The Best African Safari Why Southern Africa Comes Out Tops

Planning your first safari? We get it — Africa is an incredibly vast and diverse continent. With 54 countries and enough wild terrain to make your compass spin, narrowing it down can feel immensely daunting. And so, the age-old question arises – “What is the best African safari?”.  Although this is a broad question, for us, the answer is clear: Southern Africa. 

Of course, it’s not as simple as just picking a region and calling it a day. The answer’s a little more layered than that. Now, don’t get us wrong, we love all of Southern Africa – especially our home, South Africa. And whilst we know we shouldn’t play favourites (like any good parent), if we’re making a case for why South is best, then Namibia, Botswana, and Africa’s Eden make a pretty compelling argument.

So let’s get into it. Here’s why we believe Southern Africa, without a doubt, offers the best African safari you can get.

In a world plagued by overtourism, finding something truly wild and crowd-free feels borderline mythical – like you may have better luck finding the lochness monster floating down the Okavango delta. But in Southern Africa, that myth is reality, and Namibia and Botswana are our best case studies for it. 

Almost 40% of both Botswana and Namibia’s land is protected for wildlife in the form of wilderness areas and national parks – most of which are unfenced. This isn’t just about space, it’s about movement. Wildlife still roams freely here, and ancient migration routes remain open. One of the most remarkable examples? Botswana’s awe-inspiring zebra migration from the Okavango Delta to the Nxai Pans. It often plays second fiddle to East Africa’s wildebeest spectacle, but make no mistake — this is the longest land migration of any mammal in Africa. 

Now let’s talk numbers 

Just to put things into perspective: Botswana is about the same size as France, but while France is home to over 68 million people, Botswana has just 2.5 million… and most of them live in the south and east. The rest? Left to elephants, lions, and the odd safari vehicle humming along a dirt track. Then there’s Namibia, one of the most sparsely populated countries on Earth. It’s twice the size of California, but while the Golden State buzzes with nearly 40 million people, Namibia has just 2.9 million. That’s less than 8% of California’s population spread across a country twice its size. 

Namibia and Botswana are near-perfect examples of what makes Southern Africa so special: vast, soul-stirring landscapes, teeming with life and blissfully short on people. It’s the kind of rare gift the modern world doesn’t hand out often — and once you’ve experienced it, you realise just how scarce places like this really are.

The Sanctuary

When it comes to conservation, Botswana is the blueprint. This is a country where protecting the wild isn’t a marketing line, it’s a way of life. With four national parks, seven game reserves, and a sweeping network of private concessions, you can truly feel that 40% of the land is dedicated to wildlife. It’s in the stillness. In the space. And in the sheer number of animals that inhabit it. Botswana has remained largely untouched for decades, thanks in part to some of the continent’s strictest hunting laws, including a full ban that lasted several years. The result? Africa in its purest form — vast, untamed, and intensely alive.

The Wildlife

It’s one of the best places to see the Big 5 on safari – Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino, and Buffalo (for those who are unfamiliar). Over 150,000 elephants roam freely (the largest population on Earth), and every year, 25,000 zebras thunder across the Makgadikgadi Pans. And watching thousands of stripes ripple across the salt pans? It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Botswana is living proof of what happens when you give nature space, time, and a fighting chance — it flourishes. It’s one of the last great wild strongholds on Earth, and a front-row seat to one of conservation’s greatest success stories.

Step into parts of Namibia or Botswana and you’ll swear you’ve slipped through a crack in time. Red dunes ripple like frozen waves. Salt pans stretch wider than logic. Ancient baobabs stand like sentinels from another age. These landscapes have a way of putting things into perspective, and they’ll remind you just how small you are – in the best possible way.

The Landscapes

However, what makes these places feel so untouched isn’t just a matter of luck. Its intention. Namibia and Botswana have chosen a different path: one where nature isn’t just preserved, it’s prioritised to the point where, in some regions, the landscape has hardly changed for hundreds of thousands of years. Just look at the Bain’s Baobabs in Botswana — seven gnarled giants rising from a cracked white pan near Nxai Pan National Park. Explorer Thomas Baines painted them more than a century ago, and today, the scene looks almost identical. 

