For decades, luxury safari sold access: dawn game drives, leopard sightings in marula trees, sundowners against a burning horizon. Now, for a certain kind of traveler, access means something else entirely. It means paying not simply to see wildlife — but to help keep it alive.
Across parts of South Africa, a new form of ultra-premium conservation tourism is emerging in which guests contribute substantial sums — often around US$15,000 on top of the cost …
If you ever want to visit a place where geology, history, and human stubbornness have conspired to produce something improbably charming, go to Kalk Bay. Wedged—almost accidentally—between a mountain that scowls like a Victorian schoolmaster and a sea that shrugs with ancient indifference, it is a village that smells exactly as a fishing village should: salt spray, drying kelp, and—delightfully—fresh cinnamon bread. It’s the sort of place you wander into, fall hopelessly in love with, …
Set within the dramatic sandstone folds of the Waterberg, Marataba Game Lodges—part of the MORE Collection—offer a compelling case study in conservation-led hospitality. Located within a privately managed concession of Marakele National Park, this 23,000-hectare partnership model has become one of South Africa’s most successful examples of ecological restoration driven by tourism.
A Wilderness Restored
Two decades ago, this corner of the Waterberg was ecologically fragile. Today, through a long-term collaboration between Marataba Game Lodges, …
In any of the world’s great travel destinations, it’s impossible to cover the best things to see and do in one trip. It becomes a matter of making tough choices from among the many possibilities to try to fit the best things you can into the limited span of time of a vacation.
Last May, when I attended Africa’s Travel Indaba, the trade show held annually in Durban, South Africa, I had the opportunity to …
The Eastern Cape province of South Africa is an up-and-coming area for safaris. While Kruger National Park, in the eastern part of the country, was set aside to protect wildlife in 1898, the development of the Eastern Cape as a safari area has only been taking hold in the last few decades. The area had previously been made into farmland by farmers who drove out the big predators that would have feasted on their livestock …
