On Safari in Africa, In Style
Amanda Jones
The South African safari has long been on the radar screen for high-end travelers. But recently other Southern African countries, namely Botswana, Zambia and Namibia, have built ultra-luxe safari camps and lodges competing with the world's best. Having visited a decade before, I was curious to return this past summer and see the progress made. I was astonished. Where I'd had no option but to sleep in a self-pitched tent on a rocky desert, I now found five-star eco-lodges with designer furnishings and gin and tonics in cut crystal. Besides the soul-stirring beauty, the other advantages to these three countries are no crowds, no yellow fever, little crime, and low malaria rates. And each offers something different: Zambia has Victoria Falls and huge national parks; Botswana has Africa's largest wetlands and private concessions (meaning camps do not share land with other tourists), and Namibia has some of the world's largest sand dunes, tribal people, and a lovely, lonely coastline.
The other laudable news about all these new camps is they are heavily involved in animal conservation, they engage local communities in their developments, and they don't merely greenwash - meaning, they walk the walk when it comes to eco.
I booked through the Colorado-based tour company Rothschild Safaris, 800-405-9463. They gave us a selection of camp choices, and we chose the following, many of which are owned by Wilderness Safaris, an African company that owns over 60 camps in Southern Africa. The ones we chose were all-inclusive, meaning all food, most drinks, guided tours and ground transfers are included in the rather steep per person price you pay up front.
BOTSWANA Savuti Camp, Linyata Reserve
Savuti sits above a busy watering hole on the Linyanti Concession in northern Botswana, outside Chobe National Park. With 300,000 acres of private land, you don't see another soul for miles. Savuti has seven tents under vaulted thatched ceilings with rugs, hardwood floors, a writing desk, a dressing room and an enormous bathroom. Built on elevated walkways to lessen environmental impact, each designer-furnished room has an uninterrupted view of the waterhole and elephant, zebra, jackal and hyena congregated there. The rooms are so private and comfortable it tempting to skip a couple of game drives and lounge on the deck, read Out of Africa and watch creatures cavort in the watering hole below. When you do take a dawn game drive, the staff prepares you for the morning chill in open-air jeeps with a hot water bottle to hug close under your provided poncho. It's the small details that make all the difference at this camp.
A highlight is taking a walk with Kane, the resident San Bushman. Dressed in ancestral loincloth and skin, Kane takes guests into the bush on foot, demonstrating how to find water in roots, sneak up on a herd of skittish zebra, hunt with a bow and arrow, and make a bird trap out of vines. And because small children cannot go by foot, there are staff members to babysit by doing African basket weaving (from local grasses), toy making (from wire and tent canvas), or clay molding (clay dug up out back).
Prices from $600 per person, per night. www.savuticamp.com
Abu and Seba Camps, Okavango Delta
An American animal trainer who previously worked with elephants destined for zoos and safari parks, Randall Moore decided Africa was where he wanted to be. Years ago, he shipped three elephants back to Africa, finding a home for them in Botswana. Later still, he built a camp in the central Okavango Delta and pioneered elephant back safaris. Abu Camp quickly became one of Africa's most famous camps, attracting celebrities and elites who dreamed of riding an elephant through the African bush and returning to French champagne and a copper bathtub in the evenings. The cost of such a safari? $7,700 per person for a three-night minimum. While I could not rationalize this, I knew Moore had opened another, more affordable camp nearby. Seba does not include elephant rides, but you can meet and pet the tame herd. And there is abundant wildlife to be seen, even from a jeep, on Moore's 500,000 acre-concession. A floodplain year around, the game is plentiful and the jeep rides through wheel well deep water thrilling.
Although not as luxurious as Abu or Savuti, the tents are spacious and private, the game good and the food is excellent and you can experience game and bird watching from a silently paddled mokoro (dugout canoe) through the high grasses flooded by water.
Seba Camp: www.abucamp.com/seba; From $600 per person, per night.
Abu Camp: www.abucamp.com; $7,720 per person for three nights. There is also a family villa. Price upon request.
NAMIBIA
Little Kulala, Soussessvlei, Namib Naukluft National Park.
With décor as you'd expect to see in Elle Decor, Little Kulala is also a stylish favorite with celebrities and the jet set. You don't come to Soussessvlei to see game, (although the herds of ostriches jogging past your room will keep you plenty amused), you come for otherworldly scenery and the giant red sand dunes of the Namib Desert.
Built to mimic the desert, Little Kulala has 11 glass-fronted villas, each with a private plunge pool, terrace and living room. The lodge building has another pool, a bar, restaurant and game room, all done in African neo-chic, inspired by Namib elements-branches, rippled sand and smooth rock.
