Grand Tour of Malawi: Highlands, Big Five & the Lake of Stars

This morning you take a scenic light-aircraft flight north to the vast Nyika Plateau, Malawi's largest and highest national park, soaring over the highlands before landing on this remote, rolling upland. As you arrive, the landscape opens into endless grassland, more Scottish highland than tropical Africa, scattered with wildflowers and grazed by antelope. You settle into your lodge amid this high, cool wilderness, the air fresh and the views immense. In the afternoon you set out on a game drive or walk across the open hills, watching for roan, eland, reedbuck and zebra grazing the slopes, and perhaps the leopard that prowl the woodlands, drinking in the space and silence of this haunting landscape. As the sun sets over the endless green hills, the temperature drops sharply and a fire is lit. Enjoy dinner in the cosy lodge, wrapped in the peace of one of Africa's most beautiful and least-known upland parks.

A full day on the Nyika Plateau lets you explore this magnificent wilderness in depth. You might set out on a morning game drive or guided walk across the rolling grassland among herds of antelope that barely lift their heads as you pass, exploring pockets of evergreen forest, following clear streams, and pausing at viewpoints where the plateau rolls away to the horizon. The birdlife and orchids are extraordinary, and there is a real chance of spotting leopard in this, one of Africa's best places to see them. The cool air and haunting beauty feel a world away from lowland Africa. After a picnic in the hills, you continue exploring before returning to the lodge as the light softens. As night falls, the temperature drops and the stars blaze; gather by the fire for dinner and stories after a wonderful day in the high wilderness of Nyika.

This morning you leave the highlands and take a light-aircraft flight south to Liwonde National Park, the jewel of Malawi's conservation revival, soaring over the changing landscape before landing near your riverside lodge. Met and transferred with ease, you settle in and enjoy lunch overlooking the Shire River. As the day cools, you head out for your first taste of the river by boat, gliding past snorting hippos, basking crocodiles and elephants coming down to drink at the water's edge, while fish eagles wheel overhead and kingfishers flash between the reeds. As the sun lowers and the river turns to gold, you pause for a sundowner, taking in the peace of the wild. You return to the lodge after dark to the sounds of the bush, ready for dinner beneath a canopy of brilliant stars, the landscape and wildlife utterly transformed from the cool highlands of Nyika.

Today is devoted to exploring Liwonde in full, rising early for a game drive in the fresh light of dawn when the bush is most active. Through mopane woodland and along open floodplains you search for large herds of elephants and buffalo, elegant sable and waterbuck, and the black rhino, lions and cheetahs that African Parks has reintroduced to this thriving wilderness. Your expert guide reads the tracks, points out birds and smaller creatures, and shares the remarkable story of the park's recovery from near-empty land to teeming reserve. After a relaxed lunch and siesta through the heat of midday, you take to the Shire River by boat in the afternoon, drifting close to hippos and elephants as the birdlife comes alive and the light softens. Dinner tonight is enjoyed under the stars, to the calls of the African night, before you continue to Majete tomorrow.

This morning you take a light-aircraft flight to Majete Wildlife Reserve, perhaps the greatest of all Malawi's conservation triumphs, arriving at your lodge in time for lunch. Once poached out entirely, Majete was reborn under African Parks into a full Big Five reserve, a beautiful landscape of miombo woodland tumbling to the Shire valley. After settling in, you head out on an afternoon game drive as the day cools, thrilling to the sight of animals thriving in a place that had lost everything, searching for elephant, buffalo and antelope and for the lion, leopard and rhino that make Majete complete, your guide sharing the extraordinary story of the reserve's recovery. As the sun sets over the wild woodland, you pause for a sundowner before returning to the lodge for dinner, surrounded by the sounds of a restored wilderness. Tonight, sleep to the calls of the African night in this reborn reserve.

