February 11, 2022
South Africa’s parks and private game reserves are not only filled with the country’s “Big Five” wild animals, they also boast some of the world’s most respected and remarkable safari hotels.
The safari as we know it today was developed in Africa throughout the 1900s. But it was only toward the end of the century, on the land in and around South Africa’s famed Kruger National Park, that the modern luxury safari began to take shape. That area, along with other game reserves in the country, are a haven for Africa’s Big Five — elephant, lion, rhino, leopard, buffalo — and a breeding ground for the types of hotels we like to see protected and cherished nearly as much as those amazing animals: unique, purpose-built, slightly indulgent accommodations that exist best in the place they were born.
On a safari, you get up close and personal with exotic wildlife. How much you’d like to maintain that intimacy back at your safari hotel is entirely up to you. Intrepid travelers might relish being roused in the middle of the night by the rustling of leaves and the scraping of canvas as an unknown creature saunters by the outside of their tent. Others might opt for taking a few steps back from all that realness, preferring instead a less immersive slumber a little higher off the ground. You know what we’re going to say next: On Tablet, we’ve got options to meet either taste.
