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The benefits of travelling to Africa during the shoulder season

Travelling in the shoulder season (the period between the high and the low season) can be blissful – with benefits such as lower rates, fewer crowds and more moderate weather. However, these advantages aren’t only experienced by you, the travelller, they have a ripple effect on local communities where the seasonal nature of travel affects the regional economy.

Avoid overcrowding
Recently a video showing a mass of safari vehicles converging on a cheetah kill in the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya went viral for all the wrong reasons. Judy Kepher-Gona, the director of the Kenya-based Sustainable Travel and Tourism Agenda was quoted in the New York Times. “Sadly, what is seen in this video is the rule and not the exception in Masai Mara reserve.”

While this migration is a spectacle of nature and it’s understandable that travellers want to witness it in person, it’s worth considering the impact of over-tourism. Travelling outside of peak season, or supporting initiatives to limit visitor numbers in popular regions helps support sustainable travel, which has the benefit of protecting the treasures that we travel so far to see. 

Where to go during shoulder season
The most popular time to visit South Africa’s Kruger National Park (and other game parks in the country) is during the dry winter season. However, the shoulder season months of April and October are lovely in Kruger and not as cold at night. 

October can be excellent for game viewing, as animals gather at watering holes waiting for spring rains to bring new life. Birds also begin courtship rituals and although there is no fixed calving season in Kruger (it varies from species to species and many mammals give birth throughout the year), impala are among those that calve from the end of October to December. 

During the shoulder season, the summer humidity in sub-tropical KwaZulu-Natal eases and it can be an excellent time to explore the parks and coastline here. If you’d like to hike in the Drakensberg with its dramatically beautiful peaks, autumn (April and May) or spring (September and October) are best. You’ll avoid the daily thunderstorms and the summer heat.

The northern parts of Kwa-Zulu Natal have a warmer tropical climate and just like neighbouring Mozambique can be very humid in summer. The climate around the Bazaruto Archipelago is more moderate in October and it’s an ideal time to scuba dive here.

Cape Town has a Mediterranean climate with a hot, dry summer, which makes the shoulder season of March and April favourable to those wanting to avoid the heat. The city’s summer southeaster wind will have died down and the restaurants, surrounding beaches and other popular attractions are less crowded than over the busy summer. The Cape Winelands can get particularly hot from December to February. Autumn offers a respite, with cooler mornings and evenings, and vine leaves that morph from green to variegated shades of brown, orange and red.

The shoulder season months of September and October are the best in which to see southern right whales and other cetaceans. Hermanus, De Hoop Nature Reserve and the Overberg coastline offers among the world’s best land-based whale watching spots.

Save on costs
A final benefit of travelling during shoulder season is that you can get better value for your money. Some hotels and lodges offer shoulder season rates and even if they are not advertised, you’ll have greater opportunity to negotiate discounts outside of peak season. Flights also cost more during the holiday seasons, which means that you can save by travelling outside of these periods. 

With fewer crowds and perks like access to popular destinations, there’s a lot to love about the shoulder season.

Happy Travelling,

The Leopard Team

P.S. Join Diana on 17 March in San Francisco for a fun evening of cheese, wine and talk about travel! If you don’t live in San Francisco but know someone who does, and is interested in traveling to Africa, please pass the invitation on to them.

To join this exclusive event (space is limited), please RSVP at: https://pp.events/leopardtravelafrica

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    Jessica is an accomplished strategic brand designer known for her typography and concept-led design approach. She used these finely-honed skills to develop Leopard’s branding and continues to design each of our personalised client itineraries.

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    At Leopard, Elise helps to shape the company’s digital strategy and brings her writing expertise to life by alternating with Diana to pen newsletters, social content and website features.

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    Growing up in Johannesburg, fondly known as the “City of Gold”, Caitlin was privileged to explore diverse destinations across South Africa, from game reserves to the warm shores of KwaZulu-Natal. She also treasures memories of visiting family in Vumba, Zimbabwe, where she loved being immersed in nature and the sense of freedom it brought. “I was awestruck when I visited both Victoria Falls and the Great Zimbabwe Ruins,” she recalls.

    Married with two small children, Caitlin enjoys spending time in nature, with friends, running, swimming and scuba diving. She describes her career as “meandering and colourful”. With a background in psychology and social development, she has worked as both a researcher and a counsellor. While moving into tourism seemed like a big shift, she soon discovered a clear continuity. "Travel can help people encounter life-giving experiences that reveal what it means to truly thrive and have the potential to influence how you live after returning home," says Caitlin.

