Safari Parks & Reserves

Lake Bogoria National Reserve protects one of the Great Rift Valley's most dramatic alkaline lakes, now widely considered Kenya's best location for seeing vast flocks of lesser flamingos. Since Lake Nakuru's water levels rose in 2013, millions of flamingos have relocated to Bogoria, creating a stunning pink spectacle along its shores. Covering 107 square kilometres, the reserve features the turquoise-green alkaline lake backed by the steep Siracho Escarpment. Bogoria is famous for its spectacular geothermal hot springs and geysers — some shooting boiling water several metres into the air — alongside the lake's flamingo-carpeted shoreline. The surrounding woodlands support greater kudu, one of few Kenyan locations for this handsome antelope.

Tembe Elephant Park protects the largest free-roaming elephants in Africa — the legendary Tembe tuskers — in 300 square kilometres of sand forest and wetland on the Mozambique border in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Established in 1983 by the Tembe Tribal Authority and KZN Wildlife to protect the last remaining elephants in the region, the park is community-owned and managed, making it one of South Africa's most important community conservation success stories. The dense sand forest habitat is unique in South Africa and supports Big Five wildlife including lion, leopard, buffalo, and both black and white rhino. Tembe's remoteness and thick vegetation create a genuinely wild experience, though the dense bush means patience is required for sightings. The park is also a birding hotspot with over 340 species including several tropical specials at their southern range limit.

Bwabwata National Park stretches across the western Zambezi Region between the Okavango and Kwando rivers, protecting a vital wildlife corridor linking Angola to Botswana. The park covers 6,274 square kilometres of Kalahari woodland, riverine forest, and seasonal floodplains. Unique among African national parks, Bwabwata is home to approximately 5,500 people from the Khwe and Mbukushu communities who continue to live within the park. The Mahango Core Area in the west offers excellent game viewing along the Okavango River, while the Buffalo Core Area in the east supports large elephant herds and occasional wild dog sightings.

Gombe National Park, Tanzania's smallest national park at just 52 square kilometers, holds an outsized place in scientific history as the site of Jane Goodall's groundbreaking chimpanzee research that began in 1960. Nestled along the shores of Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania, the park protects a thin strip of mountainous terrain covered in tropical forest, grassland, and alpine bamboo. The park is home to three habituated communities of chimpanzees, and tracking these remarkable primates through the forest remains one of Africa's most unforgettable wildlife experiences. Beyond chimps, Gombe supports olive baboons, red colobus monkeys, and a variety of forest birds. The crystal-clear waters of Lake Tanganyika, the world's longest freshwater lake, provide a stunning backdrop and opportunities for swimming and snorkeling.

Shaba National Reserve is the most remote and least visited of the three northern Kenya reserves along the Ewaso Ng'iro River, together with Samburu and Buffalo Springs. Named after the volcanic Mount Shaba, the reserve has a distinctly wild and untouched character, with dramatic landscapes of lava flows, volcanic cones, and natural hot springs. Covering 239 square kilometres, Shaba was the location for the television series Survivor: Africa and was where Joy Adamson spent her final years studying leopards before her death in 1980. The reserve supports the Samburu Special Five species and offers game viewing in genuine solitude, with vast open views and a rugged frontier atmosphere.

Weenen Game Reserve is a small but historically significant reserve in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, originally proclaimed in 1922 to protect the last remaining herds of oribi in the region. Covering just 5,000 hectares of thornveld and grassland along the Bushman's River, Weenen has expanded its conservation role to include both black and white rhino, buffalo, giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, and various antelope species. The reserve's hilly terrain and river valleys create picturesque scenery against the Drakensberg backdrop. Weenen offers a quiet, affordable, and malaria-free wildlife experience ideal for self-drive visitors and families. The reserve is named after the nearby town of Weenen ("weeping"), established after the Voortrekker massacre of 1838, adding historical depth to the visit.

Katavi National Park is one of Tanzania's most remote and least visited parks, offering a truly off-the-grid wilderness experience in the far west of the country. Covering 4,471 square kilometers of floodplains, dense woodland, and seasonal lakes, it is one of the last great wild places in Africa where you can go days without seeing another vehicle. During the dry season, Katavi transforms into one of Africa's most spectacular wildlife arenas. The Katuma River and its associated floodplains shrink dramatically, concentrating thousands of hippos into shrinking pools, while vast herds of buffalo numbering in the thousands, along with elephants, lions, and crocodiles, converge on the remaining water sources. The sheer density and rawness of wildlife encounters here is unmatched anywhere in Tanzania.

Augrabies Falls National Park protects one of the world's great waterfalls, where the Orange River thunders 56 metres into a massive granite gorge that the Khoi people named 'Aukoerebis' — place of great noise. During flood season, the falls can reach 400 metres wide, creating a truly spectacular sight in the semi-arid Northern Cape. Covering 820 square kilometres of arid Karoo landscape along the Orange River, the park features moon-like rock formations, quiver trees, and the 18-kilometre-long gorge carved by millennia of river erosion. Wildlife includes klipspringer, springbok, gemsbok, black rhino (reintroduced), and the park is one of the best places in South Africa to see the elusive African wild cat.

Arabuko Sokoke is the largest and most intact fragment of coastal forest remaining in East Africa, stretching along the Kenya coast between Malindi and Kilifi. This critically important biodiversity hotspot harbours several globally threatened species found nowhere else, including the Sokoke scops owl, Clarke's weaver, and the golden-rumped elephant shrew. Covering 420 square kilometres, the forest comprises three distinct habitats: Brachystegia woodland, mixed forest, and Cynometra thicket. While not a traditional safari destination, Arabuko Sokoke attracts serious birders and naturalists drawn by its extraordinary endemic species and the Gede Ruins — a mysterious 13th-century Swahili town swallowed by the forest.

Camdeboo National Park surrounds the historic Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet — South Africa's fourth-oldest town — and protects the remarkable Valley of Desolation, where towering dolerite columns rise 120 metres from the valley floor in a geological spectacle formed over 100 million years ago. Covering 194 square kilometres of Great Karoo landscape, the park encompasses the Nqweba Dam and surrounding plains, grasslands, and Karoo scrub. Wildlife includes Cape buffalo, Cape mountain zebra, springbok, kudu, and over 250 bird species including the endangered blue crane. The park is a unique blend of natural heritage, geological wonder, and Karoo cultural history.

Makgadikgadi Pans National Park encompasses part of the largest salt pans in the world, a surreal landscape of blinding white salt flats that stretch to the horizon. During the wet season, the pans flood and attract one of Africa's largest zebra migrations, along with vast numbers of flamingos and wildebeest. The park is also famous for its habituated meerkat colonies.

Ithala Game Reserve is one of KwaZulu-Natal's hidden treasures, a dramatically scenic reserve set in the rugged gorges and cliffs of northern Zululand. The reserve protects some of the oldest rock formations on Earth — geological deposits dating back 3 billion years — alongside a rich diversity of wildlife and birdlife. Covering 296 square kilometres of deep valleys, towering cliffs, and bushveld plateaux, Ithala supports white and black rhino, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, and over 320 bird species. The park notably does not have lion, which allows for a different ecological dynamic and excellent viewing of species that are often overshadowed in Big Five reserves. The self-catering Ntshondwe Camp, perched on a cliff edge, is considered one of the finest bush camps in KwaZulu-Natal.