Philip Briggs
Member of the SafariBookings Expert Panel
- Country:
- South Africa
- Expert Reviews:
- 103 Reviews
- Website:
- philipbriggs.wordpress.com
Philip Briggs is a South African based travel writer with more than 20 years experience travelling in and writing about Africa. He acquired the African travel bug whilst backpacking between Nairobi and Cape Town in 1986 and has been exploring the continent on-and-off ever since. His first book was the Bradt Guide to South Africa, published in 1991, less than two years after the release of Nelson Mandela.
Over the subsequent decade, he authored a succession of pioneering Bradt Guides to destinations then uncharted by the travel publishing industry, among them the first standalone guidebooks to Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana and Rwanda. He still updates these books on a regular basis, but more recently has authored Bradt Highlights Guides to Kenya and South Africa, a Bradt guide to East African Wildlife, and a new Bradt Guide to Somaliland, published in March 2012.
He has also worked on the Insight Guides to Namibia, Tanzania, Senegal & Gambia, East African Wildlife, South Africa, Cape Town and Kenya, and various other books published by Dorling Kindersley, AA Guides, Struik/New Holland, and regularly contributes to specialist travel and wildlife magazines including Africa Birds & Birding, Africa Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Travel Africa and Wanderlust.
Philip now lives in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg region together with his wife, the travel photographer Ariadne Van Zandbergen, his son John, and three dogs and a cat.
Expert Reviews 103 – Written by Philip Briggs
- Botswana country review 4/5
The thirsty Kalahari and swampy Okavango
- Central Kalahari Game Reserve 4/5
The Great Thirstland
- Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park 4/5
Desert splendours
- Mashatu Game Reserve 5/5
Southern Africa’s best-kept game viewing secret
- Okavango Delta 5/5
Southern Africa’s greatest inland swamp
- Kenya country review 4/5
The home of the safari
- Aberdare National Park 3/5
Life in the Treetops
- Amboseli National Park 4/5
Giant tuskers in the shadow of Kilimanjaro
- Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve 3/5
Home of Kenya’s largest ‘lost city’
- Buffalo Springs National Reserve 4/5
Samburu’s southern twin
- Hell's Gate National Park 4/5
Hike or bicycle through a valley full of wildlife
- Kakamega Forest National Reserve 4/5
Kenya’s top birding site
- Kora National Park 2/5
A little visited wilderness
- Laikipia Plateau 4/5
Ranchland reclaimed for wildlife
- Lake Bogoria National Reserve 3/5
The flamingos’ holiday home
- Lake Nakuru National Park 4/5
Lake of birds and land of rhinos
- Lake Turkana 4/5
The world’s largest desert lake
- Lewa Wildlife Conservancy 4/5
Africa on horseback
- Marsabit National Park 3/5
A forested island
- Masai Mara National Reserve 5/5
Big Cat Diaries made flesh
- Meru National Park 4/5
The Phoenix park
- Nairobi National Park 3/5
A top safari experience bordering the capital
- Ol Pejeta Conservancy 4/5
Laikipia’s main tourist focus
- Saiwa Swamp National Park 4/5
Kenya’s smallest and most pedestrian friendly park
- Samburu National Reserve 4/5
A river runs through it
- Shaba National Reserve 3/5
Samburu’s wilder eastern cousin
- Shimba Hills National Reserve 3/5
Sables, squirrels and bushbabies
- Solio Ranch 3/5
Rhino overload
- Tsavo East National Park 4/5
Kenya’s largest wilderness park
- Tsavo West National Park 4/5
Kenya’s greatest wilderness park
- Malawi country review 3/5
Land of the Lake…and some wildlife too!
