African national parks

Many of these parks are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. They can be visited for safaris, to see the African flora and fauna.

See Safaris for practical information about outdoor trips in Africa.

Botswana

• 🌍 Central Kalahari Game Reserve - located in the Kalahari desert
• 🌍 Chobe National Park
• 🌍 Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
• 🌍 Makgadikgadi Pans National Park
• 🌍 Moremi National Park - in the heart of the Okavango Delta

Central African Republic

• 🌍 Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park

Democratic Republic of the Congo

• 🌍 Garamba National Park
• 🌍 Virunga National Park

Ethiopia

• 🌍 Abijatta Shalla Lakes National Park
• 🌍 Awash National Park
• 🌍 Bale Mountains National Park
• 🌍 Mago National Park
• 🌍 Nechisar National Park
• 🌍 Omo National Park
• 🌍 Simien National Park — stunning mountain scenery and important wildlife populations in Ethiopia
• 🌍 Yangudi Rassa National Park

Kenya

• 🌍 Aberdare National Park
• 🌍 Amboseli National Park
• 🌍 Lake Nakuru National Park
• 🌍 Meru National Park
• 🌍 Mount Elgon National Park
• 🌍 Nairobi National Park
• 🌍 Samburu National Park
• 🌍 Sibiloi National Park
• 🌍 Tsavo East National Park
• 🌍 Tsavo West National Park

Lesotho

Black rhinoceros and giraffe in Etosha National Park, Namibia

• 🌍 Sehlabathebe National Park — remote mountain reserve great for hiking with rare wildlife, impressive waterfalls, and ancient rock paintings and stone shelters

Malawi

• 🌍 Kasungu National Park
• 🌍 Lake Malawi National Park
• 🌍 Lengwe National Park
• 🌍 Liwonde National Park
• 🌍 Nyika National Park — large highland national park in Malawi

Mozambique

• 🌍 Gorongosa National Park
• 🌍 Limpopo National Park

Namibia

• 🌍 Ai-Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park - including the Fish River Canyon Park
• 🌍 Bwabwata National Park — Composed by ex "Caprivi Game Park" and ex "Mahango Game Reserve".
• 🌍 Etosha National Park — Abundant wildlife in the "big white place"
• 🌍 Fish River Canyon Park — The second largest canyon in the world.
• 🌍 Khaudum National Park — Maybe the most remote of all Namibian national parks, known for its tourist-terrorising elephants
• 🌍 Mudumu National Park
• 🌍 Namib-Naukluft National Park — contains the famous Sossusvlei valley and the world's highest dunes
• 🌍 Nkasa Lupala National Park
• 🌍 Skeleton Coast National Park
• 🌍 Waterberg Plateau Park — Another good place to watch wildlife.

Rwanda

• 🌍 Akagera National Park
• 🌍 Volcanoes National Park — in Rwanda is full of impressive rainforest and volcanic scenery of the Virunga Mountains, and is perhaps the best place in the world to see rare mountain gorillas. Also crosses into Uganda where it is known as Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

South Africa

South African Parks

South African national parks are administrated by SANParks .

• 🌍 Addo Elephant National Park
• 🌍 Agulhas National Park
• 🌍 Ai-Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park
• 🌍 Augrabies Falls National Park
• 🌍 Bontebok National Park
• 🌍 Camdeboo National Park
• 🌍 Golden Gate Highlands National Park
• 🌍 Karoo National Park
• 🌍 Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
• 🌍 Knysna National Lake Area
• 🌍 Kruger National Park
• 🌍 Mapungubwe National Park
• 🌍 Marakele National Park
• 🌍 Mokala National Park
• 🌍 Mountain Zebra National Park
• 🌍 Namaqua National Park
• 🌍 Table Mountain National Park
• 🌍 Tankwa Karoo National Park
• 🌍 Tsitsikamma National Park
• 🌍 West Coast National Park
• 🌍 Wilderness National Park

National parks administrated by KZNwildlife (selection):

• 🌍 Hluhluwe–iMfolozi Park

Wild Card

A daily conservation fee is charged at all National Parks in South Africa, both for day visitors and visitors booking into accommodation in the parks. Should you plan an extended stay within the National Parks it may be cheaper to obtain a Wild Card. The Wild Card is valid for 1 year from the date of purchase and allows access to all SANParks, Cape Nature provincial parks (Western Cape), Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife provincial parks (KwaZulu-Natal), Msinsi private parks and some big game parks in Eswatini (Swaziland) without having to pay the daily conservation fee.

eSwatini (Swaziland)

• 🌍 Hlane Royal National Park - known for its rhinos

Tanzania

An augur buzzard spreads its wings to take flight in Serengeti National Park

• 🌍 Arusha National Park
• 🌍 Gombe National Park
• 🌍 Kilimanjaro National Park
• 🌍 Lake Manyara National Park
• 🌍 Mahale Mountains
• 🌍 Mikumi National Park
• 🌍 Mkomazi Game Reserve
• 🌍 Ngorongoro Conservancy
• 🌍 Ruaha National Park
• 🌍 Rubondo Island National Park
• 🌍 Serengeti National Park — huge national park in Tanzania, perhaps the archetypal African game park; becomes the Maasai Mara National Reserve over the border in Kenya
• 🌍 Selous Game Reserve
• 🌍 Tarangire National Park

Uganda

• Kabelaga National Park
• 🌍 Kidepo Valley National Park
• 🌍 Murchison Falls National Park
• 🌍 Queen Elizabeth National Park
• 🌍 Rwenzori National Park — home of the almost mythical, otherworldly scenery of the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda

Zambia

• 🌍 Blue Lagoon National Park — very accessible, with lechwe, zebra and buffalo
• 🌍 Kafue National Park — largest national park of the country
• 🌍 Lavushi Manda National Park
• 🌍 Liuwa plains National Park
• 🌍 Lochinvar National Park — excellent for bird watching
• 🌍 Lower Zambezi National Park
• 🌍 Luambe National Park — used to be the president's private game reserve, now pristine wilderness without mass tourism
• 🌍 Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park
• 🌍 Nsumbu National Park — used to be very popular in the 1970s but has declined in the last decades
• 🌍 North Luangwa National Park — one of Africa's great safari destinations
• 🌍 Nyika National Park
• 🌍 South Luangwa National Park
• 🌍 Victoria Falls — one of the world's largest waterfalls

Zimbabwe

• 🌍 Gonarezhou National Park