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In all rights, the national parks of Zambia would be just as famous as South Africa’s Kruger or Kenya’s Maasai Mara. But there is an upside to their under-the-radar nature. Even the top national parks in Zambia have visitor numbers substantially down on better known reserves elsewhere in Africa. The result is a more intimate experience with the landscape and its animals.
What’s more, check out even the simplest map of the country and you’ll find protected areas dotted liberally across it. Thirty percent of Zambia is protected land. So whether you’re flying in, or crossing overland from one of its eight neighbours – perhaps via the shortest land border in the world with Botswana (a whole 135 metres long) – you’ll never be far from an incredible wildlife experience.
Here are the national parks in Zambia I think should be grabbing your attention.
South Luangwa National Park
Situated beside the Luangwa River as it flows south into the Zambezi, this national park provides huge concentrations of game. That’s because it’s one of the only permanent water sources in the area.
Marking the southernmost extent of the Great Rift Valley with the Muchinga Escarpment, its species list runs to around 60 mammals. It also has a whopping 400 different birds.
Unfenced, the animals are free to come and go as they please. But you’ll still find large groups of Thornicroft’s giraffe, elephant and Cape buffalo.
Dominated by woodland savannah, indigenous mopane and miombo trees are the most prevalent. Providing shade for zebra and antelope, the grasslands between them are also the hunting ground of lion and leopard. South Luangwa is one of the best places in Africa for leopard sightings.
What really makes South Luangwa National Park stand out is the option of walking safaris. It’s always a thrill to abandon your safari vehicle and head out on foot.
In addition, some of the park’s lodges remain open year-round, even during the rains of November to March. My guide to the best time to visit Zambia covers the good and bad of travel across the year.
In case you were wondering, North Luangwa National Park remains pretty much a closed wildlife haven. It has just a couple of self-catering camps and lodges for self-drivers. There are a handful of camps set up by high-end tour operators, such as Audley Travel, too
Kafue National Park
Roughly the size of Wales (and that’s no exaggeration), Kafue National Park is not only Zambia’s largest national park. It’s also one of the largest national parks in Africa.
It’s 22,400 km2 don’t have 60 different mammal species like South Luangwa. Instead, it has more than 150 free to roam across the western portions of the country.
Rocky in parts and forming a large flood plain (the Kafue Flats) in others, miombo woodland is the order of the day. The copses of trees are interspersed with grasslands called dambos which become bog-like at wetter times of year.
Elephants are a common sighting, particularly around Lake Itezhi-Tezhi during the dry reason. Meanwhile, the Busanga and Nanzhila plains are great for carnivore sightings. Other big ticket animals include rarer antelope species such as sitatunga (marshbuck), oribi, and red lechwe.
There’s such a number of leopards in the park that visitors are warned about passing directly under trees. That’s in case a piece of their last meal might strike them from above. Cheetah are also present, although sometimes hard to spot.
If that wasn’t enough, discovering Kafue National Park is one of Zambia’s best ways to watch the antics of Cape wild dogs. Plus, you can catch a glimpse of Africa’s largest crocodiles. Just don’t get too close!
Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park
Facing Zimbabwe from the north bank of the River Zambezi, Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park permits safaris just a few short miles from Victoria Falls, the world’s largest waterfall by volume. The park’s name comes from the Sotho for ‘the smoke that thunders’, the name the falls were known by before the arrival of Victorian explorer David Livingstone.
Located between the town of Livingstone and farmland in the far south of the country, it’s Zambia’s smallest national park. However, don’t discount it just yet – Mosi-oa-Tunya is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The park can roughly be divided into two sections. One contains the falls, and the other most of the wildlife.
This includes the only reserve in Zambia where it’s possible to see white rhino. Even so, you’ll never be able to tick off the Big Five because it is free of predators.
A blend of riverine forest, woodland and grasses, hippos also feature heavily. This may or may not be good news if you’re considering a cruise down the Zambezi, an activity not to be missed.
Don’t worry though, you can also explore by foot with a guide, or on self-drive safaris. It’s even possible to explore the park as a day trip from Livingstone.
Liuwa Plain National Park
Running up against the border with Angola, Liuwa Plain National Park is one of the remotest national parks in Zambia.
For getting away from it all and experiencing the bush as it’s always been, there’s probably nowhere better in the country.
Liuwa Plain swaps the patchy woodland of elsewhere in the country for broadly open plains and shallow pools of fresh water.
It means visitors shouldn’t expect any animal sightings without doing the work, which can include long traverses across unsurfaced tracks from its camps.
The rewards are well worth the effort though. A multitude of predatory species stalk the grasslands. November and December sees huge herds of wildebeest cross over from Angola in the second-largest wildebeest migration in Africa. It’s triggered, like its more famous elder sibling, the Serengeti/Maasai Mara’s Great Wildebeest Migration, by rains blanketing the region in new growth.
Kasanka National Park
Managed privately on behalf of Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), Kasanka National Park provides habitat for 114 mammal species. That’s despite it’s relatively small size of 390 square kilometres (150 square miles).
The number of animal species the park attracts is probably the result of its shallow but permanent lakes and pools. Dotting the landscape of evergreen forest split by rivers, they provide much needed fresh water for everything from elephant, situanga, buffalo, and hippo.
However, for the star of the show at Kasanka National Park you’ll have to look up. The park boasts Africa’s biggest mammal migration, as somewhere in the region of 12 million straw-coloured bats visit in search of fresh fruit.
With wingspans topping 75 cm, it really is a breathtaking spectacle, albeit one which only lasts a few weeks. The first bats start to arrive into Kasanka National Park in October. Numbers peak in November, and the whole incredible event is over by the start of the new year.
The top national parks in Zambia
Well-known to conservationists but yet to make it onto mainstream safari itineraries, the top national parks in Zambia shouldn’t be overlooked. Providing unforgettable interactions with the region’s wildlife – by jeep, on foot and by boat – there’s a reason Zambia is sometimes called Africa’s last Eden.
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