Hello solo travelers of Reddit!

I’d like to tell you all about Southern Africa, a gem of a destination. Apologies in advance for the longer post but I’m hoping to include a lot of relevant information.

I spent six months backpacking through Southern Africa and in all honesty, there wasn’t a day where I didn’t have an amazing time. The countries and time spent were roughly -- South Africa (2.5 months), Lesotho (2 weeks), Namibia (1 month), Botswana (3 weeks), Zimbabwe (1 month), and Mozambique (1 month).

It’s been about 8 months since I left so I’ve had time to process and digest what I think the principle factors were that made it such an unforgettable experience. It differed between countries, but overall I’d say those factors were the people (both locals and other travelers), the natural scenery, the wildlife, the history and culture, and (although maybe more personal) zero responsibility or obligations.

I cannot emphasize enough how incredible all the locals I met were. Southern Africans (I speak only on behalf of the countries I visited) are the friendliest, most positive, and most curious people I’ve ever come across. They are always smiling and laughing and love meeting foreigners. And because in most of those countries everyone speaks English quite well (Lesotho and Mozambique being the exceptions), you can have fairly meaningful conversations rather quickly.

In terms of other travelers, I met so many fascinating people with interesting backgrounds and mindsets towards the world. These are the types of people that I could talk to endlessly for hours, that inspired me, that challenged me to think differently and so much more. One thing that continued to surprise me was the proportion of people that helped me without expecting anything in return - both locals and other travelers. Some truly awesome people out there!

Scenery/wildlife is simply unbelievable in more or less all the countries I visited. My travels were generally outside of cities and in more rural areas where you can really appreciate the country and what it has to offer. South Africa has incredible nature, beaches, mountains and hiking. Lesotho has the most insane series of continuous mountain ranges I’ve ever seen (if you want tranquility, beauty and a local experience without other travelers come here). Namibia has the deserts, sand dunes, a huge canyon, and beautiful never-ending roads. Botswana has the Okavanga Delta, Kalahari Desert, and a wildlife offering that will leave you speechless. Zimbabwe has Victoria falls, great wildlife, and the Eastern highlands (beautiful secluded mountains). Mozambique has the beaches and islands. There’s obviously loads of other scenic things that these countries all offer but these were just the main highlights from each that stuck out to me.

In terms of money, I averaged $35 US a day, which included local transport and accomodation. Based on other travelers I met you can probably get to $30 a day if you really really go on the cheap or go as high as $40-45 if you want to have a bit more comfort. My major money savers were camping at hostels (almost every hostel I stayed at has a large outdoor camping area with facilities), riding the cheapest local transport/ hitch hiking, and cooking for the majority of my meals.

Comfort of transport varies across countries but no matter what, there is always local transport to get you pretty much anywhere. South Africa is the most backpacked of the countries I visited and has quite a decent coach bus offering running throughout the country. It also has something called BazBus, which is very expensive but quite convenient. While some of the other countries also offer coach buses, you generally have to rely on mini buses, which are an experience outright.

In terms of safety, with exception to the cities within South Africa, I never once felt unsafe. Granted I’m a guy which might change my outlook but even the solo female travelers I met didn’t seem overly concerned about safety. Generally the interesting places in those countries are outside of the cities and there you will only find smiles and kindness.

I realised that a lot of the posts in this thread are related to the more popular destinations so hopefully this can shed a little light to some still very worthwhile travel spots that don’t get as much attention. This is already super long so I’m happy to elaborate more on anything in comments.

Lastly, if you're not convinced, maybe these photos will help change your mind.

Some photos from each of the countries

Tl;dr Southern Africa is awesome, if you were thinking about going there, don’t think twice. Amazing people, scenery, wildlife, culture and history. Good value for money and quite easy to get around.