What to do and where to stay in the South Luangwa

Extraordinary Africa>Zambia>South Luangwa

The South Luangwa is Zambia’s best known national park, and offers some of the finest game viewing in the country.  The mighty Luangwa River is the lifeblood of the park. Crocs bake on shallow sandbanks, hippos yawn in the light of the setting sun and great colonies of carmine bee-eaters flutter in and out of the riverbank.

In the surrounding bush, families of elephants can be see wandering from lagoon to lagoon, leopards lounge in the sausage trees, and lionesses teach their young to hunt the buffalo herds.  The South Luangwa is the place to do walking safaris in Africa,  almost every camp offers them as well as (or often instead of) game drives, and they’re a great way to get a true sense of the sights, sounds, and smells of the bush.

In general, accommodation in the South Luangwa is fairly rustic- rooms are often partially open, bathrooms are outdoors, and there’s as little as possible to stop you from making the most of nature. Guests generally travel with one safari company, staying in their main lodge (often near to the main Mfuwe Gate) and one or more satellite camps deeper into the South Luangwa National Park. They all have different feels, so we’ll guide you towards the one we think will suit you best.

Where to stay in the South Luangwa?

If you don’t see a lodge you want to know about here, please ask us. There are plenty more we’ve personally inspected and we’re adding them all as soon as we write them up, but we write slowly!