Sydafrika

If any landscape lives up to its airbrushed, publicity-shot alter ego, it is the jagged, green sweep of the Drakensberg’s tabletop peaks. This forms the boundary between South Africa and the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, and offers some of the country’s most awe-inspiring landscapes.

Kruger is one of the world's greatest wildlife-watching destinations. All of Africa's iconic safari species – elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah, rhino, buffalo, giraffe, hippo and zebra – share the bushveld with a supporting cast of 137 other mammals and over 500 varieties of bird.

Nya siffror från Sydafrikas miljödepartement visar att tjuvjakten på noshörning minskat från 769 till 594 djur under 2019 – en minskning med 23 procent. På fem år har tjuvjakten halverats.

En bubblande storstad inramad av en palmkantad strand med ljummet havsvatten och subtropiskt klimat. Durban håller på att förvandlas från beryktat surfmecka till trendigt turistparadis.

Port Elizabeth (PE for short) fringes Algoa Bay at the western end of the Sunshine Coast, and offers many good bathing beaches, great surf spots and excellent water sports. Marine life in the bay is also sensational, with plenty of dolphins and whales that can be spotted throughout the year. The city centre, once a place to avoid, has started to smarten up thanks to a few urban regeneration projects, and it boasts numerous heritage buildings that are well worth a gander.

Home to some of South Africa’s most striking landscapes, the Drakensberg Escarpment was, until a couple of centuries ago, untamed rainforest roamed by elephants, buffaloes and even lions. Today, it’s holidaying South Africans and, increasingly, international visitors who wander the highlands, enjoying the beautiful landscape in their droves. The escarpment marks the point where the highveld plateau plunges down 1000m to the lowveld, forming a dramatic knot of soaring cliffs, canyons, sweeping hillsides and cool valleys thick with pine trees and waterfalls – an apt backdrop for the myriad adventure activities that are on offer here.

High on the must-see lists of most visitors to South Africa is the Garden Route, and with good reason: you can’t help but be seduced by the glorious natural beauty. The distance from Mossel Bay in the west to Storms River in the east is just over 200km, yet the range of topography, vegetation, wildlife and outdoor activities is remarkable.

Limpopo, which occupies South Africa's northern reaches, is a huge and diverse province characterised by traditional cultures, an interesting historical story, vast open spaces and terrific wildlife watching. In Mapungubwe National Park visitors can walk through the country's most significant Iron Age site, gaze from a rocky bluff over the riverine landscape where South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe meet, and observe birds, big cats and rhinos. Culture and traditional art shine in the enigmatic region of Venda, an area dotted with landforms of great spiritual significance. Nature takes centre stage in the Waterberg, where the eponymous Unesco biosphere reserve has endless skies, a landscape of distinctly South African beauty and great safari opportunities, particularly in Marakele National Park. Best of all, few travelers make it up here to the north, making it one of the country's most rewarding destinations.

Venturing inland and upwards from Cape Town you’ll find the Boland, meaning ‘upland’. It’s a superb wine-producing area, and indeed the best known in South Africa. The magnificent mountain ranges around Stellenbosch and Franschhoek provide ideal microclimates for the vines.

Nelspruit (now officially called Mbombela, though locals rarely use the new moniker) is Mpumalanga’s functional provincial capital. It's more a place to get things done than a worthwhile destination for tourists, but it's not unpleasant and has the facilities to make it a practical stopover on the way elsewhere. Well connected to Jo'burg, it's a good place to organise a trip to Kruger National Park, the Blyde River Canyon, Swaziland or Mozambique.