Set within the wild confines of Kruger National Park, Sabi Sand promises some of the finest wildlife-watching in South Africa. Seasoned safari-goers spend their days watching leopards snooze from the branches or waiting patiently for an elephant herd to trundle down to the riverbed, before returning to some of the most opulent lodges in the country, trading tales beneath immense, star-laden skies as the trilling, night-time melodies of the bush recommence. 

The local Lozi name it the “Smoke that Thunders”: a wholly fitting epithet for Africa’s liquid marvel, where the Zambezi River roars 300ft down a chasm on its zigzagging course between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The world’s greatest sheet of falling water is an epic sight, its power and beauty unrivalled, a place rich in wildlife and geological history, where ancient basalt rock is drenched beneath those famous mists, curling up from the gorge like the soul of the river itself. 

Forever shapeshifting beneath the sun, the Okavango is Africa’s mercurial wonder, a flooded paradise where rivulets run like cheetahs, oxbow lakes lie still and serene, and islets come and go with the tides. Unlike most deltas, the waters of the Okavango never reach the sea, as if guarded jealously by the land. And what treasures it hoards: from prowling lions and vast herds of wildebeest to hundreds of species of birds, wading and watching from the water’s edge.

Stand atop Table Mountain and see fertile seams of natural beauty threading through the city below, from the fynbos-covered hills of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens to the soul-melting sunsets of Lion’s Head and the sands of Boulders Beach, home to thousands of African penguins. Down by the docks, the chic V&A Waterfront is hosts the Zeitz MOCCA, the largest collection of contemporary African art in the world, while the food and wine across melting pot Bo-Kaap and trendy Woodstock are an artform themselves.