Safari Parks & Reserves

Nxai Pan National Park is a fossil lakebed covered in grasslands that come alive during the wet season with enormous herds of zebra and springbok. The park is home to the famous Baines' Baobabs, a cluster of ancient baobab trees first painted by Thomas Baines in 1862 that remain virtually unchanged. The park links with Makgadikgadi to form part of a greater conservation area.

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is one of the world's first transfrontier conservation areas, straddling the border between Botswana and South Africa. Famous for its red Kalahari dunes, iconic black-maned lions, and large herds of gemsbok against dramatic desert landscapes, it is one of southern Africa's finest wildlife destinations. The park's dry riverbeds concentrate predators and prey in spectacular fashion.

The Linyanti Concession encompasses a pristine wilderness area along the Linyanti River and marshes in northern Botswana. This exclusive private concession offers some of the finest game viewing in Africa, with enormous elephant herds, significant wild dog populations, and exceptional predator sightings. The combination of riverfront, marshland, and mopane woodland creates diverse habitats with limited visitor numbers.

The Khwai Concession sits on the northeastern edge of the Okavango Delta along the Khwai River, forming a natural boundary with Moremi Game Reserve. This community-managed concession offers outstanding game viewing at a fraction of the cost of private concessions, with leopard sightings being a particular highlight. The area is one of the most reliable places in Botswana to see a diversity of predators.

The Selinda Concession is a vast private reserve linking the Okavango Delta with the Linyanti marshes via the Selinda Spillway. This exclusive wilderness area is renowned for its exceptional predator viewing, particularly wild dogs and lions. When the spillway flows during high flood years, it creates a remarkable canoe trail through pristine wilderness connecting two of Botswana's greatest waterways.

The Kwando Concession is a remote and pristine private reserve along the Kwando River in northern Botswana. One of the earliest private concessions in the country, it offers an authentic and uncrowded wilderness experience with excellent populations of wild dogs, lions, leopards, and large herds of elephants and buffalo. The concession's isolation ensures genuinely exclusive safari encounters.

Known as the "Land of Giants" for its enormous elephants, towering baobab trees, and vast landscapes, Mashatu Game Reserve is the largest private game reserve in southern Africa. Located in the Tuli Block where the Limpopo and Shashe rivers converge, Mashatu offers dramatic rocky terrain, open grasslands, and exceptional wildlife photography opportunities. The reserve is malaria-free and easily accessible from Johannesburg.

The Northern Tuli Game Reserve is a collection of privately owned farms managed as a single wildlife area in the Tuli Block of eastern Botswana. Known for its spectacular sandstone formations along the Limpopo River, the reserve offers unique safari experiences including cycling safaris and walking trails. The dramatic landscape of rocky outcrops, riverine forest, and open savannah supports large elephant herds and diverse predators.

Khutse Game Reserve is a gateway to the Kalahari and the closest game reserve to Gaborone, making it popular for weekend getaways. The reserve features a series of fossil pans surrounded by Kalahari bush, attracting desert-adapted wildlife including springbok, gemsbok, and brown hyena. During good rains, the pans fill with water and draw large numbers of animals, offering a genuine Kalahari experience at budget-friendly rates.

Mokolodi Nature Reserve is a privately run conservation and education centre located just 10 kilometres south of Gaborone. The reserve serves as an important wildlife sanctuary and education facility, housing rescued animals and running community conservation programs. Visitors can see white rhinos, giraffes, zebras, and various antelope species. It is an excellent introduction to Botswana's wildlife for families and those with limited time.

Home to the endangered mountain gorillas, Volcanoes National Park protects the Rwandan section of the Virunga Mountains. Made famous by Dian Fossey's gorilla research, the park encompasses five of the eight Virunga volcanoes and offers one of Africa's most extraordinary wildlife encounters.

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.

One of Africa's oldest and most biodiverse rainforests, Nyungwe is a primate paradise with 13 species including chimpanzees and the rare L'Hoest's monkey. The park features a spectacular canopy walkway suspended 50 meters above the forest floor.

Rwanda's newest national park, Gishwati-Mukura protects two separate montane forest fragments in the northwest. A remarkable conservation success story, the park is being restored after near-total deforestation and is home to chimpanzees, golden monkeys, and L'Hoest's monkeys.

South Africa's flagship national park and one of Africa's greatest wildlife sanctuaries, Kruger spans nearly 20,000 square kilometres of diverse bushveld. Home to the Big Five and over 500 bird species, the park offers an unparalleled range of self-drive and guided safari experiences across multiple ecological zones from mopane woodland in the north to bushwillow and knob-thorn savannah in the south. Established in 1898, Kruger is one of the oldest game reserves in Africa. Its extensive network of tarred and gravel roads, rest camps, and picnic sites make it the most accessible Big Five destination on the continent, welcoming over 1.5 million visitors annually.

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.

One of South Africa's largest game reserves and a remarkable conservation success story, Madikwe was created in 1991 through Operation Phoenix, one of the biggest wildlife translocation programmes ever undertaken. Located on the Botswana border in the North West Province, it is entirely malaria-free. Madikwe offers a genuine Big Five experience with excellent wild dog sightings and a strong community conservation model. The reserve is exclusively accessed through its luxury lodges, ensuring an uncrowded, premium safari experience.

Set within the crater of an ancient volcano near Sun City, Pilanesberg is one of South Africa's most accessible Big Five reserves. The unique alkaline ring complex creates a dramatic landscape of hills, valleys, and a central lake that supports remarkable biodiversity where Kalahari and lowveld species overlap. Just two hours from Johannesburg, Pilanesberg offers an excellent self-drive or guided safari experience. The park's proximity to Sun City makes it popular for families combining a safari with resort activities.

The oldest proclaimed game reserve in Africa, established in 1895, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi is the birthplace of rhino conservation. The park's Operation Rhino in the 1950s and 60s saved the southern white rhino from extinction, growing the population from fewer than 200 to over 10,000 worldwide. Spanning rolling green hills in KwaZulu-Natal, the park combines two former reserves and offers a Big Five experience in a stunningly scenic, subtropical setting. The wilderness trails here are legendary among safari purists.

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.