Liwonde National Park

Liwonde is Malawi's best-known park, a stretch of the Shire River and its floodplain in the south of the country, managed by African Parks since 2015. Boat safaris on the river, past hippo, crocodile and elephant coming down to drink, are its signature, and the restoration has brought cheetah, lion, black rhino and wild dog back to a park that had lost them, making it Big Five again. The birding is among the best in the country, with Pel's fishing owl and Böhm's bee-eater. It is a malaria area, best in the dry months from May to October, and reached by road from Blantyre or Lilongwe in a few hours.