This is part of our global guide to the Best Places to Go in 2024 – find more travel inspiration here.

This past year saw a surge of travel throughout destinations in Africa, with air travel across the continent approaching prepandemic levels. Safari camps from South Africa to Kenya were fully booked, and travellers lingered in popular destinations like Cape Town and Zanzibar well past peak season. What does this mean for the year ahead?

A wave of hotly anticipated luxury resorts – many of which were in the works long before grinding to a halt in the pandemic – are finally ready to throw open their doors, new air routes are making parts of the continent more accessible than ever, and popular events and festivals are enticing visitors to explore regions they may not have contemplated before.

Yes, there are plenty of thrilling safari camps in the pipeline that we’re excited about, from iconic corners of Botswana to a less-visited park in Mozambique, but there’s also a compelling food movement in Accra, a milestone anniversary in Rwanda, a monumental new cultural landmark in Morocco’s capital city of Rabat, and so much more to look forward to.

Could this be the year Johannesburg pries visitors away from Cape Town with a cool new city hotel and a dynamic dining scene, or when sunseekers take another look at Mauritius instead of the Maldives?

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