives: orangutans. Encounters are guaranteed at Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre on Wildlife Worldwide’s tour of diverse reserves in Sabah; you’ll also watch for pygmy elephants and proboscis monkeys along the Kinabatangan River, flying squirrels and slow loris in the Danum Valley and leopard cat in Tabin and Demarakot.
How to do it: Wildlife Worldwide (01962 302086) offers the 14-night Wild Borneo holiday from £6,995pp including flights, accommodation, meals and activities.
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