Africa

Africa is a bucket-list trip for a lot of people and it lives up to it. What most people need first is a way to narrow it down, because four very different trips sit under one continent. A safari is the most expensive travel format in the world, priced per person rather than per room, and with children two questions come before all others: how old they are, and whether the trip has to be malaria-free. The Cape Winelands are the best value wine country anywhere and forty-five minutes from Cape Town. Mozambique is the beach half of a southern Africa trip and should almost never be booked on its own.

Safari

Safari lodges are the most closely rationed travel product there is, and with children the rationing is by age. Sort that out first, because it eliminates most of the options before you've compared a single photograph. Our guide to the best family safari hotels in Africa, by age works through the whole thing by age band rather than by country, which is how the decision actually gets made.

The Cape Winelands

Forty-five minutes from Cape Town, and the best-value wine country in the world. Estates with three hundred years of history, hotels that would be internationally famous if they were in Tuscany, and tastings that cost about four dollars. We came here on our honeymoon, paired with a safari, and it's the part of the trip we talk about most. The first decision is which town.Our guide to the best hotels in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek covers all of it, including the one hotel that sits on the pass between the two towns with a view over both valleys.

Mozambique

The best beaches in southern Africa, and the right way to end a safari. Mozambique has 2,500 kilometres of Indian Ocean coastline split across three regions that differ so much in access and cost that treating the country as one destination gets you the wrong trip. Almost everyone should be looking at the Bazaruto Archipelago in the south. Five islands off Vilanculos inside a marine national park, an hour's flight from Johannesburg, with dunes, sandbanks that come and go with the tide, and the last viable dugong population in East Africa. Humpbacks pass through between July and October. Our guide to the best hotels in Mozambique has the full list and the honest position on the north. The classic trip is four or five nights in the Sabi Sand or greater Kruger, then a short flight to Vilanculos and four or five on Benguerra. Safari first, beach second. The two halves complement each other precisely and doing them in that order is the right way round.

Morocco

The easiest luxury destination to reach from Europe and the best value on this site. Three hours from London or Paris, and a country where you can spend one night in a palace, one in a courtyard house down an alley too narrow for a car, and one in a tent on a dune, all in the same week. Our guide to the 10 dreamiest hotels in Morocco covers all of it, from Royal Mansour to a kasbah in a palm grove where there are no menus and dinner appears somewhere different every night. ‍

Namibia

This desert country is stunningly beautiful, but can feel desolate. The best lodges embrace the isolation. Our list of best hotels in Namibia can be found here.

Seychelles

The Seychelles are Africa's great island escape. They're a scatter of granite and coral islands in the Indian Ocean, with some of the most beautiful beaches on earth, huge boulders framing turquoise water, and jungle-covered peaks rising straight behind the sand. It's quieter and wilder than the Maldives, with far more to explore on land.

The Seychelles also pair naturally with a safari. Connections via Nairobi, Dubai, Doha, and Addis Ababa make it an easy beach finish after a week in the bush. April, May, October, and November are usually the best months, with calm seas and the clearest water between the seasonal trade winds.

For where to stay, see our guide to the best hotels in the Seychelles.

Best time to visit Africa

‍Safari, southern Africa. May through October is the dry season and the best game viewing, because the bush thins out and animals concentrate around water. July through September is peak. The green season from November to April is cheaper, greener, and harder for spotting.

Safari, east Africa. June through October and January through February. The Great Migration river crossings in the Masai Mara run roughly July through October, which is the single most sought-after window in African travel and needs booking a year ahead.

The Cape Winelands. October and November are our pick, with everything green and thinner crowds before the Christmas rush. February through April is harvest, the most interesting time to be on an estate and also the busiest. December and January are peak when South Africans holiday. Winter, June through August, is wet and cold and much cheaper, and the estates light their fireplaces.

Mozambique. April through October, which lines up with the southern African safari season and is the main reason to go then. July through October adds the humpbacks. November through March is hot and wet with a real cyclone risk from January, several lodges close, and we wouldn't book it.

Morocco. March through May and September through November, with April and October the two best months. June through August regularly passes 40°C in Marrakech and the desert is dangerous in the middle of the day.

Cape Town, if you're combining a safari with a city, is best November through March, which is the opposite of the safari season further north. Plan around that rather than being caught by it.

When to book

Safari lodges in the Migration window book close to a year ahead. Mozambique's island lodges are small, several have fewer than twenty rooms, and the July to October window fills six months out. The Winelands need four to five months for December and January and three for harvest, but the rest of the year is often available inside six weeks and winter inside two. Morocco is the most forgiving, though Marrakech at Christmas and New Year is not.

Which African trip is right for you

‍Choose a safari if the wildlife is the reason you're going and the budget can absorb per-person all-inclusive rates. Best with children over six, and over twelve if you want walking safaris in the mix.

Choose a malaria-free South African safari if you have young children. It's the only version of this trip that works properly under six, and the Eastern Cape and Waterberg lodges are built for it.

Choose the Cape Winelands if you want the best value in luxury travel right now, you're already going to Cape Town, or you want a soft landing either side of a safari. Also the easiest of these trips to do well on a shorter stay.

Choose Mozambique if you're finishing a safari and want a beach, or you want the best coastline in southern Africa. Don't choose it as a standalone long-haul beach trip. There are closer beaches that cost less.

Choose Morocco if you want a short-haul luxury trip, the best value on this site, or a first trip to Africa that doesn't require a year of planning and a five-figure budget.

Choose a combination if you have three weeks. Safari and Mozambique is the classic. Safari and the Winelands is the better one for a first trip, because Cape Town anchors it.