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User Reviews of South Luangwa National Park (61 Reviews)

Best Park South Luangwa Safaris Zambia
Sort By: Date Most Helpful Rating 21-30 of 61 Reviews

Average User Rating

4.8361 / 5 4.8 /5
4.7966 / 5 4.5085 / 5 4.4915 / 5 4.5000 / 5

Rating Breakdown

5 star 52 / 10 52
4 star 8 / 10 8
3 star 1 / 10 1
2 star 0 / 10 0
1 star 0 / 10 0
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Female avatar icon Lushine United States flag US       Visited: August 2010 Reviewed: Aug 9, 2012

35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

4 / 5 4 /5
4 / 5 4 / 5 4 / 5 / 5

Very good game viewing, travel destination and amenities. There may be more scenic areas in Southern Africa, but South Luangwa is huge so everything is there - may just take a little more effort on the part of your guide to find everything.

Female avatar icon SafariGirl United States flag US       Visited: September 2011 Reviewed: Apr 4, 2013

Email SafariGirl  |  50-65 years of age  |  Experience level: over 5 safaris

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 4 / 5

Incredible wildlife in dense areas

Female avatar icon Meg Australia flag AU       Visited: August 2014 Reviewed: Aug 23, 2014

50-65 years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

Shenton Safaris in South Luangwa (Kaingo and Mwamba Camps) a must-do.

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 / 5

We have just come back from the most amazing holiday in South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi. We stayed with the Shenton owned small exclusive safari camps Kaingo Camp and Mwamba Camp in South Luangwa. We absolutely loved both camps. The wonderful staff and guides at both camps were amazing, the food absolutely delicious and the accommodation very good. I am dreaming of our return.

Avatar icon Achim Visited: September 2014 Reviewed: Apr 8, 2015

A rough diamond of safari destinations

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 3 / 5 / 5

South Luangwa N.P. was the most developed destination of our Zambia Safari and we had our best sightings of wildlife there. Compared to the other parks, it was easy to get around (e.g. roadsigns, maps, good roads ). And even if a lot of lodges are near to the gates, it wasn't as crowded as other famous national parks in Kenia or Tanzania.
We had a great - but hot -time there, meeting nice people and enjoing the comfort of beautifully situated lodges.

Avatar icon Jean Rogers Visited: March 2014 Reviewed: Apr 30, 2015

A really wild and wonderful experience.

4 / 5 4 /5
4 / 5 5 / 5 4 / 5 4 / 5
We arrived in an overland truck and made it through the muddy road into Wildlife camp on the banks of the luangwa River. Wildlife camp truly lived up to it's name. There were hippos and crocodiles in the river in front of our comfortable hut and elephants, mongoose, monkeys, squirrel, and Impala roamed the grounds. I was pleased to view the abundant bird life around camp and on safari, even seeing a Giant Eagle Owl during spotlighting one night.
There had been some rain so the park was partly flooded, which made it harder for the safari guide to get us around, and the vegetation was thick so it was more difficult to spot animals, but we saw lions, giraffe, Impala, and such. Some of our group saw leopard. The safari guides didn't have radios to communicate sightings so we saw less than in other parks like the Mara where they share information freely between safari groups.
The lush green scenery around the park is beautiful. The pool is refreshing and though it
Read more didn't look a nice colour, no one got sick from swimming in it. The only negative was some of our party had money stolen out of their huts when away on safari.
I would definitely recommend this park for its wildlife experience and peaceful setting.

Male avatar icon Jim Scarff United States flag US       Visited: August 2014 Reviewed: May 6, 2015

65+ years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

Great for leopards, saw wild dogs, lions, very nice lodge

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 4 / 5 5 / 5

We stayed at Flat Dogs Camp just across the river from the Park for 5 nights. That is a lovely facility with great food. The elephants wander freely by the hatched-roof "tents". sometimes snacking on them. It was the dry season so most of the wildlife was crowded near the river which meant lots of wildlife sightings, but also quite a few other vehicles. Our drives away from the river had far fewer vehicles and found wild dogs, and other good wildlife. One nice feature is the park allows night drives (until 8pm) which were not allowed in Botswana parks. We greatly enjoyed seeing the nocturnal animals. The weather was warm but not too hot, there were almost no bugs. Everyone in our group of 7 had a great time there and highly recommend it.

Male avatar icon Shivakumar United Kingdom flag GB       Visited: April 2016 Reviewed: Apr 27, 2016

Email Shivakumar  |  20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: over 5 safaris

One of my best safari experiences ever!

