Emma is an award-winning travel writer for Rough Guides, National Geographic Traveller, Travel Africa magazine and The Independent.
Home of the walking safari
I think it’s fair to say that most true safari aficionadoes love the idea of spending a few days in an untamed wilderness, and are irritated by facilities which are simply too big, too grand, too slick or too popular. While Zambia can’t claim quite the same old-school, back-to-basics safari ethos as Zimbabwe, where sleeping under canvas remains the rule, rather than the exception, it has plenty of excellent lodges and camps run by superb operators who understand the magic of the wilderness experience.
Where Zambia really scores, of course, is as a walking safari destination. With easy-going terrain and highly trained, highly responsible specialist guides, some of whom are superstars of the African safari scene, this is a superb place to set out on foot. On a guided bushwalk, you connect with the environment and its animals and plants in a manner that’s quite different from anything you’ll experience in a vehicle.
Unfortunately, conservationists struggle to keep commercial poaching and subsistence snaring under control in many of Zambia’s protected areas, and some of the lesser-known parks are totally neglected. However, I’ve had some of my very best wildlife-watching experiences in Zambia’s best parks, which are home to the Big Five, wild dogs, rare antelopes, superb birds and much, much more.
Kim is a travel writer who authored and updated over 15 guidebooks, including Lonely Planet's South Africa and Bradt's Tanzania guides.
Untamed Africa
For anyone who wants their safari experience to be less packaged holiday camp and more wild untamed nature, then Zambia is place to go. In spite of its growing popularity with safari tourists it still maintains that unmapped, off the chart feeling that’ll have you imagining you’re part of Dr Livingstone’s exploration party seeking out the source of the Nile. For me, this is what I love about Zambia. There is a distinct lack of over-commercialisation that permeates other safari destinations. At the same time, you can still have your remote wild experience in a luxury lodge or a rustic camp. The choice is yours. While most tourists only venture as far as Livingstone’s namesake town to visit Victoria Falls, there is so much more of Zambia waiting to be discovered. It not only boasts some the continent’s best wildlife parks including South Luangwa National Park and Lower Zambezi National Park, but it’s also a prime destination for anglers and avid birders. Zambia also lays claim to being home to the world’s most dangerous swimming pool - Devil’s Swimming Pool. At 103m high and located only inches from the lip of Victoria Falls rim above the raging waters of the Zambezi, it’s certainly not for the faint-hearted. With your heart firmly lodged in your throat, you can swim right up to and peer over the edge of the thunderous waterfall. Now tried and tested, I’m not so sure I’ll be brave enough to go back for a second view!
Alan is a travel writer and author of over 20 Lonely Planet guidebooks, including the guides to Southern Africa and Zambia & Malawi.
1 person found this review helpful.
On Safari in Zambia
Zambia is perhaps Southern Africa’s prime location for a ‘wild’ safari. The country’s national parks are remote, often difficult to access, have little in the way of facilities (outside of the private camps) and are jammed full of wildlife in a raw African setting. If you want to get a feel for the wild side of the African bush and its inhabitants, Zambia will serve you well.
Private camps are generally luxurious, expensive and well organised. Invariably they are placed in a beautiful setting by a river and offer transfers (often to/from a private airstrip) as part of comprehensive package deals. If you prefer the clinking of wine glasses to boiling your own water, this is the way for you. Many camps are unfenced meaning animals wander around at night - DO NOT go wandering after dark as hippos, elephants and others could well be about. The people who run these camps are often devoted to the park and its wildlife. In South Luangwa for example there are many opportunities to help out local conservation organisations who run programs to curb poaching, assist local people’s livelihoods and preserve local flora.
Self-drive safaris are also possible in many parks - they are fun, adventurous and provide real flexibility. Whichever way you go it is likely that you will be provided with an unforgettable experience. Especially if you do a walking safari, something which the country, and South Luangwa in particular, is famed for. Don’t miss putting a toe inside South Luangwa, Kafue and Lower Zambezi parks.
Watching Zambia’s prolific wildlife in classic safari country with stunning landscape, churning rivers and wide horizons may just be a life-changing experience. It was for me.
Sue is an award-winning writer who specializes in African travel and conservation. She writes for national newspapers, magazines, Rough Guides and Lonely Planet.
2 people found this review helpful.