    At Leopard, Caitlin supports the sales team to ensure every client enjoys a seamless experience. She also supports travellers while on the road, helps refine systems and processes, plans events, works closely with Leopard’s suppliers and conducts site inspections. Caitlin is passionate about tailoring each experience to fit you perfectly, so you can focus on the stories and memories you’ll take home.
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    Pilar grew up in Marbella, in the south of Spain, known, much like Africa, for its sunshine. She moved to Johannesburg in 2013, and after more than a decade of living in Africa, she says that she feels her heart is half South African.

    When she arrived in South Africa, Pilar worked as a journalist and covered many big news stories for a newspaper and radio station in Spain. She considers it an amazing period of her life in Africa, but she wanted to embrace something different.

    Between working and being dedicated to raising her family, she travelled through southern Africa. During this time, her love for Africa, its sunsets, people, culture and landscapes continued to grow. Pilar wanted to share ‘the preciousness of this country and continent with everyone’. Now, as part of Leopard, she can do that.

    As a Spanish speaker, she works with the Spanish and Latin American markets and feels she is a true ambassador for South Africa. At Leopard, she works with clients to create a bespoke, tailor-made itinerary, where each day in Africa forms part of a perfectly dreamy trip. Pilar says that everyone should get to experience the magic of Africa.
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    Until the age of three, Helen lived in a little stone cottage in the Kyle Game Reserve, in Zimbabwe until she and her family relocated to the Kariba Dam on the great Zambezi River. Here, Helen’s father managed a Fisheries Research Institute and she grew up immersed in a culture of tourism. She also spent many Sunday afternoons in the bush observing wildlife with her family.

    Helen moved to South Africa in the early ’80s and after leaving school, she entered the travel industry. She travelled to many countries for business research and later became a specialist in travel to South America, which she visited numerous times.

    Her husband’s work required the family to settle in the little town of Mtunzini, a beautiful spot on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal, where she took a job in the finance department at the local school. This began a chapter in Helen’s life that prepared her for corporate finance. Later, Helen worked as an imports and exports administrator and then as treasurer for a large multinational company in Johannesburg while undertaking post-graduate studies in Corporate Governance and Administration.

    When she and her family moved back to Durban, Helen worked as a bursar of a large private school. She was delighted to be living near the ocean again and couldn’t resist getting her open-water diving certificate, as her son was a scuba diving instructor. Helen’s love of adventure and creation has been a constant theme throughout her life.

    She was delighted to return to the travel industry and joined Leopard in September 2022 as a finance manager.
    Daphnée Filliette
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    Daphnée was born in Lille, in the Hauts-de-France region of France. A passionate traveller, she has lived and worked in several countries around the world.

    She first worked in the United States, where she has family, then moved to England to complete a Master’s in International Marketing, and later to Oceania, where she tried “WWOOFing” — working on a farm in exchange for room and board. Along the way, she met a great love in Paris, who would later become her husband, and this brought her back to France to find work and start a family.

    Daphnée began her career in fashion marketing and, in 2012, created her own fashion brand, managing all aspects of building a business.

    In 2016, Daphnée and her family had the wonderful opportunity to live in South Africa. “The question didn’t even arise — let’s go, that was obvious!” she recalls. Since then, they have welcomed three children and are enjoying life in Johannesburg.

    Daphnée has worked in the tourism industry for 10 years, specialising in Africa. Her favourite countries include Kenya and Namibia, though she also fell in love with Madagascar and Botswana. Her next adventure will be to Zambia.
    Diana Granoux
    Founder | Senior Travel Designer
    Diana was born in Zimbabwe and started her life on the banks of the great Lake Kariba. She moved to South Africa when she was a toddler and grew up in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Diana has vivid memories of long winter holidays spent camping in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa with her family. Her parents loved the bush and her father started his own tour operating company in 1992. He was an early pioneering specialist in bird watching safaris in South Africa.

    As she grew up, Diana became aware of the big, wide world outside of the African countries she knew so well, and she took her first solo overseas trip at age 14 to London to visit her father’s family. From that moment she became fascinated with experiencing the world beyond what she knew. Diana has since travelled extensively through Africa, Europe, America and Asia.

    Diana is married to a Frenchman and has two young kids, who are simultaneously developing a love for biltong & braai’s, and baguettes & brie. After 16 years gaining valuable experience working for big corporates in South Africa, Diana decided to follow her passion for travel and start Leopard. Diana has had the privilege of planning holidays for American celebrities, European royalty and high-net-worth individuals as well as regular folks who want to do a trip of a lifetime to Africa.

    She wants to create, with Leopard, a company that gives customers something unique: a curated experience of Africa, made especially for them. She says, “From the moment they arrive in Africa, to the moment they depart, I want them to have a seamless experience. I want them to enjoy the best the continent has to offer, leaving with memories that last a lifetime.”