Safari holidays
Watch wild cats roam among the grass, see elephants splash themselves cool, and watch elegant giraffes reach for a snack from the tallest trees. Safaris are nature experiences like no other, but choosing between the tours on offer can be difficult. Here is our handpicked selection:
Kruger National Park
The most photographed game park in the world Kruger National Park is the size of Wales, and is the most developed safari park in Africa. It is easy to navigate and comes with a range of accommodation options. It has an impressive range of wildlife, with over 500 species of birds, wild dogs, crocodiles and antelope. There is also a lot of plant life to enjoy as the park is in a beautiful tropical and subtropical environment
Chobe
Found in the north of Botswana and close to the Zambezi river, the Chloe National Park stretches over 4300 square miles, making it the third largest in Botswana, and the most diverse in terms of wildlife. It has four unique eco systems – plains, rainforests, marshes and swamps. It has excellent game viewing, but the real attraction is the 120000 elephants that live here – the biggest elephant population in Africa.
Serengeti
The name of this reserve alone is synonymous with the Safari, and rightly so, it draws thousands of tourists every year. Its ecosystem has been barely altered in the last million years, and it extends for 5000 miles, all the way to the south west of Kenya. It consists of a huge savannah with forests, woodland, and marshes. It has both a myriad of flora and fauna, with almost a million wildebeest, and a quarter of a million zebra. Stewart Edward White called this place paradise, and many other visitors come back changed people.
Masai Mara
This is Kenya's most popular wildlife park, and was the setting for the film Out of Africa. It is adjacent to the Serengeti, and is ideal for viewing the Big Five (Lion, Leopard, Black Rhino, Elephant, Cage Buffalo). Most travellers stay in tented camps and go on walking and driving excursions on Mara River. If timed properly the Great Migration of wildebeest and Zebra from the Serengeti can be viewed.
Etosha National Park
Nambia's Ethosa National Park – dubbed “Great White Place” is found in the Kunene region in the north of the country. It contains hundreds of mammals, bird, reptiles, and amphibians in its 9000 square miles. A quarter of this area is over a thousand million years old.
Madagascar
Aside from its rainforests and gorgeous beaches, Madagascar also has several national parks that are slightly away from the traditional. Covering thousands of acres, Parc National de Ranomafana is home to 121 lemur species, indigenous to Madagascar. Several of these can only be seen during guided night walks. Further south the Parc National de L'Isalo has a diverse terrain and many species of various wildlife groups including birds, reptiles, and (of course) lemurs.
