Malawi

Much of the area around Cape Maclear, including several offshore islands, is part of Lake Malawi National Park, one of Africa's few freshwater aquatic parks and a Unesco World Heritage Site. When organising activities on the lake, check if prices include the park entrance fee.

Since African Parks took over management of this rugged wilderness on the western bank of the Shire River in 2003, things have really been looking up. There are now more than 3000 animals in the reserve, most translocated from other parks in Malawi and elsewhere in Southern Africa, including lions, hyenas, sable antelope, nyalas, black rhinos, buffaloes, elephants, hippos and leopards.

A huge hulk of twisted granite rising majestically from the surrounding plains, Mt Mulanje towers over 3000m high. All over the mountain are dense green valleys and rivers that drop from sheer cliffs to form dazzling waterfalls. The locals call it the ‘Island in the Sky’, and on misty days (and there are many) it’s easy to see why: the massif is shrouded in a cotton-wool haze, its highest peaks bursting through the cloud to touch the heavens.

Some people come to the base of the mountain just for a day visit, but the stunning scenery, easy access, clear paths and well-maintained huts make Mulanje a fine hiking area worthy of a few days. While here, look out for the endemic Mulanje cedar, which can grow up to 40m high. The abundant wildlife also includes klipspringers, duikers, vervet and blue monkeys, rock hyraxes (dassies), black eagles, buzzards, hawks and kestrels.

With its lodges and safari activities, Liwonde is the closest thing Malawi has to a traditional wildlife park. Dominating the west, the Shire River overflows with hippos and crocodiles and is a favourite stomping ground for the 500-plus elephants. Waterbucks are also common near the water, while beautiful sable and roan antelopes, zebras and elands populate the floodplains.

Remember Scaramanga's pad in The Man with the Golden Gun? Kaya Mawa, set on an amber-coloured beach lapped by turquoise water, is the ultimate location to live out your inner Bond. Its cliffside chalets, cleverly moulded around the landscape, are so beautiful you'll never want to leave.

Comprising 1800 sq km of rough, inhospitable terrain – dense miombo (moist woodland), bush and evergreens – and a couple of navigable roads, this reserve has been undergoing a renaissance. Once poached, abandoned and encroached upon by human settlements, its fortunes have improved thanks to increased funding, two lodges, and management by African Parks, which was halfway through a historic reintroduction of 500 elephants in late 2016. There are also roan and sable antelopes here, buffaloes, baboons, waterbucks, leopards and even occasional itinerant lions.

Malawi's oldest reserve is easily one of the most magical experiences in any trip to the country. Towering over 2000m above sea level, the Nyika Plateau is enigmatic; one moment its rolling grasslands recall the Yorkshire Dales, but then an antelope leaps across your bonnet, you note the nearby mound of steaming elephant dung and you remember you're in Africa (and that Nyika is home to a very large population of leopards!).

Nkhata Bay has an almost Caribbean feel, with its fishing boats buzzing across the green bay, market stalls hawking barbecued fish, and reggae filling the languorous afternoons. The friendly fishing town and Rasta haunt makes a wonderful base to spend a few days sunbathing and tagging everything with #GiveAGuyAGreen, in one of the lodges and guesthouses perched on cliffs tumbling down to the lake. Be careful not to entirely give yourself over to lotus eating, though, for there are loads of activities to enjoy before you hammock flop, be it snorkelling, diving, fish-eagle feeding, kayaking or forest walks.

Built by Scottish missionaries, Livingstonia feels sanctified, special and otherworldly, with its tree-lined main street graced by crumbling colonial relics. But for the stunning mountain views, there's not much to do in town other than visit the museum, church and sundry historical curios. Experiencing this piece of mountaintop history, and staying at one of the nearby permaculture farms, will be a magical, peaceful chapter in your Malawian journey.

After two failed attempts at establishing a mission at Cape Maclear and at Bandawe (too many people kept dying from malaria), the Free Church of Scotland moved its mission 900m above the lake to the village of Khondowe. Called Livingstonia after Dr David Livingstone, the mission was built under the leadership of Dr Robert Laws in 1894. The town provides a fascinating glimpse of Malawi’s colonial past: most of its old stone buildings are still standing, many used by the local university.