Superlative · savannas & safari
The 7 Most Beautiful Safari Parks & Savannas in Africa
7 places · every one real, mapped, and worth the trip
The African savanna is the landscape wildlife was made for — endless golden plains and flat-topped acacias where the greatest gatherings of large animals left on Earth still play out: migrations a million strong, elephant herds, and the predators that follow them.
This is our editors' pick of the most beautiful safari parks and savannas in Africa. It isn't a strict ranking, but each is a real, mapped park with an honest guide to reaching it and the season that shows its wildlife at its best.
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Serengeti The great migration
Northern Tanzania
Tanzania's endless plains, stage for the largest land migration on Earth as millions of wildebeest and zebra sweep across the grass.
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Akagera National Park The comeback park
Eastern Province, Rwanda
Rwandan savanna and papyrus wetland where lions returned in 2015 and rhinos from 2017, making it the country's only Big Five park.
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Masai Mara Big-cat country
Narok County, southwestern Kenya
The Kenyan half of the Serengeti ecosystem, famous for lion, cheetah, and the dramatic river crossings of the migration.
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Amboseli National Park Elephants & Kilimanjaro
Kajiado County, southern Kenya, on the Tanzanian border
Great herds of big-tusked elephants crossing dusty plains beneath the snow-capped dome of Kilimanjaro — the definitive image of wild Africa.
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Etosha Pan
Northern Namibia
A vast, shimmering salt pan in Namibia ringed by waterholes where wildlife gathers in the dry season against a bleached-white horizon.
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Kruger National Park
Mpumalanga & Limpopo, South Africa
South Africa's flagship park, one of the continent's largest and most accessible, home to the full Big Five across varied bushveld.
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Tarangire National Park
Manyara Region, Northern Tanzania
A quieter Tanzanian park of ancient baobabs and huge elephant herds gathered along its life-giving river in the dry season.
Safari is a game of season and light: the dry months concentrate animals at water and thin the bush, while the green rains scatter game but bring newborns and birds. Dawn and dusk are prime for predators. Each guide notes the best time to go and how to get there.
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