- Kasungu National Park 2/5
Peaceful bush retreat with low wildlife densities
- Lengwe National Park 3/5
A engaging but low-key gem for self-drivers
- Liwonde National Park 4/5
Archetypal African river setting
- Majete Wildlife Reserve 4/5
Rising star of the south
- Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve 2/5
For the hardcore only
- Nyika National Park 4/5
A hiker’s paradise
- Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserve 3/5
Super-accessible elephant and hippo viewing
- Mozambique country review 3/5
Beaches, history…and a bit of safari
- Gorongosa National Park 4/5
Mozambique’s conversation flagship
- Maputo Special Reserve 3/5
Elephant and bird nirvana
- Niassa National Reserve 4/5
As remote as it gets
- Namibia country review 4/5
Land of open spaces
- |Ai-|Ais Richtersveld Transfrontier Park 4/5
Land of the mutant plants
- Damaraland 4/5
Desert-adapted elephants and rhinos
- Etosha National Park 4/5
A photographer’s favourite
- Kaokoland 4/5
The harsh home of the enigmatic Himba
- Namib-Naukluft National Park 4/5
Gemsbok on the Dunes
- Skeleton Coast National Park 4/5
Coast of ghost-ships
- Tsau //Khaeb National Park 3/5
Namibia’s Forbidden territory
- Rwanda country review 4/5
East Africa’s phoenix state
- Akagera National Park 4/5
A resurgent gem
- Nyungwe Forest National Park 4/5
Superb forest all-rounder
- Volcanoes National Park 5/5
Gorillas in the mist
- South Africa country review 4/5
A World In One Country
- Addo Elephant National Park 4/5
Elephants up close and personal
- |Ai-|Ais Richtersveld Transfrontier Park 4/5
Land of the mutant plants
- Amakhala Game Reserve 3/5
The Big Five and the N2
- Augrabies Falls National Park 4/5
Place of Great Noise
- Camdeboo National Park 3/5
Desolate Karoo landscapes
- Djuma Game Reserve 4/5
Solid Sabi Sands favourite
- Golden Gate Highlands National Park 4/5
Cliffs of gold
- Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve 4/5
Home of the Rhino
- Ithala Game Reserve 3/5
Hill country
- Kapama Game Reserve 4/5
Home of the elephant-back safari
- Karoo National Park 3/5
Sea of fossils
- Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park 4/5
Desert splendours
- Kruger National Park 4/5
South Africa’s most iconic national park
- Kwandwe Game Reserve 4/5
The Eastern Cape’s last wilderness
- Londolozi Game Reserve 4/5
Protector of all living things
- Madikwe Game Reserve 4/5
Malaria-free Big Five viewing
- Makalali Game Reserve 3/5
Canned game viewing
- Mala Mala Game Reserve 5/5
South Africa’s top private reserve
- Mapungubwe National Park 3/5
Lost city on the Limpopo
- Mkhuze Game Reserve 4/5
Photographers paradise
- Mountain Zebra National Park 3/5
Endemics hideaway
- Phinda Game Reserve 5/5
Big Five viewing in Zululand
- Pilanesberg Game Reserve 4/5
The closest Big Five destination to Johannesburg
- Sabi Sabi Game Reserve 3/5
Stark sophistication in the bush
- Sabi Sand Game Reserve 4/5
Best for a quick Big 5 fix
- Shamwari Game Reserve 3/5
Big Five and more in the Albany thicket
- Singita Sabi Sand Game Reserve 5/5
Sabi Sands in style
- Spioenkop Game Reserve 3/5
Low-key game viewing in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg foothills
- Tembe Elephant Park 3/5
Southern Africa’s largest tuskers
- Timbavati Nature Reserve 4/5
Home of white lions
- Zulu Nyala Game Reserve 3/5
Zululand travel base
- Tanzania country review 5/5
Africa’s greatest safari destination
- Arusha National Park 4/5
Below Mount Meru
- Gombe National Park 4/5
Jane Goodall’s chimp reserve
- Katavi National Park 4/5
A forgotten wilderness
- Lake Manyara National Park 5/5
Tanzania in microcosm
- Mahale Mountains National Park 5/5
Primate Nirvana
- Mikumi National Park 4/5
An underrated gem
- Mkomazi National Park 3/5
In the shadow of Kilimanjaro
- Ngorongoro Crater 4/5
Nature’s greatest natural stage
- Ruaha National Park 5/5
The connoisseur’s choice
- Saadani National Park 3/5
Where the beach meets the bush
- Selous Game Reserve 4/5
Southern Tanzania’s ultimate wilderness
- Serengeti National Park 5/5
Plains of Plenty
- Tarangire National Park 4/5
Baobabs and elephants
- Uganda country review 4/5
Gorillas in the mist – and much else besides!
- Budongo Forest 3/5
The forgotten chimpanzee reserve
- Bwindi Impenetrable National Park 5/5
Rare birds and gorillas in the mist
- Kibale National Park 4/5
Monkey Nirvana
- Kidepo Valley National Park 4/5
Uganda’s forgotten savannah reserve
- Lake Mburo National Park 3/5
Hilly gateway to the western safari circuit
- Mgahinga Gorilla National Park 3/5
Volcanoes in the mist
- Murchison Falls National Park 4/5
Thundering waters and smirking shoebills
- Queen Elizabeth National Park 5/5
Oasis of biodiversity
- Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve 3/5
Uganda’s forgotten Valley
- Zambia country review 4/5
Adventurer’s Africa
- Kafue National Park 4/5
Africa’s largest national park
- Lower Zambezi National Park 5/5
Canoeing the mighty Zambezi
- Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park 4/5
The Smoke That Thunders
- South Luangwa National Park 4/5
Africa’s best night drives
- Zimbabwe country review 4/5
Adrenaline capital of southern Africa
- Hwange National Park 5/5
Zimbabwe’s top all-round safari destination
- Matobo National Park 4/5
Land of giant boulders
- Nyanga National Park 3/5
Rhodes’s former estate in the Eastern Highlands
- Zambezi National Park 4/5
The southern side of Victoria Falls:
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