And then there’s Namibia, where the age of the land itself borders on science fiction. The Namib Desert is approximately 55 to 80 million years old, making it one of the oldest deserts in the world. The Fish River Canyon, equally impressive, is the oldest on Earth and the second-largest in size, only surpassed by the Grand Canyon. Namibia also holds the world’s most extensive collection of ancient rock art — a gallery carved into stone, untouched by the passage of time.

The People

But it’s not just the landscapes that are ancient. These places are also home to some of Africa’s last truly intact indigenous cultures. Botswana’s San are the continent’s original hunter-gatherers, and they still read the land like a book. Around 5,000 of Africa’s last hunting San remain, their presence deeply tied to the protection of these wild spaces. Encounters with San elders and trackers are often included as part of camp experiences, not as a performance, but as a privilege. Further west, in Namibia’s remote Kaokoland, live the Himba — a semi-nomadic people who’ve called this desert home for centuries. With their ochre-toned skin, mud-padded hair, ornate jewellery, and rich spiritual traditions, the Himba live in harmony with one of the harshest environments on Earth. 

Together, the San and the Himba are living reminders that wild places don’t only shelter wildlife — they hold memory, meaning, and a kind of human wisdom we can’t afford to lose. In these rare corners of Southern Africa, nature and people haven’t parted ways. They’ve grown together. These extraordinary places offer a glimpse into how the world once was (and, in a few places, still is) – a privilege in every sense of the word.

Namibia, Botswana, and Africa’s Eden have pioneered a tourism model that’s as sustainable as it is stylish — high-revenue, low-impact, and more often than not, led by the communities that call these wild places home. Forget sprawling hotels. Here, it’s all about small, intimate camps (usually 10 rooms or less) tucked lightly into the landscape. And, with the aim of minimal environmental disruption, a lot of the camps are tented rather than built from brick and mortar. 

In Southern Africa, less really is more. Fewer vehicles mean more wildlife and fewer humans — sometimes just a handful of guests on 600,000 hectares of game reserve. Protecting space on that scale comes at a price, yes. But in return? You get something most places can’t offer: true, uninterrupted exclusivity.

Exclusivity has its perks — like being able to leave the track behind. In private concessions across Southern Africa, off-roading is allowed (within reason), which comes in pretty handy when tracking the Big 5. Animals here are habituated to vehicles from a young age, which means you can get up close without feeling like you’re intruding or interfering. Now, compare that to many East African parks, where off-roading is a no-go, binoculars have their work cut out for them, and sightings come with a whole parking lot of vehicles. For us, it’s apples vs oranges.

Southern Africa has a not-so-secret weapon: water. And nowhere flaunts it better than the Zambezi Valley. The Zambezi River snakes its way between Zambia and Zimbabwe, before tumbling spectacularly over a jagged, mile-wide basalt ledge to become Victoria Falls — the smoke that thunders. Revered as a sacred site by local tribes for centuries, but made famous by David Livingstone in 1855, Vic Falls (we know her like that) is an official Wonder of the Natural World, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Livingstone (on the Zambian side) and Victoria Falls (on the Zimbabwean side) will agree to disagree that the falls belongs to each of them. And this dispute will most probably continue until the end of time – I mean, we’d also fight over her! Either way, we think it’s the perfect place to begin, pause, or end your journey. 

Further south, Africa’s largest inland delta, the Okavango, floods the Kalahari Desert in a feat so improbable it’s also been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Together, these shimmering lifelines form the beating heart of what is referred to as Africa’s Eden — a region so rich in wildlife, biodiversity, and sheer beauty that it’s hard to comprehend. 

With all that water comes safari with a twist: mokoro rides through lily-choked channels, boat safaris past grumpy hippos, rainforest walks near the Falls, and riverside sundowners that somehow make gin and tonics taste even better.

It’s not a single lodge or park. It’s a feeling. It’s space. Silence. Wildness. Southern Africa quietly redefines luxury itself. Here, life’s greatest indulgences aren’t marble floors or gold taps, but time, space, and nature so vast you feel like you could be the last person on Earth. Though let’s be honest — a good wine list and an oversized bathtub never hurt. Good thing you’ll get all of the above. Southern Africa has it all.