The Top African Safari Books Recommended For Your Trip

Africa books will enrich your African safari experience enormously because of all the topical content they contain and it will make your preparation for an African safari that much easier and more complete.

Safari travel books really help you squeeze the most benefit out of your trip because if you know something about the animals and people you will encounter, you will probably enjoy it a lot more.

If your safari operator is up to scratch they will provide you with a lot of information too, but an African safari book will have more comprehensive content that you can access at your leisure.

And safari books can be an invaluable aid in helping you prepare for your trip. It's almost as good as having a travel agent at your beck and call 24 hours a day.

There are three major categories of safari book that you can choose from and the titles listed in each category are the top ones in that field...

1. Topical Guidebooks

The Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African Mammals

Written by Richard D Estes this is a definitive book about the habits of African wildlife which will stand you in good stead when you come across animals on your trip.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife

Apart from the wildlife information and fantastic photographs, this guide also contains geographic and climate information about your destination. Written by Peter Alden, Richard D. Estes, Duane Schlitter, Bunny McBride.

2. Country Guidebooks

There are quite a few players bidding to be Nr 1 in this category but the guidebooks that comes out tops from an African point of view are the Bradt Travel Guides.

They have amazingly detailed coverage of most things Africa and the people who write the guides are really passionate and knowledgeable about their subject. Here are a few of their titles they publish but they cover the whole of Africa with their full stable of guides...

Africa Overland
Southern African Wildlife: A Visitor's Guide
Tanzania with Zanzibar, Pemba and Mafia
Botswana: Okavango Delta, Chobe, Northern Kalahari
Madagascar Wildlife: A Visitor's Guide
The Gambia

Another guidebook publisher with a very extensive African range and excellent content is Lonely Planet. Some of their popular guides are...

Africa on a shoestring
South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland
Healthy Travel Africa

Rough Guides has a more limited range of Africa books but what they do have is of a high quality...

Cape Town & the Garden Route
Swahili Phrasebook

3. Other Africa Books - Fiction

There are some Africa fiction books that manage to capture and communicate a measure of the magic, romance, wildness and unique character of the dark continent.

Reading these books will give you a foretaste of what it is about Africa that seems to get into peoples blood and engender a love of the place that draws them back again and again.

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town written by Paul Theroux is a magnificent takes readers the length of Africa by rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train. In the course of his epic and enlightening journey, he endures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances. Gauging the state of affairs, he talks to Africans, aid workers, missionaries, and tourists. What results is an insightful meditation on the history, politics, and beauty of Africa and its people.

I Dreamed of Africa is Kuki Gallmans classic inspirational and moving book about her experiences in Kenya after she moved there permanently from Italy. This book was also turned into a movie starring Kim Basinger.

More top Africa books that will enormously enrich and aid your African safari tour.

A complete Safari packing list of what to take with you on your African safari.