Zambia Travel Guide

Zambia is an extraordinary country because of its lovely people and beautiful wildlife and scenery.

The wildlife was amazing. I went on safari in Tanzania after Zambia and I think I saw more interesting animals in Zambia. The scenery -- the bush, the rural areas, Vic Falls -- was all amazing as well. Accommodation was easy to find in general and not too expensive. I liked the food - nshima, fish, beef - a lot. We didn't really use any guides or private transport. For more information, you can read about my experiences in Zambia on my blog at www.aperturezambia.blogspot.com .

The real Africa.

I've been living and working in Zambia for 4 years now. Mainly in the Luangwa Valley, but also in Liuwa Plain National Park.
South Luangwa is one of the premier parks in Southern Africa, with abundant and diverse wildlife and a true remote feeling. North Luangwa is even remoter, about as remote as you can get in Africa those days.
In South Luangwa lions are commonly seen, and the nightdrives offer a good chance of seeing the nocturnal animals, including the ever elusive leopard, which is often seen.
Wild dogs are also regularly seen and the Luangwa Valley host (near) endemice subspecies of Thornicroft's Giraffe, Crawshay's Zebra and Cookson's Wildebeest.
With over 400 bird species recorded the Luangwa Valley is a birders dream. Specialties are the southern carmine bee-eater colonies from late August to November. Pel's fishing owl is also regularly seen, as are numerous other raptors.
South Luangwa is the home of walking safaris, originally started by Norman Carr. While you might not see the likes of lions and elephants as well as from a vehicle, walking between those animals is a truly exhilirating experience!


Liuwa Plain National Park (I visited in October-November 2010) is a park for the advanced Africa traveller. Very remote and offering wide views or a vast, flat plain. It hosts the second biggest wildebeest migration (after the Serengeti-Masaai Mara migration) of about 40,000 wildebeest (the number is growing). Wild dogs and cheetah are home on and around the plain, where hyaenas are numerous. The lion population, which was down to 1 female (lady Liuwa) is slowly being restored and 2 males (in 2009) and 2 subadult females (in 2011) have been reintroduced.
The plains are a birders dreams, with tens of thousand migratory birds (like Caspian Plover, Pratincoles). Pelicans, grey crowned cranes, wattled cranes, fuellerborn's longclaws are numerous. Liuwa Plain NP is a truly unique experience.

Lower Zambezi National Park (August 2008, 2009) is an exclusive park. The actual safari area is quite small, but the game is plentiful and the (luxury) camps don't just offer game drives and walks, but also boating and fishing (releasing of the catch).

Rugged and Remote!

Travel in Zambia is a quintessential African experience. People are poor, friendly and hard working. Bicycles laden with firewood or produce or water jugs or families or pigs fill the roads. Chaos and confusion reign at border crossings. The scenery is sublime, and the National Parks are remote. It requires an impressive amount of travel endurance just to make the drive into parks such as South Luangwa and Kafue. But go there. Do not miss Zambia!

Because I enjoyed it very much I give it an excellent grade. It was also much better than other surrounding parks (Malawi ones), but those were all also much smaller.

Less spoiled by too many tourists than other safari destinations.

So many great places to be discovered, remote, beuatiful, huge rivers, great people.

Some places are better than another.

Undescribable

Zambia is a MUST for any safari goer. From the people to the variety of wildlife it is an amazing experience. We travelled to Zambia in 2009 and 2011 (21-24 day safaris each trip) and we are returning again in August/September (2013) for nearly a month. Our favorite spots are the South Luangwa and the Lower Zambezi. The diversity and abundance of wildlife is spectacular, only to be outdone by Botswana's Kwando/Okavango regions (and less expensive than Botswana). August and September being the best times for safaris with no chance of rain. Our favorite camps to date are Kaingo (we are going for a 3rd visit) and Chiawa (also our 3rd visit) the incredible amount of wildlife in these 2 areas make them tops in our book as well as staff and guides that are excellent. Food at Chiawa is 5 star as are the accomodations and guides. There are a variety of activities offered from canoe trips, to boating and fishing on the Zambezi, to vehicle safaris. Kaingo also has great accomodations, and now each cabin has its own little overlook of the river where lunch is served so you can enjoy the privacy and views. Kaingo has some of the best "hides" of any camp we have ever visited. we love spending afternoons at the hippo hide and getting up close to these magnificent creatures and the beeeater hide is not be missed especially in September. Chindeni and Chamilandu are also great in their own right, but wildlife is a little sparser in these areas, still the environments make these excellent camps in their own right. They offer walking safaris or vehicle safaris at all their camps. Both have excellent cuisine and all camps adapted their menus for my husbands "unusual food phobias". Transportation is seemless as all the camps work together to get you to your destinations, "no stress". We are visiting some of Robin pope's camps this trip as well I am hoping they too will be just as wonderful.

A true "National Geographic" experience in every way!

This was our second trip to Zambia (both to South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi)We love the Zambian people, the excellent wild life viewing, the walking safaris, the lack of vehicles (except around the Mfuwe area/gateway to park), and the excellent camps (Kaingo, Mwamba, Sausage Tree and Potato Bush Camps)