South Africa Safari and Victoria Falls

Stand atop Table Mountain and see fertile seams of natural beauty threading through the city below, from the fynbos-covered hills of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens to the soul-melting sunsets of Lion’s Head and the sands of Boulders Beach, home to thousands of African penguins. Down by the docks, the chic V&A Waterfront is hosts the Zeitz MOCCA, the largest collection of contemporary African art in the world, while the food and wine across melting pot Bo-Kapp and trendy Woodstock are an artform themselves.

Kruger’s gloriously wild reputation precedes it; this is one of the world’s finest wildlife-watching destinations, where iconic species, from African wild dogs to zebras, gather in abundance. Safari-goers spend their days watching leopards snooze from the branches or waiting patiently for an elephant herd to trundle down to the riverbed, before returning to some of the most opulent lodges in the country, trading tales beneath immense, star-laden skies as the trilling, night-time melodies of the bush recommence.

The local Lozi name it the “Smoke that Thunders”: a wholly fitting epithet for Africa’s liquid marvel, where the Zambezi River roars 300ft down a chasm on its zigzagging course between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The world’s greatest sheet of falling water is an epic sight, its power and beauty unrivalled, a place rich in wildlife and geological history, where ancient basalt rock is drenched beneath those famous mists, curling up from the gorge like the soul of the river itself.