BOTSWANA

In Chobe National Park, on the border with Namibia, you can board a boat and cruise past water buffalo, elephants, hippos and crocodiles before your evening sundowner. In the remote Central Kalahari Game Reserve, black-maned lions, ostriches, wild dogs, giraffes and cheetahs may be among the sightings on a bush walk with a San guide. On the parched sands and saltpans of Makgadikgadi National Park, meerkats are a highlight, and you can witness the “other” (and longer) great migration as 25,000 zebras tramp around 300 miles through the desert from Namibia.

Biodiverse and beautiful, Botswana is blessed with brilliant guides, luxury lodges and sightings of everything from jackals to rare pangolins. The Okavango Delta, flooded from May to October, provides opportunities for safaris by boat or dugout canoe (makoro), as well as game drives in amphibious 4x4 vehicles. Chief’s Island, within the unfenced Moremi Game Reserve, is a prime spot for lions and leopards.