Our team has had a blast scouring the African continent for beautiful new properties that have opened over the past 12 months and we’re excited to bring you our very own Your Private Africa (YPA) ‘Yes List’.
If you dream about the locations that make the cut in Conde Nast Traveler’s ‘Hot List’, and you cannot wait to armchair travel to the picture-perfect spots that appear on Travel + Leisure’s ‘It List’, then you’re going to love what we’ve hand-picked for you…
Ready to set your wanderlust alight? Check out what’s on our radar:
Embrace your wild side
Dulini Leadwood and River Lodges, in the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve, drive our YPA honeymooners absolutely wild. And that’s before they learn that the area is well-known for its big cat sightings. The third lodge within the Dulini Collection, Moya, was revamped earlier this year. Interior designer, Cate Simpson, did a wonderful job in giving the classic safari theme a fresh, playful new look. Beyond the stylish exterior and superb location, however, we love the warmth and friendliness of the long-standing staff members at the lodge best of all.
Say hello to safari chic with heart
We often pick our travel friends because of their commitment for conservation. Great Plains gets our vote every time because of the passion with which they approach wildlife sustainability. The Mara Expedition and Mara Toto camps are two new additions to the Great Plains Conservation portfolio in the Maasai Mara, Kenya. We’re excited to visit these camps ourselves next month, but according to our sources, we can expect to encounter safari chic at its best, complete with romantic canvas tents, candlelit dinners and incredible leopard sightings.
Attention to detail is everything
If the Okavanga Delta in Botswana is on your bucket list, then staying at Xigera (pronounced ‘kee-jera’) Safari Lodge is a must. This beautifully bold, carbon-careful lodge is all about luxury and attention to detail. The lodge employs 120 people to service 12 individually designed suites. Not only does that impressive guest-to-staff ratio make the lodge an absolute YPA favorite, but it’s especially admirable from a job creation point of view in a very rural, impoverished area.
When luxury and landscape become one
Last on our ‘Yes List’ is the extraordinary Onduli Ridge in Namibia. Newly opened in April this year, Onduli looks as if it’s sculpted into the boulders of the Damaraland. Stacked sliding doors in the rooms open up completely, beautifully blurring the lines between indoors and outdoors. Besides fulfilling your dream of rolling your bed onto the deck and sleeping under a starry African sky, your stay at Onduli also helps with the conservation of the majestic rhino and the giraffe that populate this desert area. That’s a big plus for us.
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