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5
Considering the fact that i had arrived at the end of the wet season, i did not expect to see too many animals. My main objective was to enjoy the lush scenery which i had not witnessed in this area of Africa before. We had barely reached camp and we saw elephants trundling quietly through the bush. When we reached camp, i was greeted with a stunning view of the Luangwa river. It was filled with hippos and i even saw a huge crocodile floating with the current as if it was a log. There were vervet monkeys and birds of all varieties inside our camp so i was amazed at how rich this area was for flora and fauna. I even saw pugmarks of big cats around the edges of our campsite. Indicating just how close we were to the African wilderness. This campsite was facing the national park, which was just a few hundred feet away across the river. We were amazed to see hippos climbing out of the river at dusk and come into our camping grounds! They stay closer to shore until we are all inside our tents,
Read more and then they can be heard munching grass right next to our tents! A hair raising experience for sure. The next day we went on two game drives, one of which was at night. And we saw so many animals that it was almost impossible to keep a track of all of them. We saw elephants, zebra, monitor lizards, all sorts of birds, lions, giraffes, hippos, hyenas, puku, impala, warthogs to name a few. We were lucky to get very close to some lions who posed for our cameras on trees. There was also an interaction between a hyena and lion, where the hyena unknowingly walked right up to a young male lion and then bolted for its life. But the real highlight was 4 separate leopard sightings on the evening drive! The first sighting was at dusk as we watched a leopard attempting to catch an impala. It got to within twenty five feet but still did not pounce. The Impala suddenly saw it and gave off its alarm call. The leopard stood up and walked off with its tail raised high. The other three sightings were in the night. In one instance we were watching a leopard relaxing next to a bush, when suddenly a huge lion appeared a hundred yards away roaring. The leopard disappeared in a flash. Even our safari guide was shocked and said he had never seen so many big cats during a wet season drive. At least for me, South Luangwa had lived up to its reputation for being the best leopard spotting game park in Africa. There were no rhinos here, though our guide told us it was only a temporary thing. And that they planned to reintroduce them into the park in the future. Another great selling point for South Luangwa was the relative isolation of the place. We never had more than two or three safari jeeps around an animal sighting at any one time. I have been to some of the more famous parks in other African countries, and you can easily have up to twenty vehicles around a popular animal. Our camp was more than good enough for me. Hot showers available at any time, good toilets, clothes washing basins, swimming pool, well stocked bar and plenty of space. It was also good to see electric plug points placed around the campsite. Safari jeeps picked us up from right next to our tents and dropped us back in the same place. Overall i was left feeling very satisfied with my experience here.
Avatar icon tulsigaddam Zambia flag ZM       Visited: June 2016 Reviewed: Oct 14, 2016

Email tulsigaddam

South Luangwa: Beautiful place and Amazing wildlife

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 4 / 5 4 / 5 5 / 5

South Luangwa is my favorite national park. The accommodations are terrific and the wild life is amazing. I have been there over 4 times now, and it has never failed to be an amazing experience. The guides have so much knowledge about the park and the wildlife sitings are great in number, leopards, lions and hyenas being the most seen. The park is very beautiful and the sunsets are always so breathtaking. There are so many animals and birds, and it really is one of the best holiday destinations out there.

Avatar icon Tris Enticknap United Kingdom flag GB       Visited: October 2016 Reviewed: Nov 7, 2016

Email Tris Enticknap

A memorable experience in every way

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5

This was our first trip to South Luangwa, indeed our first to Zambia having usually visited Tanzania. We stayed at the Shenton camps - Kaingo and Mwamba and they were absolutely perfect. Small and very friendly with wonderful food, great accommodation and very knowledgeable staff and guides. We were collected from the airport and had a very enjoyable 'safari' to the first camp. We were blessed with good weather all the time we were there and enjoyed our twice (sometimes three) daily game drives from completely open vehicles which was very welcome as we are photographers with long lenses. The park is very well managed and maintained, and the wildlife sightings were phenomenal. Thanks to our brilliant guide/driver, we had 24 separate leopard sightings,and were fortunate enough to see the Pel's Fishing Owl several times. As for the Carmine Bee-eaters - well!! We thoroughly enjoyed our time in South Luangwa and will most definitely be returning.

Avatar icon Owen Shaffer Kenya flag KE       Visited: September 2015 Reviewed: Feb 25, 2017

Email Owen Shaffer

Close to being the finest National Park in Africa

5 / 5 5 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5

South Luangwa National Park is one of the very finest National Parks in Africa .It's superb in every way; the scenery is beautiful and varied, there are huge amounts of wildlife, the night drives are superb,and so is walking.
It also has a superb wilderness vibe. The guiding is uniformly excellent. Many of the camps have a superb bush feel to them. I've already been there three times,furthermore,I'll be returning again next year.