Safari Parks & Reserves

Zimbabwe's largest national park and one of Africa's great elephant sanctuaries, Hwange is home to over 40,000 elephants. The park spans nearly 15,000 square kilometres of Kalahari sandveld, teak forests, and open grasslands with exceptional predator sightings and wild dog populations.

Ruaha National Park is Tanzania's largest national park and one of the most wild, remote, and untouched safari destinations in East Africa. Spanning over 20,000 square kilometers of rugged terrain, it sits at the crossroads of eastern and southern African ecosystems, resulting in an extraordinary overlap of plant and animal species found nowhere else in the country. The Great Ruaha River, the park's lifeline, attracts huge concentrations of elephants, hippos, crocodiles, and predators during the dry season. Ruaha boasts one of the largest elephant populations in East Africa and is home to Tanzania's biggest lion prides. It is also one of the few places where both greater and lesser kudu coexist. Despite its exceptional wildlife, Ruaha receives a fraction of the visitors that flock to the northern circuit, offering a truly exclusive safari experience.

Samburu National Reserve is a jewel of northern Kenya, where the arid semi-desert landscape along the Ewaso Ng'iro River supports an extraordinary concentration of unique wildlife species found nowhere else in southern Kenya. Known for the 'Samburu Special Five' — Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, Somali ostrich, gerenuk, and Beisa oryx — the reserve offers a genuinely different safari experience. Covering 165 square kilometres, Samburu's stark beauty is defined by the contrast between the life-giving river corridor and the surrounding ochre-red plains dotted with doum palms and acacia. This was Elsa the lioness's homeland, made famous by Joy Adamson's Born Free. The reserve is also central to the Save the Elephants research programme.

Amboseli National Park offers one of Africa's most iconic views — large herds of elephants with their tusks silhouetted against the snow-capped summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Situated in southern Kenya at the foot of Africa's highest peak, this relatively compact park is one of the best places in the world to get close to free-ranging elephants. Covering 392 square kilometres, Amboseli's diverse habitats include dried-up lake beds, wetlands fed by Kilimanjaro's underground springs, savannah, and woodlands. The Amboseli Elephant Research Project, running since 1972, has made these elephants among the most studied in Africa, with individual family histories spanning five decades.

Rwanda's only savannah park, Akagera is a Big Five destination following the successful reintroduction of lions and rhinos. The park encompasses lakes, swamps, and rolling grasslands along the Tanzanian border, offering a classic East African safari experience.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is Uganda's most popular and most visited safari destination, offering remarkable biodiversity across its 1,978 square kilometres of savannah, wetlands, crater lakes, and tropical forest. Straddling the equator in western Uganda, it encompasses the famous Kazinga Channel — a natural waterway connecting Lake Edward and Lake George. The park is renowned for its tree-climbing lions in the Ishasha sector, the spectacular Kazinga Channel boat cruise (one of Africa's finest wildlife boat experiences), and over 600 bird species — more than any other East African park. The park's varied habitats support 95 mammal species including elephants, buffalo, hippos, leopards, and ten primate species including chimpanzees in the Kyambura Gorge.

Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda's largest and oldest national park, covering 3,893 square kilometres of rolling savannah, riverine forest, and woodland bisected by the mighty Victoria Nile. The park's centrepiece is the awe-inspiring Murchison Falls, where the entire Nile River is forced through a narrow 7-metre gap in the rock before plunging 43 metres into the 'Devil's Cauldron' below. The park supports large populations of elephants, giraffes (the Rothschild's subspecies), buffalo, lions, leopards, and the recently reintroduced rhinos at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary nearby. The boat cruise to the base of the falls is one of Uganda's most iconic experiences, passing massive Nile crocodiles, pods of hippos, and spectacular birdlife along the riverbanks.

Londolozi Private Game Reserve is a legendary Sabi Sand property that has been at the forefront of luxury safari and conservation since the Varty family purchased it in 1926. The name means 'protector of all living things' in Zulu, and Londolozi pioneered the concept of the luxury photographic safari, transforming a hunting camp into one of Africa's most celebrated wildlife destinations. With traversing rights across the western Sabi Sand along the Sand River, Londolozi is arguably the world's premier leopard-viewing destination — individual leopards have been followed and documented here across multiple generations since the 1970s. The reserve's five award-winning camps are consistently ranked among the finest in Africa, blending Relais & Châteaux luxury with genuine bush immersion and a profound conservation philosophy.

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve is one of the largest protected areas in the world, a vast expanse of endless Kalahari grasslands, ancient fossil riverbeds, and salt pans. During the wet season, the desert transforms with abundant wildlife including gemsbok, springbok, and the iconic black-maned Kalahari lions. The reserve was originally established to protect the traditional territory of the San Bushmen.

Shamwari Private Game Reserve is one of the Eastern Cape's most acclaimed Big Five safari destinations, spanning 25,000 hectares of restored bushveld between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown. Established by conservationist Adrian Gardiner in 1992, Shamwari has won numerous international awards including World's Leading Safari and Game Reserve at the World Travel Awards multiple times. The reserve features seven distinct eco-systems from valley bushveld to fynbos, supporting Big Five wildlife alongside cheetah, wild dog, and over 300 bird species. Shamwari's Born Free Foundation centres for rescued big cats make it a unique conservation destination. With six lodges ranging from family-friendly Long Lee Manor to ultra-luxury Bayethe, the reserve is malaria-free and perfectly positioned for a Garden Route safari add-on.

Sabi Sand is arguably the finest private game reserve in Africa, sharing an unfenced border with Kruger National Park. Renowned for producing the best leopard sightings on the continent, the reserve is home to legendary lodges that have defined luxury safari travel for decades. The reserve's traversing rights system means that vehicles from different lodges can explore vast areas, dramatically increasing wildlife sighting opportunities. With strict vehicle limits at sightings and off-road driving permitted, the quality of encounters here is unmatched.

Ol Pejeta Conservancy is East Africa's largest black rhino sanctuary and the only place in Kenya where you can see chimpanzees at the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Most poignantly, it is home to the last two northern white rhinos on earth — Najin and Fatu — guarded around the clock in a last-ditch effort to save the subspecies from extinction. Spanning 360 square kilometres on the Laikipia Plateau between Mount Kenya and the Aberdares, Ol Pejeta combines world-class conservation with excellent Big Five game viewing. The conservancy pioneered the use of technology in anti-poaching, employing tracker dogs, drones, and armed rangers. Its open savannah and scattered acacia woodland make for superb wildlife encounters.