Best Of

Loved this trip! I have no idea why there are so few posts about it compared to the other southern Africa tours. We took this trip in June.

&Beyond Ngala Safari Lodge was our favorite safari lodge where we were able to go off road so we had closer encounters with the animals and unlike Chobe, there were only a few vehicles in the reserve. In my opinion Chobe had far too many vehicles covering the same area of the national park near the river. Five favorite encounters during our six game drives in Ngala's Reserve that come to mind were seeing several white rhinos, viewing a pride of 28 lions with cubs of all ages eating a Cape Buffalo the pride had killed, a leopard patiently waiting to eat some of an impala she had killed that two hyenas took from her before she could get it up a tree, watching a lion family of five, especially the three young cubs for quite a while as the only vehicle around and seeing a pangolin.

Clothing: It's best to dress in neutral safari colors and layers. They don't want anyone to wear white on safari. When we went in June, it was cold before sunrise and it quickly cooled off after sunset. I wore a black windproof/waterproof outer shell jacket with a liner and had a light pair of gloves, a hat, and a buff for dust on safari and the buff really came in handy when they sprayed inside the planes. Chobe had blankets and Ngala had blankets and hot water bottles in the vehicles. While in Cape Town and for our stays in Doha and Johannesburg before the Tauck tour began, I wore clothes I would wear in any city and to dinner in nicer hotels.

Tips: All tips were covered by Tauck, except for the TD. She asked for payment in US cash or electronically by Venmo or Zelle. Your TD may differ. She sent us an email before the trip with details about clothing, laundry, tipping, weather, plastic bags, etc., which was greatly appreciated.

Luggage: The one checked bag is a rolling duffel, 30 x 15 x 14 with a 44 lb limit. I used packing cubes to keep everything organized. For our trip we were allowed to bring a personal bag and a small carry-on. A rolling carryon was fine as long as it was small and not normal carryon size. Think rolling underseat bag or rolling backpack.

Cameras: We used our iPhones for landscapes and 100-400mm lenses on our primary cameras. A hassle to carry, but the photos we took are worth the hassle and will look great on our walls.

Flights: Of our three flights on the tour, only one of our flights was on a small plane and they used two Pilatus PC-12s for 12 people. Loved landing at Ngala's private airstrip and not having to deal with an airport.

Visa: For Zimbabwe a double visa is necessary. For our trip we needed a single and a double visa, because we flew into Zimbabwe and then crossed the border and stayed in Zambia a few days before the tour began to go on safari in Zambia, including a walking tour with 2 guides to see the guarded rhinos in the rhino sanctuary and to view Victoria Falls multiple times from the Zambia side.

Comfort: To me comfortable shoes and clothes are a must for any trip, but my main comfort items are my iPad and AirPods. I wear scleral lenses so on safari my comfort items are eye drops, a buff, wrap-around sunglasses and lip balm. Lighting is not the best in the safari lodges, so if we go on another safari, I will add a head lamp to my list of items to take.