South Africa

South Africa combines Big Five safaris with cities, vineyards and coastline, and it has the best roads and domestic flights on the continent. It is a good choice for a first trip to Africa and for families.

Kruger National Park is the main safari area. The public park can be driven in a hire car and has affordable rest camps. The private reserves on its western edge, Sabi Sand and Timbavati among them, offer guided drives with trackers and very close leopard sightings. Travellers who want to avoid malaria areas can go to Madikwe or the Eastern Cape reserves, both of which have the Big Five.

Cape Town is the other anchor of most itineraries: Table Mountain, the Cape Peninsula and its penguin colony at Boulders Beach, and Robben Island. The Winelands around Stellenbosch and Franschhoek are an hour away. East of the city, the Garden Route follows the coast through Knysna and Tsitsikamma, and Hermanus is one of the best places in the world for watching whales from land between July and November.

The seasons are opposite in the two regions. Kruger is best in the dry winter, May to September, while Cape Town is at its best in summer, November to March.