Zambia: A safari-lover’s dream
Zambia is a safari-lover’s dream, and one of my favourite countries. Its national parks including Kafue, North and South Luangwa and the Lower Zambezi evoke a sense of unspoiled Africa, full of exciting wildlife but with comparatively few tourists compared to competitors like South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya.
It’s where walking safaris first began in the 1960s, the brainchild of conservationist and guide extraordinaire Norman Carr, and the country is still renowned as perhaps the best destination for walking in the wild. North Luangwa in particular offers a real sense of wilderness.
Carr also believed that locals should benefit from tourism and worked with the local communities of South Luangwa long before responsible tourism became a fashionable buzzword. Consequently, there’s a long tradition of communities and conservation working together here with some great community projects like Kawaza Village where visitors can stay and sample local life in South Luangwa.
My recent visit to Liuwa Plain National Park meant that I finally ticked off a place long at the top of my wish list. And it didn’t disappoint. It’s raw and remote, unlike anywhere else in the country with golden plains so vast you can see a lone tree piercing the horizon from miles away. And Bangweulu’s beauty took me by surprise, as did the ease with which we spotted the rare African shoebill – this is one of the continent’s best places to see them. These parks aren’t easy to get to – they’re not on the mainstream tourist trail – but well worth the effort to get to them.
Of course, Victoria Falls is on the main tourist trail and deservedly so – nothing beats getting drenched by the spray, the deafening noise of the water and the immense sense of power of the Falls. I never tire of going here. If you’re into extreme adrenaline activities, this is the place for you – bungy jumping, white water rafting and zip wiring against this spectacular backdrop will certainly tick the kudos boxes. But I’m happy simply walking along the gorge, getting completely soaked.
Nana is a travel writer and author of multiple guidebooks, including the Lonely Planet guides to Africa, Zambia & Malawi and South Africa.
3 people found this review helpful.
Walking safaris and untouched wilderness
Zambia’s wild open spaces, rivers and marshland contain some of the best reserves on the continent and yet the country is not nearly as popular with tourists as its better known rivals in East Africa.
You’ll find all of the Big Five here as well as more unique species such as Cookson’s wildebeests, Thornicroft’s giraffes and black lechwes. What’s more, Kafue National Park and South Luangwa National Park are well known throughout Africa as fantastic places to spot leopards; and Kasanka National Park and the Bangweulu wetlands are prime bird watching territory, the latter an excellent place to see shoebills.
South Luangwa is the country’s best-known and most easily accessible spot. On my last visit, I found plenty of accommodation for all budgets, and although the park is popular, it wasn't so busy that I felt hemmed in by other vehicles. It's also the home of the walking safari, and tracking lions and elephant on foot, deep in the bush, is not an experience that I'll forget.
For fans of remote and untouched places, Zambia has a huge amount to offer. Several of the country's parks are difficult to access because of poor infrastructure, but in general, this makes them even more worth a visit. At wild, expansive Kafue to the West, I saw big cats stalk the grasslands with hardly anyone else for company; at North Luangwa, visitors stay deep in the bush in small, exclusive mobile camps that are only open for a few months a year; and at Kasanka National Park I took advantage of one of the handful of remote and rustic self-catering camps and luxuriated in my party being the only group of visitors in the entire reserve.
Christopher is a British travel writer and has contributed to various Fodor's guidebooks and a range of travel magazines.
3 people found this review helpful.
Unadulterated Africa
If you’ve been on a couple of safaris and are looking for something a little wilder, then look no further than Zambia. The infrastructure is poor in many areas of the country and some of the parks are remote and hard to access (in fact, large swathes of Zambia are completely inaccessible during the rainy season). But combined with the astonishing abundance of wildlife, this is part of what makes this such an unforgettable safari destination.
I got my first taste of this when self-driving across Zambia for two months in 2014. Having previously experienced “safer” safaris in South Africa, Kenya, Botswana and Namibia, to me, Zambia was a profound revelation of what a safari could and should still feel like. I’ve been back to the country twice since then to work on guidebooks, most recently in June 2022, and this sense continues to hold true.
Zambia is also set apart from the pack thanks to the unparalleled knowledge and professionalism of its guides. With the density of wildlife, dearth of fences and continued prevalence of traditional rural living, one of the arguments is that Zambia’s guides grow up in closer proximity to the wonders of the African bush than most. Whatever the case, Zambia is the undisputed home of walking safaris. There can be few more exhilarating feelings than tracking lions on foot without a single sign of human civilization to be found. South Luangwa National Park or Kafue National Park are among the best places to enjoy this special experience. The former is also home to leopards galore, while the latter is an excellent bet for wild dog sightings.
