Top five safaris... by you
Our tippers' top five places in Africa to spot the Big Five
Masai Mara in Kenya
Posted by AmandaFishburn
I went on safari to Kenya and it was truly fantastic. Go to the Masai Mara, and hopefully your tour guide will venture into the Serengeti in Tanzania. The Masai Mara is the biggest and the best park.
Do stay in a luxury lodge for at least two days; it's not too expensive and everything is usually included, plus you are guaranteed to see at least the 'big four' out of five.
If you decide that you want a more rustic-slash-back to nature experience, then look around for a guidebook recommended lodge/camping site, as a few friends of mine went for the cheapest and saw very little, as the guides were not as experienced.
South Luangwa National Park in Zambia
Posted by MisterLister
Forget those factory-line safaris where you sit in a cramped minibus following a line other minibuses through a crowded wildlife park. If you want a genuinely wild experience, you need to do it on foot.
A walking safari through the South Luangwa National Park is a unique experience, staying in comfortable bush camps, each day exploring a new section of the park and experiencing the raw thrill of encounters with animals in the wild.
Amakhala game reserve in Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Posted by xtrail
Brilliant safari with the big five. Excellent guides, fabulous lodges, plus your own personal chef at a very pleasing price. Stay in the heart of the reserve with the animals or outside. Had a truly fab three days here and wish I could have stayed longer.
Mkuze game reserve, South Africa
Posted by babchick
When I visited Mkuze, I sat in one of their hides overlooking a waterhole from dawn till 10.30am. There were very few other people, but lots of animals that I managed to observe as they came for a drink.
It was simply the highlight of my five weeks in South Africa: there were nyala, white rhinos, zebra herds, warthogs, a host of bird species, blue wildebeest and giraffes. None of them were aware of human presence and we could watch them interact and behave naturally.
Tarangire National Park in Arusha, Tanzania
Posted by Coomy
One of the lesser-known parks in Tanzania (dwarfed in size by the Masai Mara and Ngorongoro crater parks), Tarangire is thronged with wildlife towards the end of the dry season. Elephants flock here in their hundreds, and in one day expect to see lions, leopard, buffalo, fish eagles, dik-dik, mongoose, zebra, wildebeest. The works, in short.
And some general safari advice from AmandaFishburn:
Get to know your tour guide!
We started chatting to ours and got lots of added bits of info. He also went the 'extra mile' and took us places that other guides didn’t go to - we saw the migration of about 10,000 zebra with no one else around. This was the most spectacular site. We also saw the kill of a buffalo by a lioness and her pride - this was most unusual, but had we not have made an effort to get to know our guide over the few days, he may not have made the effort ...