Typically, Southern African countries include: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), and Lesotho.

The best time to visit Southern Africa is during the dry season, which generally spans from May to October. This period offers ideal weather conditions and excellent opportunities for wildlife spotting, as animals congregate around water sources.

Southern Africa is incredibly linguistically diverse, with a wide range of languages spoken throughout the region – there are eleven official languages in South Africa alone!

The most common languages spoken across the southern African region include: English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Shona, Portuguese and Tswana.

Fortunately, English is widely spoken as a first or second language in many Southern African countries so travellers should be able to converse with the locals.

Tap water safety can vary across different countries and regions within Southern Africa, so it's essential to check the specific location you plan to visit. In some urban areas and well-developed regions, tap water may be safe to drink, while in others, it may not be advisable to consume tap water without treatment.

We highly recommend that you bring a water bottle with an inbuilt filter such as a Water-to-Go bottle, to allow you to drink the water across the Southern African region.

Before embarking on a safari, we highly recommend that you invest in a good pair of binoculars to bring with you. We recommend you bring binoculars with 8x or 10x magnification to get the greatest chance of spotting some beautiful creatures on your wildlife adventure.

You may also like to bring a camera with a good lens on your safari to capture the incredible experience - you’ll generally want a camera with around 100-400mm lens and a high fps.