A safari is a great idea for a vacation, as it can provide the perfect balance between adventure and relaxation. Tourists can enjoy game drives, horse rides, camping, walking tours, hot air balloon rides, and cycling trips. They can watch the wildlife and birdlife and visit indigenous villages. Safari vacations can also be very enriching and educational experiences, as tourists can learn about different cultures, species, and landscapes and have an unforgettable tour. Here are the best safari parks and destinations for tourists to visit in 2022/23.
- Serengeti National Park
Serengeti National Park is one of the most famous safari parks in East Africa. Here, tourists can find amazing wildlife, including animals such as lions, leopards, cheetahs, wildebeests, elephants, gazelles, rhinos, zebras, giraffes, hippos, monkeys, antelopes, hyenas, and crocodiles. One can also enjoy bird watching as the park is home to hornbills, starlings, weavers, herons, spurfowl, weavers, and woodpeckers! Tourists can enjoy camping, walking safaris, a hot air balloon ride, horse ride safaris, or a game drive to explore the spectacular park!
- Maasai Mara
Maasai Mara National Reserve is one of the largest safari parks in Kenya, as it spans over 1500 square kilometres. The park is home to glorious animals such as lions, leopards, cheetahs, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, buffaloes, elephants, hippos, rhinos, bushbucks, hartebeests, aardvarks, foxes and wildebeests, which can be seen crossing the Mara River during the Great Migration.
- Arusha National Park
Another one of Tanzania’s famous safari destinations is the stunning Arusha National Park, where tourists can find buffaloes, gazelles, hyenas, elephants, giraffes, zebras, buffaloes, monkeys, hippos, warthogs, and apes! They can go to a number of stunning locations such as Ngurdoto Crater, Mount Meru, and Mount Kilimanjaro, where they can enjoy hiking and trekking. They can also go to Lake Duluti and the beautiful Momella lakes for boat rides and birdwatching.
- Amboseli National Park
One of the most famous and renowned parks in Kenya is Amboseli National Park, which is special because of its view of Mount Kilimanjaro. Home to 50 mammal species, and more than 400 bird species, it is a great location for spotting wild dogs, lions, zebras, leopards, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants, and crocodiles.
- Selous Game Reserve
At Selous Game Reserve, visitors can relish a game drive or wildlife safari during which they can find animals such as lions, elephants, buffaloes, crocodiles, wildebeests, zebras, leopards, cheetahs, giraffes, hyenas, hippos, rhinos, jackals, and monkeys. Bird watching is excellent here, as the park has 350 species of birds as its inhabitants, which include lapwings, kingfishers, kestrels, herons, and eagles, as well as a number of beautiful migratory birds.
- Volcanoes National Park
Volcanoes National Park is also known as Parc National des Volcans and is located in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda. It is an ideal spot for gorilla trekking, which entails a 1-2 hour hike to get to the gorilla’s natural habitat. The path can be muddy and surrounded by dense vegetation, but the trek is not too challenging. The mountain gorilla is beautiful and observing it in its own habitat without causing it any harm is a surreal and unforgettable experience.
- Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Bwindi National Park is a stunning national park in Uganda. It is stunning as it is surrounded by hills covered in rainforests that date back to more than 25,000 years old. The forest is home to over 400 species of plants, and around 50% of the world’s gorilla population. Visitors can go for gorilla trekking, where they climb up the slopes to find gorillas and primates in their natural habitat!
- Nairobi National Park
Nairobi National Park is one of Kenya’s top rated safari parks. It is excellent for wildlife viewing as tourists can spot lions, cheetahs, gazelles, zebras, warthogs, giraffes, and rhinos, as well as 400 species of birds, including ostriches, herons, fiscals, and lapwings! The park is also considered a rhinoceros sanctuary as it is home to over 50 rhinos, which are a critically endangered species.