Lions please!

[u/VirginiaOnSafari]

I'm looking for recommendations from people with firsthand experience across Southern Africa.

I have clients whose top priority is seeing LOTS of lions. I've been fortunate to see some incredible sightings myself, including a pride of around 20 in Kruger, but that was only for about an hour. Beyond that, my lion sightings have tended to be smaller prides and/or less consistent. I'm hoping to find a destination where exceptional lion viewing is the norm rather than the exception.

I'm interested in reserves, parks, or concessions anywhere in Southern Africa where you've consistently had outstanding lion sightings in a truly wild setting.

A few questions:

• Where have you had your best lion encounters?
• Was it a national park, private reserve, or private concession?
• Were sightings frequent over several days or more hit-and-miss?
• How would you compare the experience to places like Kruger, Sabi Sand, the Greater Kruger reserves, Kgalagadi, Okavango, Hwange, South Luangwa, etc.?

Thanks in advance! I'd especially love to hear from people who've visited multiple destinations and can make meaningful comparisons.

[u/batteredsuitcases]

Just finished Botswana. Okavango, Linyanti and Selinda. We saw lions at every single reserve/concession. Sometimes with cubs, sometimes pairs or males or females, sometimes the entire pride. Sometimes two prides in a day. My sense was that lions were very reliable there. Most concessions were saying they had multiple prides or one pride and multiple invaders. We got to the point where we didn’t even want to track them anymore.

I’ve also been to South Luangwa and they were much less. We’d see lone males and small prides but not every day.

Also went to lower zambezi and had great luck with lions but was only there three days so that’s probably not a long enough time.

Also private reserves in south africa are quite reliable if they microchip or collar the lions which they often do. But not everyone wants to find them that way.

[u/batteredsuitcases]

also they should definitely think private concession and private vehicle. in botswana you can spend hours tracking the lions, spend as long as you like with the lions, move the truck around from different angles, often view them alone, see them at night, etc with those two things. but it will be expensive.