Best New Hotels in Africa
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Courtesy Asilia Jabali RidgehotelAsilia Jabali Ridge
$$$ |
Gold List 2023 
Hot List 2018Tanzania's Ruaha National Park is forty percent bigger than the Serengeti, with only a fraction of the visitors—it also has ten percent of the world’s lion population and East Africa’s highest concentration of elephants. Eight-suite Jabali is the first truly luxe lodging here, meaning you’ll have the thunderous buffalo and all the wildlife and open grasslands pretty much to yourself.
Photo by Chris ChurchillhotelBerber Lodge
$ | Hot List 2018This rustic but elegant retreat about half an hour outside of Marrakech, and in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, is surrounded by acres of olive, date, and citrus trees. Its nine understatedly elegant individual lodges are decorated in soothing neutrals (think lots of brick, sand, and cream tones) and are kitted out with a mix of traditional Moroccan rugs, zelige tiles, and mid-century furniture. With excellent food sourced largely from the property’s organic garden, a serene pool scene, and plenty of land to wander, it truly is a desert oasis—and the perfect punctuation to a trip to bustling Marrakech.
Courtesy Wilderness SafarishotelWilderness Safaris Bisate Lodge
$$$ | Gold List 2018, 2020 Hot List 2018 
Readers' Choice Awards 2020, 2022Pint-size Rwanda has become one of Africa’s most buzzed about—and exclusive—destinations, and nowhere more so than the gorilla-rich Virunga Mountains. Top-notch operators Singita and One&Only have opened here, and very lovely they are, but Wilderness Safaris’ Bisate Lodge was the original. Arranged like giant birds’ nests around the natural amphitheater of an eroded volcanic cone, its six thatched pods are inspired by the former royal palace in the southern city of Nyanza. Inside, the swooping ceilings and woven-grass walls curve around to huge windows with knockout views of the peaks where Dian Fossey studied gorillas.
Courtesy Duba Plains CamphotelDuba Plains Camp
$$$ | Gold List 2018 Hot List 2018This spot on a 77,000 private reserve in Botswana's Okavango Delta is the very one that Great Plains founders Dereck and Beverly Joubert chose as their home many years ago. It’s easy to see why: The main tent, five smaller tents, and suite open onto the flood plains with a campaign-style look that’s a romantic throwback to the pioneer era of safari.
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Courtesy Time + TidehotelTime + Tide King Lewanika Lodge
$$$ | Hot List 2018Liuwa Plain was one of the earliest protected areas in Africa, and as a result, this Zambian lodge—the only permanent camp in the national park—feels like a privileged perch from which to take in the surrounding wildlife. You'll hear the cries of animals through your canvas tent, but if that's not enough, there are also day and night game drives, walking safaris, canoeing safaris, and more.
Courtesy Time + TidehotelMiavana by Time + Tide
$$$ | Gold List 2024 Hot List 2018“How do they do it?” I kept asking myself during my stay at Miavana, a private island hideaway just off Madagascar’s northeastern coast. Its extensive restaurant menus and top-shelf drinks list would have been impressive even if it had a traiteur on its doorstep, but given that it took me two flights and a helicopter-hop to reach its perch in the remote Levens Archipelago, the logistic puzzle this toes-in-the-sand operation requires is mind-boggling. As is the price—but that does buy you a stay in an enormous breezy beachfront villa with a barefoot Bauhaus-y design from bamboo and local sandstone, slicked up with licks of copper and jolts of turquoise. You’ll also have a private pool, of course, and a palm-hemmed beach as fine and white as powdered sugar right in front. Butlers fix poolside breakfasts, fresh coconuts and in-villa spa treatments at the drop of a hat, or help organise helicopter safaris to little-visited baobab forests and otherworldly rock formations on the mainland that culminate in lavish picnics. But for all this extravagance, the things that will stick with you the most are the ones you can’t put a price tag on: coming eye-to-beady-eye with a chameleon crossing the jungle floor in its jerky gait; having the on-site experts point out birds and gecko species you’ll find nowhere else on earth; and, if you’re lucky, spotting humpback whales from the helicopter before you’ve even checked in. The best things in life might be free, but Miavana adds a priceless dash of magic. From $3,787. —Chris Schalkx
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Courtesy One&Only Nyungwe HousehotelOne&Only Nyungwe House
$$$ | Hot List 2018 Readers' Choice Awards 2021Set within a working tea plantation at the edge of the pristine Nyungwe Forest National Park, this luxury lodge with 22 suites is one of the most upscale hotels in Rwanda. Plus, it gives you easy access to the park's population of chimpanzees, monkeys, and other wildlife. The nature treks in Rwanda aren't your average roll-around-in-a-Jeep safari. They often involve hours of hiking, up steep volcanic slopes and on occasionally muddy trails. Which is to say, the people who are coming here are the adventurous types—albeit those who want to come back to a king-sized bed, full-service gym, and spa at the end of the day.
Courtesy Wilderness SafarishotelWilderness Safaris Qorokwe Camp
$$$ | Hot List 2018Qorokwe is beautiful, comfortable, and incredibly well-staffed. The price point can be around three times less than other high-end camps in Botswana, but with no sacrifice to the quality of viewing or service. Also, it is on a private concession inside the Okavango, meaning you can off-road and do night drives unlike other parts of Botswana's Okavango Delta.
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Courtesy The Royal Portfolio/Photo by Mark WilliamshotelThe Silo Hotel
$$$ | Hot List 2018 Readers' Choice Awards 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021With 360-degree views that encompass both Table Mountain and the nearby V&A Waterfront, the Silo stands out for its industrial-meets-global collector chic décor, and its ideal location—which also includes sitting atop the buzzy new Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town’s Museum of Contemporary African Art. Bold artworks from the collection hang in the ground floor entrance and around the hotel; even if you don’t overnight here, you’ll want to stay for a meal at the bar or restaurant in the sixth-floor lobby.