Little Kulala has a private shortcut into the park, meaning you can beat the day-trippers to catch sunrise as it sets the sand afire. The lodge has well-educated, enthusiastic local guides who, when not shepherding you up a sand dune or into a dry pan with 500-year-dead acacia trees, will take you for catered picnics in the middle of the veldt. At night, you can choose to eschew your king-sized bed, have the staff lay a bedroll on your villa roof and sleep beneath the most dazzling Milky Way you'll ever see.
From $532 per person, per night. www.littlekulala.com
Serra Cafema, Kunene River, Hartmann Valley
Built on the banks of the Kunene River, right on Namibia's northern border with Angola, is Serra Cafema, one of Africa's most remote, romantic and unique camps. A lush river oasis in the Hartmann Valley, the trés chic rooms are built on a series of decks among verdant reeds and water plants right above the flowing river. And yet just behind the camp is a sea of sand, the northern reaches of the Namib Desert. By day you can take boat rides up the Kunene, home to thousands of crocodiles; take hikes without any danger from predators; ride ATV's across undulating dunes, hang out in the hammock on your private deck, or visit the Himba people, a magnificent tribe who live as traditional nomads.
By night you shower al fresco in your enormous, thatched-roof villa, (which, if it weren't for the dramatic scenery over the river, looks like the interior of a film producer's Malibu pad-with fold-away walls and hip earthy furnishings), then head for the indoor-outdoor dining room and bar. Built sustainably, the walls of the bar are stacked river rock with velvet-covered armchairs and antique object from a bygone Africa.
From $532 per person, per night. www.serracafema.com
ZAMBIA
Toka Leya, Livingstone
Fifteen minutes upriver from the iconic Victoria Falls, on the banks of the mighty Zambezi, is Toka Leya. Since Zimbabwe imploded politically, neighboring Zambia has boomed by picking up the tourism slack. Toka Leya is the latest to join the luxury camp category.
The 12 cavernous tents are permanent canvas and wood structures, with polished wood floors, private decks, king-size beds, electricity, hot and cold running water, hairdryers, A/C and heat, dressing rooms and walk-in showers. Imagine what Dr. Livingstone, the first Westerner into these parts, would say about such luxury.
The décor is neutral and chic, with not a horn or a zebra skin in sight. This part of Zambia doesn't offer much in the way of game viewing. It's all about adventure, and Victoria Falls is an adrenalin junkies dream. You can raft the Zambezi's terrifying Class V rapids, bungy jump over 300 feet off the Victoria Falls Bridge, take an ultralight or a helicopter ride over the falls, go kayaking, take dawn boat trips to spot hippos, or just walk above the falls and get drenched by the staggering power of all that water.
From $475 per person, per night. www.tokaleya.com
Kapinga, Kafue National Park
The second largest national park in Africa (twice the size of Yellowstone), Zambia has done a stellar job of limiting development and preserving Kafue. And the jewel of the park is the flooded grasslands of the Busanga Plains.
Kapinga is about as good as it gets for luxurious safari. With only four tents, the camp is almost ridiculously sybaritic while still being authentic, outdoorsy Africa. Decorated with stylish whimsy, there are few walls, draping canopied sitting areas, bright colors and Moroccan stripes. Set under cooling fig trees, rooms have giant, mosquito net-swathed beds, a sitting area, the essential writing desk, and a vast view over the plains. You can be bathing at dusk, gin in hand, and watch a lion stalk its prey in the great beyond. Outside, you have your own deck with a built-in sofa-a place to relax between morning, dusk and nighttime game drives.
The game and bird viewing are some of the worlds' best here. Surrounded by wetlands, grasslands and forest, Kapinga is one of the rare places to see endangered cheetah and Kafue's remarkable tree-climbing lions. (Reputedly because of the annoying tsetse flies, lions have taken to shimmying up trees and sprawling, leopard-like, on branches.)
The personal attention given by the staff is exceptional, making this camp quintessentially romantic. Imagine a candlelit dinner on the deck of your tent, drinking South African wine, overlooking the darkened plains. Because the camp is built on elevated walkways, you needn't fear that something will pounce on you for your steak.
www.kapingacamp.com, $830 per person, per night.
IF YOU GO:
The peak season to visit Southern Africa is July - September, which is winter. But their summer, from November to March, is also a good time to go and is considerably warmer.
Rothschild Safaris, www.rothschildsafaris.com; 1-800-405-9463. I highly recommend using a specialized agent. They don't mark up the lodge prices, they have actually visited all the lodges, and they will arrange bush planes, drivers and international flights.
South African Airways has the best connecting flights to all parts of Southern Africa. They depart the US from Washington and New York direct to Johannesburg. www.flysaa.com
South Africa
The Grace Hotel, Johannesburg
For most trips, the international entry point is South Africa and you will need to overnight in Johannesburg before heading out to the camps. I recommend the Grace Hotel. Located in an elegant former consulate building in a safe suburb, the Grace is exactly as it sounds-grand on a small scale. It also has excellent food. www.thegrace.co.za. Doubles from $365