A safari is the rare trip where where you stay matters more than where you go. The lodge determines your guide, your vehicle, your radius of access and the hours you keep, which together determine what you see. Africa’s great game regions, East and Southern, each have a different character, season and set of top lodges. Here are the best of them, and when to go.
Which Safari Region Matches You?
The article organizes lodges by region. Answer 4 questions to find the African safari region that fits your travel style.
East Africa: The Classic Safari
East Africa is where the safari was invented, and the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem remains the greatest wildlife theater on earth. The Great Migration, roughly two million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle, moves in a vast circle through Tanzania’s Serengeti and Kenya’s Maasai Mara. The famous river crossings typically peak from July through October. Calving season in the southern Serengeti, January through March, brings half a million newborns and the predators that follow.
Singita Grumeti, Serengeti, Tanzania
Singita’s Grumeti Reserves sit in the Serengeti’s western corridor, a private concession of over 350,000 acres bordering the national park. Exceptional guiding, superb food, and off-road driving privileges the public park does not allow. The top of the East African market, priced accordingly, with peak-season rates among the continent’s highest. For the once-in-a-lifetime safari, start here.
Mahali Mzuri, Maasai Mara, Kenya
Sir Richard Branson’s 12-tent camp in the private Olare Motorogi Conservancy. Strict vehicle limits, night drives and walking safaris the main reserve does not permit. The location sits directly in the migration’s path, herds typically moving through July to September. Rates run fully inclusive from roughly $1,660 per person per night in shoulder season to $2,700 in peak migration months.
Angama Mara, Maasai Mara, Kenya
Perched on the edge of the Oloololo Escarpment with views straight down into the Mara below, Angama Mara is the photographer’s lodge: floor-to-ceiling glass and suites designed around the view. The guiding is superb and the lodge’s guest photographers-in-residence program is unique.
Southern Africa: The Connoisseur’s Safari
Southern Africa trades the migration’s spectacle for density and exclusivity. The Sabi Sand reserve in South Africa offers the continent’s most reliable leopard viewing. Botswana’s Okavango Delta delivers extraordinary predator action and water-based safaris by mokoro canoe. The dry season, May through October, concentrates animals at water sources; the green season, November through April, brings newborn animals, dramatic skies and lower rates.
Singita Ebony Lodge, Sabi Sand, South Africa
On the banks of the Sand River in the Sabi Sand, South Africa’s most storied private reserve. Twelve suites under jackalberry trees, some of Africa’s best guides, and leopard sightings so reliable they feel scheduled. Combine with Cape Town for the classic two-center trip.
Mombo Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana
The legendary one. Mombo, on Chief’s Island in the heart of the Delta, is regularly called the best safari camp in Africa by people who have stayed everywhere, and the predator viewing, lions, leopards, wild dogs in extraordinary density, backs it up. Recently rebuilt with genuinely luxurious suites. Botswana’s high-cost, low-volume model means strict bed limits and high prices, but you will not see another vehicle at your sighting.
Khwai River Lodge, Okavango Delta, Botswana
On the edge of the Moremi Game Reserve where the Khwai River draws year-round game: elephants in camp, hippos grunting through the night. A slightly more traditional, relaxed alternative to Mombo’s intensity, and a superb choice for a first Botswana safari.
Private Conservancies vs. National Parks
The most important strategic choice in safari planning. National parks offer the greatest wildlife spectacles and lowest prices, but with rules: stay on the roads, no night drives, no walking, plenty of other vehicles at every sighting. Private conservancies cost more but allow off-road driving, night safaris and walking, with strict vehicle limits. Budget travelers should choose the parks. Anyone who can stretch should choose the private concessions.
The Case for Green Season
Everyone books the dry season, which is why you should consider the green season. From November through April, the rains transform the landscapes, migratory birds arrive, most animals give birth, and rates drop 20 to 40 percent. The predator action does not stop, and you will share sightings with a fraction of the vehicles. Photographers know this secret: storm light over the Serengeti in December produces the most dramatic safari images of the year.
When to Go: The Honest Calendar
Migration crossings: July through October in the northern Serengeti and Maasai Mara. Calving and predators in the southern Serengeti: January through March. Southern Africa’s best dry-season viewing: May through October. Green-season value and newborn animals: November through April, accepting afternoon rains. There is no bad month for a safari, only different safaris.
What It Costs
Luxury safari pricing is per person per night, fully inclusive. Expect roughly $1,000 to $1,800 per person per night at the excellent tier, $1,800 to $3,000 at the top tier in peak season, with the very best camps higher still. Internal flights, park fees and planning fees sit on top. Also see luxury safari worth it, Antarctica cruise worth it, and private jet charter worth it.
A Photographer’s Advice
Take the clichés, the lion at sunset, the elephant against the sky, they are magnificent. Then put the long lens down and shoot the context: the guide’s hands on the wheel, the dust in the headlights on a night drive, the campfire under the southern stars. And go in the green season at least once.
