Queen Elizabeth National Park

Inyati Game Lodge occupies a private concession on the banks of the Sand River in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, one of the older and more personal operations in a reserve now dominated by large groups.

The riverine forest here is prime leopard habitat, and the concession’s traversing rights permit off-road driving and night drives that are not allowed inside Kruger itself. Game drives are run by a ranger and tracker working as a pair, with the tracker reading spoor from a seat mounted ahead of the bonnet.

Macatoo Camp sits on a private concession in the western Okavango Delta and is built entirely around riding. Guests explore the floodplains on horseback, moving at a pace and silence no vehicle can manage, and often getting far closer to plains game as a result.

The riding is genuinely demanding — guests need to be competent and comfortable at a canter, since the ability to move quickly matters around big game. For non-riders and rest days the camp also runs mokoro trips, walking safaris and conventional game drives.

The Peermont Mondior sits within the Emperors Palace complex at Kempton Park, a few minutes from OR Tambo International Airport, and exists primarily to solve the problem of Johannesburg’s long-haul connections.

A 24-hour shuttle runs to the terminals, and the surrounding resort holds restaurants, a casino, a theatre and a spa, which makes an enforced overnight considerably less tedious than it would otherwise be. Rooms are quiet despite the proximity to the runways.

Lekkerwater Beach Lodge sits directly on the shoreline within De Hoop Nature Reserve, on a stretch of coast that was formerly a private presidential retreat and is now the only accommodation of its kind inside the reserve boundary.

Seven rooms face the Indian Ocean across dune and fynbos, close enough that southern right whales can be watched from the beds between June and November. The surrounding marine protected area is regarded as the finest land-based whale watching anywhere in the world.

The Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront occupies a position on the Atlantic shoreline at Granger Bay, immediately alongside the V&A Waterfront, with most rooms facing directly onto the sea.

It is a full-service hotel rather than a boutique one, with an infinity pool set at the water’s edge, several dining options and reliable business facilities. The location works particularly well for travellers wanting Waterfront access without staying inside the shopping precinct itself.

Sanctuary Sussi & Chuma sits on the banks of the Zambezi inside Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, upstream of Victoria Falls, with twelve stilted treehouse suites linked by raised timber walkways through ebony forest.

The lodge takes its name from David Livingstone’s two companions, who carried his body to the coast after his death. Two private houses sit alongside the main camp, and the river frontage draws elephant, hippo and prolific birdlife within view of the decks.

The Silo Hotel occupies the upper floors of a 1920s grain elevator on Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, converted by Thomas Heatherwick in the same project that carved the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa out of the storage tubes below.

Its defining feature is the glazing: bulging, pillowed windows cut into the concrete grid, each pane bowed outward so the rooms catch Table Mountain, the harbour and the Atlantic from different angles. Interiors are deliberately maximalist against the industrial shell, and the rooftop pool and bar look straight across the working docks.

The Kempinski Seychelles Resort occupies a hillside above Baie Lazare on Mahé’s quieter south-western coast, with landscaped grounds running down to a sheltered stretch of beach.

It is a larger, full-service property than most Seychelles accommodation, with several restaurants, a substantial spa and a children’s club, which makes it one of the more practical choices on Mahé for families and multi-generational groups.

The Mount Meru Hotel sits in landscaped grounds in Arusha, the town that functions as the staging post for Tanzania’s entire northern safari circuit, with the slopes of Mount Meru rising behind it on clear mornings.

It is a full-service city hotel rather than a lodge, with conference facilities, a large pool and several restaurants, and its role for most travellers is a comfortable first or last night either side of the drive or flight into the parks.

Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge sits along a ridge in the central Serengeti, its rooms built as clustered rondavels in a style drawn from traditional African village architecture, each looking out across the plains below.

The central location places it within reach of the Seronera valley, the most reliably game-rich area of the park year-round and particularly strong for lion, leopard and cheetah. An infinity pool on the ridge edge looks straight out over the grassland.