Madikwe & the Malaria-Free North

For families with young children, travellers who prefer not to take antimalarial medication, and anyone seeking the Big Five without the Lowveld's mosquitoes, the malaria-free reserves of the North West Province are South Africa's quiet masterstroke. Madikwe Game Reserve—75,000 hectares of Kalahari-fringe bushveld on the Botswana border—is the jewel: one of the country's largest reserves, yet among its least crowded.

Madikwe is celebrated for the 'Super Seven'—the classic Big Five plus cheetah and the endangered African wild dog, which den here in numbers that make the reserve one of the continent's finest places to witness a pack on the hunt. Because there are no day visitors and lodge numbers are strictly capped, game drives feel genuinely private. Nearby Pilanesberg National Park, cradled in the crater of an extinct volcano, offers dramatic scenery and high wildlife density barely two hours from Johannesburg.

The accessibility is the gift: a short flight or scenic drive from OR Tambo delivers you into thick game country by lunchtime, with no prophylaxis required and lodges built to welcome children. It is the ideal safari for a first-time family, a multi-generational celebration, or anyone who wants their bush time uncomplicated.