US
35-50 years of age
Review about Moremi Game Reserve by ~lustedtowander~
Like Chobe, Moremi Game Reserve has some of the best wildlife viewing in Southern Africa.
US
35-50 years of age
Review about Nxai Pan National Park by ~lustedtowander~
I like the Pan landscape. It is open and dry, so wildlife congregates around the water. Cheetah are frequently sighted here, which is always a treat.
US
35-50 years of age
Review about Okavango Delta by ~lustedtowander~
There is nowhere in the world like the Okavango Delta.
US
35-50 years of age
Review about Makgadikgadi Pans National Park by ~lustedtowander~
In the dry season, the pans are accessible, but wildlife viewing is difficult. In the wet .... be ready to dig in the mud.
20-35 years of age
Review about Tanzania by Allan Kaitila
Tanzania is a country which has got very beautiful parks with natural animals compared to other African countries though to some places infrastructure is still not good.
Review about Kenya by John Wilson
Kenya deserves to be explored and appreciated by the more adventurous traveler for its scenic beauty alone. While the wildlife is by-and-large confined to reserves, they are spectacular in their relative naturalness and abundance of flora and fauna.
35-50 years of age
20-35 years of age
Great choice for top end safaris
We drove through Botswana coming from Namibia via the north west border crossing, down the west of the Okavango panhandle to Maun, and then up to Chobe before heading into Zimbabwe.
Botswana is great. It has the flat, empty expanses of wilderness that most of us associate with Africa, but which are so hard to find nowadays with the vast population growth and land shortages which affect most African states. Driving from Namibia towards Maun it is pretty mindblowing to think that to the right of the road there is almost nothing but untouched wilderness stretching all the way to South Africa, whilst to the left of the road are the wetlands of the Okavango Delta followed by the Moremi Game Reserve, with its packs of African Wild Dogs.
Unfortunately, we were in a Honda Jazz. Small hatchbacks are not designed for Moremi, the Okagango or the Makgadikgadi Pans, so we stopped in Maun to consider our options. After two days searching in vain for a low-budget, organised camping trip into any one of the nearby parks, which involved me getting the car stuck in sand in the entrance to a hotel and having to be pushed out by local children, we gave up and drove to Chobe. The last hundred or so kilometres were done very slowly on a space saver spare tyre after we were eaten by a large pothole north of Francistown.
My only criticism of Botswana therefore is that there is very little infrastructure for the independent tourist; the entire tourism sector is geared towards high end fly-in safaris. Having said that, it will be the first country in Southern Africa that I return to - purely because I didn't have the money to see everything the first time around. To be truthful, I spent more on petrol than on seeing animals.
The only real exception to the rule is Chobe National Park. It is readily accessible from Victoria Falls and makes a great add on if you are visiting Livingstone or the Zimbabwean side. There are hotels in every price range, and you can park your small Japanese car outside the Avis office at the airport and leave it there. While you are spotting beasts, some poor Botswanan has the unenviable task of driving it the thousand and odd kilometers back to Johannesburg on a space saver as spare tyres of that size are not available anywhere further north.
Several hotels along the road in Chobe have boat and safari vehicle trips into the park, which is great. The boat trips get you close up to elephants, hippos, various antelopes and lots of birds, whilst the jeep safaris are great for lion and all the more common species - we saw a porcupine (the only one I have ever seen), and only just missed some wild dogs. Chobe is easily comparable to good National Parks in neighbouring countries, and it is something of a shame that it gets overshadowed by Botswana's star attractions further West.
If I come into money, I'll be straight back onto the plane to Botswana to do all the things I couldn't afford to do last time around. If you're on a budget, you'll do much better to stick to South Africa or Namibia, where your money will go much further.
20-35 years of age
For natural big animals, Katavi National Park is the best
WILDLIFE
Compared to other Tanzanian National parks exclude Ruaha and Ugalla Game Reserve, Katavi has got very big and attractive animals, actually, when you see them, you'll feel the presence of nature to these animals and how wonderful they are. For example, when you look to an Elephant, it looks huge and giant compared to elephants from another National parks.
SCENERY
Katavi lies on Rukwa or Western rift valley basin, from around the edges of the park there is gentle slopes with heavy natural forest and at the center of the park its plain grass land like 10km square (Estimate) and at the middle there is a beautiful lake known as lake Katavi and Chada where you can sit and enjoy nice view and animals. Therefore the scenery is beautiful.
WEATHER
Katavi is experiencing two seasons, wet season which starts from October to April/May (Hot season) and dry season which starts from May to September. Depends to what events would you like to see, for example if you want to enjoy lots of Hippopotamus and lion, visit lake katavi and Chada during dry season and for nice birds, baboons, giraffe, elephants and buffalo, visit during wet (rain) season.
In short, weather is nice and I haven't heard any problem about weather.
ACCOMMODATION
Starting from Mpanda Town which is near Katavi (40km), there is hotels, lodging and guest houses all of these differ in status and cost.
Inside Katavi National park, there is Hotels, guesthouse, bandas (kind of small houses with one room self contained) and Camping sites.
FOOD
In Katavi there is variety of food, but also you still can take your own food provided that you don't feed to the animals like baboons and chimpanzee.
TRANSPORT
You can access to Katavi National Park by air, if you lodge a private flight, you can land at Mpanda Airport or direct to Katavi National park air strip or use public flight (eg Precission air) from Dar es salaam to Tabora and then catch train or bus to Mpanda from Tabora.
Using road, there is a main road connecting Mikumi, Ruaha and Katavi national parks via Mbeya, Sumbawanga to Katavi and Mpanda. This road at moment is gravel based though at moment there is construction of tarmac road from Mbeya to Katavi and Mpanda then to Kigoma. From Mbeya to Katavi, the road is good in all weather though in some places is a little bit terrible during wet season. From Kigoma to Mpanda, the road is accessible only during dry season untill when the construction of tarmac road is finish.
Alternatively you can catch train or bus from Tabora to Mpanda, or catch a bus from Sumbawanga to Katavi.
In short road transport is accessible and not bad but not reliable just like in other National parks until when the road construction will finish.
GUIDE
Tour and guidance in general is good because the administration is trying to attract more tourists to this place as it was not famous before compared to other National parks though it starts to emerge very quickly after many tourists discovered that Katavi has the best big and natural animals.
Therefore, to me, I recommend that if you want to enjoy for the best animals, go to Katavi National park, you'll feel it!
20-35 years of age
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Allan Kaitila
Animals are very small and didn't attract me anymore