Safari Parks & Reserves

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.

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.

The third-largest national park in South Africa, Addo is the only park in the world that is home to the Big Seven - lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, rhino, great white shark, and southern right whale. Located in the malaria-free Eastern Cape, it was established in 1931 to protect the last 11 elephants in the region. Today the park hosts over 600 elephants and has expanded to include a marine section at Algoa Bay. The dense Valley Bushveld vegetation creates close-range encounters, and the park is easily combined with the Garden Route.

The Skeleton Coast is one of the most remote and hauntingly beautiful wilderness areas on Earth. Stretching along Namibia's Atlantic shoreline, this fog-shrouded coastline is littered with shipwrecks and whale bones that give the region its evocative name. The Bushmen called it 'The Land God Made in Anger.' The park protects a stark landscape where massive sand dunes meet the cold Atlantic, creating dense coastal fog that sustains unique lichen fields and desert-adapted wildlife. Brown hyenas patrol the seal colonies at Cape Cross, desert-adapted elephants and lions roam the dry riverbeds, and immense Cape fur seal colonies line the shore.

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.

Namib-Naukluft National Park is one of the largest conservation areas in Africa, encompassing the ancient Namib Desert, the dramatic Naukluft Mountains, and the iconic red dunes of Sossusvlei. Covering nearly 50,000 square kilometres, it protects some of the world's oldest and most striking desert landscapes. The park's centrepiece is Sossusvlei, where towering apricot-coloured dunes — some over 300 metres high — rise above stark white clay pans. Deadvlei, with its eerie collection of 900-year-old dead camelthorn trees against a backdrop of orange dunes, is one of Africa's most photographed scenes. Despite the harsh conditions, the park supports desert-adapted wildlife including oryx, springbok, ostriches, and the remarkable Namib desert beetle.

Singita Sabi Sand represents the pinnacle of ultra-luxury safari in South Africa, operating across 45,000 acres of exclusive-use concession within the Sabi Sand Wildtuin. The Singita brand, meaning "place of miracles" in Shangaan, delivers an unrivalled combination of world-class design, exceptional cuisine, and outstanding Big Five game viewing. Two lodges — Ebony Lodge (colonial elegance) and Boulders Lodge (contemporary glass and stone) — each accommodate a maximum of 18 guests, ensuring absolute exclusivity. The concession's traversing area supports remarkable predator densities, with leopard sightings particularly frequent along the Sand River. Singita's commitment to conservation extends through the Singita Lowveld Trust, which manages community development and anti-poaching initiatives across the reserve.

Timbavati Private Nature Reserve is one of the original Greater Kruger private reserves, famous worldwide as the birthplace of the white lion — a rare genetic colour variant first documented here in 1975 by Chris McBride. Covering 53,392 hectares of unfenced bushveld bordering Kruger National Park, Timbavati offers Big Five game viewing across a vast traversing area of classic African savannah. The reserve is named after the seasonal Timbavati River that flows through it, drawing wildlife to its pools during the dry winter months. With a range of lodges from authentic tented camps to luxury retreats, Timbavati strikes a balance between exclusive wildlife encounters and a more accessible price point than the Sabi Sand. The Global White Lion Protection Trust continues to work within the reserve to protect the iconic white lions in their natural habitat.

Kidepo Valley National Park is Uganda's most remote and arguably most beautiful national park, tucked into the northeastern corner of the country bordering South Sudan and Kenya. Its dramatic landscape of semi-arid valleys flanked by rugged mountains is unlike anywhere else in Uganda. Often described as Uganda's Serengeti, Kidepo supports over 77 mammal species — more than any other Ugandan park — including species found nowhere else in the country such as cheetah, striped hyena, bat-eared fox, caracal, aardwolf, and greater and lesser kudu. The Karamojong pastoralists who live around the park add rich cultural dimension to any visit.

MalaMala Game Reserve is the largest private Big Five game reserve in South Africa, sharing a 19-kilometre unfenced boundary with Kruger National Park along the Sand River. Established in 1927, MalaMala has been a pioneer in the South African safari industry, offering exclusive traversing rights across 13,300 hectares of pristine bushveld. The reserve is renowned for its exceptional predator sightings, particularly leopard and lion, with one of the highest concentrations of big cats per square kilometre in Africa. With only three camps and strict vehicle limits, MalaMala delivers intimate Big Five encounters that have made it a favourite among serious safari-goers for nearly a century.

Kibale National Park is the primate capital of the world, home to 13 primate species including the largest population of wild chimpanzees in Uganda — approximately 1,500 individuals. This 766-square-kilometre block of lowland and montane tropical rainforest in western Uganda offers the best chimpanzee tracking experience in East Africa. Beyond chimpanzees, the forest shelters red colobus monkeys, L'Hoest's monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabeys, olive baboons, and the rare and nocturnal potto. The park is also an exceptional birding destination with over 375 species, including the Green-breasted Pitta and African Pitta. The Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary on the park's southern boundary provides superb community-managed nature walks.

Moremi Game Reserve occupies the eastern portion of the Okavango Delta and is widely regarded as one of Africa's most pristine and beautiful wilderness areas. Established by the local BaTawana people to protect their ancestral lands, Moremi combines permanent waterways, seasonal floodplains, and dry woodland to create an astonishing diversity of habitats and wildlife.