Fantastic park, great to see the animals up so close
Stayed at Flat Dogs Camp for about 4 days, and found it a great location to explore the park as it was very close to one of the entrances. The camp is open, therefore elephants, monkeys and hippos wander through quite a lot, so you can sometimes get a great view from the swimming pool. Our guide took us in using an open land rover, and knew all the sites where the animals would be located. This meant we got to see the lions quickly, which would have been impossible if we had tried to do it ourselves. Later, he and another guide took us walking in a section of the park (precautions were taken of course!!!) and described the various animals, tracks, and vegetation that could be seen. We used out own vehicle the following days, dividing the park into sections we wanted to visit as it was too big to do in one day. Was great just to be able to go where you wanted though don't advise getting stuck in the sand! Flat Dogs camp had great accomodation, good choice of food, bar, pool, and offered guided tours - definately recommended.
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Email Ryan | under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
because, i liked it.
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Email Naghirah | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Everything was real u see the wildlife, the vegetation so green the waters so blue which makes the scenery beautiful
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Email AS | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent experience!
We used Luciano Tours and Travels to book our vacation and everything was fantastic. They were even able to help with some immigration issues and were very good about checking in with us to make sure everything was going smoothly. Zambia is a beautiful country, Livingstone and the Falls is always a pleasure and cannot say enough good things about South Luangwa national park. Highly recommend!
Packed with wildlife
South Luangwa was an excellent choice. We stayed at Kafunta River Lodge which was very nice. They have a photo hide which nobody else was using so it was my own private retreat where I got some great photos of the animals at the watering hole. The game drives in the park were led by excellent guide trackers. We saw lions and at least 7 different leopards, in addition to the elephants, giraffes, zebras, buffalo, crocodiles, hippos, etc. We also saw quite a few birds, including the bee eater. No need to trek from place to place every other day when you can see so much right here. Highly recommended.
Email Shivakumar | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Relatively few tourists compared to other African countries
Game viewing easily matches the best parks on the African continent
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Email catherina unger | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Zambia for me is one of the best safari destination overall. Few tourists, great accommodations, wonderful wildlife, very well trained guides, wonderful nature. Only the infrastructure (moving between the national parks) is a bit complicated. There are no direct flight options between the parks (as there are in Tansania for example). You have always to return to Lusaka which is less fun...
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
This was our second trip to Zambia (both to South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi)We love the Zambian people, the excellent wild life viewing, the walking safaris, the lack of vehicles (except around the Mfuwe area/gateway to park), and the excellent camps (Kaingo, Mwamba, Sausage Tree and Potato Bush Camps)
A Valley lost in Time
The Luangwa Valley in south-eastern Zambia is all but lost when talking about the most popular tourist destinations in Africa. Few people outside of Safari enthusiasts and back-packing adventurers had ever visited the place before the late 1990's, and in that fact lies it wonders and its charm. The valley is small by African standards being only 482 km long and 120 km at its widest point. It is situated at the southern tip of one of the spurs of the Great African Rift.
In places where the rift formed land on both sides began to slump. Just such a depression formed the Luangwa Valley and isolated it from the outside world by means of steep hills and daunting cliffs. For centuries its very inaccessibility guarded a vast wilderness where wild animals thrived and few people visited.
The Luangwa Valley is one of the few really wild places left in Africa. It has high concentrations, and a wide variety of wild animals.
If you have ever wanted to visit a wild and wondrous place that you thought no longer existed, go to the South Luangwa National Park. You will find it is an experience that you can connect with, in a deeper sense, and as with me, it will keep calling you back; back to a vast wilderness where today animals roam the land much like they did when our ancestors walked the earth.
I've traveled the world a lot, but still my experience did not prepare me for a place like this – a place where hippopotamus came up from the river at four in the morning to eat the sweet grass outside my bedroom window, a place where wild lions watched me watching them from only a few feet away, a place where there are no bars or restrictions, except common sense, between you and these totally wild animals. I was not only a guest of Norman Carr Safaris, but of this truly remarkable place and its wildlife. I felt honored and privileged to be there. It was exhilarating to ride and walk among them as they continue to roam, with little or no fear of humans.
My first task was finding a safari outfit to which I was willing to entrust my life. This adventure would not be a concession ride, nor would it be a zoo. This, I was hoping, would be the real thing! As it turned out, I need not have worried. Most Safari operations in the area are small. Wholesale tourism has yet to invade this little corner of the world.
For me one operator, Norman Carr Safaris, stood out from all the rest. On its Web Site http://www.normancarrsafaris.com/ I read the history of how they got started and was impressed with Norman Carr’s philosophy and vision. Living in the valley most of his life he was appointed one of the areas first Game Rangers. He believed that there was a special appeal to walking the bush. Safari the Old Way was what it was called, and its success in the Luangwa Valley was due in no small part to the man who has been called "the father of the non-consumptive walking safari". Bush drives are great but you are only and "observer" of Nature. When you walk the bush (not some carefully selected path) you are a "participant" with Nature!
Eco-tourism is supposed to be a new concept, but Norman Carr was doing it more that 50 years ago. He strongly believed in sharing the profits of his enterprise directly with the indigenous peoples of the region, to help them become self-sustaining and provide an alternative to illegal poaching.
Norman Carr Safaris offer the variety of a luxury safari lodge and a selection of five authentic and wonderfully appointed bushcamps. All the guides are indiginous and a number of them, still there, were personally trained by Norman Carr himself.
The Luangwa Valley is a place where time, for time’s sake, is meaningless except to know when it was time to leave, and wishing you could stay just a little bit longer. It is said that if you ever find a place like this, you will always go back. I could not understand that statement or pull such a place exerts on something deep inside you, until I went there. I still don’t fully understand it but I can tell you it is there today, whispering in my ear, calling me back!
The first time I visited the Luangwa Valley was in March of 2007 during the birding season when the birds were displaying their colorful mating plumage. I went back in June of 2008, right before winter set in. Everything was still green and the animals were plentiful. I plan to return in 2012.
Some of the best game-veiwing in the world and some of the most amazing lodges
Having visited North and South Luangwa parks several times I can say that they are some of my favourites in south and east Africa.
The north and the south have very different characters and are run very differently. The south has more accommodation options and a greater network of trails and is more vistited but has such an incredible diversity of habitat that it doesn't seem over-developed. There is so much to see that guides don't rush their clients around. The place teems with life and the diversity of species is fantastic. The variety of accommodation provides a variety of prices and most people should find something to suit them.
The north is a much more exclusive place with just three camps within the park. There is a limited network of roads and all the camps specialise in walking safaris. The park is truly wild and exploring it on foot literally brings you face to face with that. Staying in one these places is not just staying in a game park but more case of being part of it. The sights, sounds and smells of the park are unsullied. The stars and the animal chorus at night are sublime. However, with this awsome experience comes an awesome pricetag. If you do manage to do it, though, you will never forget it.
Just writing this review has made me want to go back.