Amongst other highlights: for sheer prettiness, canoeing safaris, elephants and some of the best riverside lodges you’ll find anywhere in southern Africa, Lower Zambezi National Park is a must and is surprisingly easily accessible from Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. The much more remote Liuwa Plain National Park, meanwhile, plays host to Africa’s second biggest wildebeest migration.
Traditionally, Zambia certainly hasn’t been considered a safari destination for the uninitiated or faint of heart. Even today, much of the country beyond a small handful of tourism hotspots remains largely unexplored. But as Zambia’s reputation continues to blossom, this is gradually beginning to change. So, by way of a parting tip: visit now before everyone else cottons on.
Mike is an award-winning wildlife writer, former editor of Travel Zambia magazine and author of the Bradt Guide to Southern African Wildlife.
5 people found this review helpful.
Safaris for aficionados
Zambia has emerged relatively slowly on the safari map. Overshadowed for many years by neighbouring Zimbabwe, and suffering from a poor conservation record and neglected parks, its attractions were best known to insiders. In recent times, however, many operators have woken up to the fact that the country offers superb safaris in remote areas, with abundant wildlife, excellent lodges and unbeatable guiding. Thus it has become something of a destination for experienced safari-goers – those who may already have ticked off the Big Five in the Kruger or Masai Mara, and now want to get closer to the wildlife, with fewer other people in the way. Zambia is particularly famous for its walking safaris, especially in the Luangwa Valley, which are conducted by highly trained guides. These allow a chance to track wildlife on foot and discover the secrets of the bush you will never experience from a vehicle.
For me, Zambia has always been about its three great rivers: the Luangwa, Lower Zambezi and Kafue. Each gives its name to a premier national park, and no safari is complete without the grunting of hippos and the cry of the fish eagle. It is also a place for getting off the beaten track. With the occasional exception of the main gate area of South Luangwa, I have never met a crowd. And in lesser-known parks, such as the stunning Liuwa Plain or watery wilds of Bangweulu, you might not meet another person at all. In general, guided lodge safaris are the norm; a poor infrastructure and limited road network means that independent travel is only for the experienced and/or adventurous. The town of Livingstone bucks the trend, with all manner of tourist accommodation, activities and adventure sports having mushroomed around the central hub of Victoria Falls. It also makes a convenient stop-off en route to Chobe and Okavango (Botswana) or Hwange (Zimbabwe).
Stephen is a travel writer and avid conservationist whose work appears in prestigious magazines such as Africa Geographic and Travel Africa.
14 people found this review helpful.
Africa’s Hottest Safari Option
It is only in the last decade that Zambia burst back onto the African safari scene, re-building its safari reputation on the back of some epic national parks and outstanding wildlife. Anyone even vaguely familiar with Zambia and its wildlife heritage will probably be aware of the country’s Big Three: South Luangwa, Lower Zambezi and Kafue. These three iconic national parks are undeniably amongst Africa’s finest wilderness areas and they provide an enviable array of safari activities and game-viewing opportunities to wildlife connoisseurs from around the globe. There is, however, considerably more to the Zambian safari circuit.
This butterfly-shaped country is actually home to an astounding array of conservation areas with three transfrontier parks, 19 national parks, 36 game management areas (GMAs), 7 RAMSAR wetland sites, 42 important birding areas (IBAs) and numerous forest reserves. The bottom line is that a staggering 38% of Zambia is preserved under some category of protected area.
To be honest I am one of Zambia’s biggest fans and I think this country deserves its reputation as one of Africa’s foremost safari destinations. I really like that the parks of this country (with the possible exceptions of the Mfuwe sector of South Luangwa and Chiawa GMA) are not plagued by the safari hordes that invade other popular wildlife areas like the Mara in Kenya.
Zambia also boasts a handful of world-class rivers flowing through its protected areas: the Zambezi, Luangwa and Kafue rivers are spectacular. Aside from the country’s three premier parks and the world-renowned Victoria Falls, it is also home to Africa’s second largest wildebeest migration (in Liuwa Plain NP), one of the greatest concentrations of mammalian biomass in the world (during the annual bat migration through Kasanka NP), one of the best places in Africa to see the enigmatic shoebill (in the Bangweulu swamps), Africa’s longest and deepest rift valley lake (Lake Tanganyika and Nsumbu NP), and a whole host more.