A full day in Majete is devoted to the search for the Big Five in one of Africa's most inspiring reserves. You set out at dawn in the cool, golden light when the animals are most active, tracking lion and leopard, watching elephant and buffalo, and searching the woodland and river valley for both black and white rhino, all thriving where poaching had once left nothing. Your guide reads the fresh signs of the night and shares the reserve's remarkable story, in which local communities have become partners and beneficiaries in conservation. Through the heat of midday you rest at the lodge, then head out again in the afternoon, ending with a sundowner as the sky blazes over the miombo woodland. Every sighting here feels like a small miracle. Dinner tonight is a celebration of a wilderness reborn, enjoyed under the brilliant African stars, before you head to the highlands of Zomba tomorrow.

This morning you leave the bush and travel to the cool, forested heights of the Zomba Plateau, rising steeply above the historic old town of Zomba. Winding up the escarpment, the air grows fresh and the scenery changes to pine and evergreen forest, tumbling streams and flower-filled meadows. You explore its viewpoints, where the land falls away to reveal the Shire valley, Lake Chilwa and, on a clear day, the distant blue mass of Mount Mulanje, and might pause beside a trout dam or a waterfall, breathing in the scent of pine after the lowland heat. You settle into your lodge on the plateau for the night, savouring the cool mountain air and quiet green beauty. This evening, enjoy the peace of the highlands, a refreshing contrast to the bush, before descending to the shores of Lake Malawi tomorrow for the restful finale of your grand tour.

This morning you descend from the plateau and travel to the shores of Lake Malawi, the vast, shimmering Lake of Stars, reaching Cape Maclear within Lake Malawi National Park in time to settle into your lakeside lodge. The change is complete: from cool mountain forest to golden sand, warm clear water and the gentle rhythm of the lake. After lunch you have time to unwind, swim in the astonishingly clear water, or take a first snorkel among the granite boulders just offshore, where jewel-like cichlid fish dart in every colour. Fishermen paddle their dugout canoes past, and children wave from the villages along the shore. As the sun sinks, the lake turns to molten gold and the first stars appear, giving the Lake of Stars its name. Enjoy dinner by the water and the peaceful lakeside atmosphere, a wonderful reward after the highlands and bush of your grand tour so far.

Today the lake is yours to enjoy. A highlight is a boat trip out to the rocky islands offshore, where the water is clearest and the snorkelling superb; slipping on a mask, you enter a freshwater world alive with hundreds of species of cichlid, tiny fish of electric blue, gold and orange found nowhere else on earth, so tame they gather around you. Your boatman may call in a fish eagle to swoop dramatically for a fish, and you can picnic on a quiet island beach. Back at the lodge you might kayak across mirror-calm bays, swim in water clear as glass, or simply relax on the warm sand. Keen visitors can walk in the wooded hills of the national park behind the beach. As evening falls, the Lake of Stars blazes with stars above the water, and dinner is served lakeside, before you fly out to remote Likoma Island tomorrow.

This morning you take a short, scenic light-aircraft flight far out over Lake Malawi to remote Likoma Island, a barefoot paradise closer to the Mozambican shore than to Malawi's own. The flight itself is a delight, the clear water shading from turquoise to deep blue beneath you, dotted with fishing boats and islands. On arrival you are transferred to your stylish island lodge, looking out over an empty golden beach and shallows of astonishing clarity, where life moves gloriously slowly. After settling in, you have time to swim in the warm, clear water, snorkel straight from the sand among the cichlids, or simply stretch out with a book as the only sounds are the lapping water and birdsong. You might explore the island a little, visiting the great old cathedral among the baobabs. This evening, savour a lakeside dinner and the total peace of island life, with the stars reflected on the still, dark water of the lake.

Savour a final, blissful day in your island paradise, doing exactly as you please to round off your grand tour. You might snorkel or dive among the jewel-like cichlids in the world-class water around Likoma, kayak or paddleboard across the mirror-calm shallows, sail out on a traditional dhow, or take a picnic to a deserted cove for a swim in perfect solitude. Others will happily do nothing at all, drifting between hammock, beach and the cool shade of the baobabs as the gentle island rhythm works its magic after the adventures of the journey. You might explore the island by bicycle and meet its warm, welcoming villagers. As the sun sets over the water one last time and the sky fills with the countless stars that gave the lake its name, savour a farewell dinner beside the water beneath the brilliant Malawian night sky, reflecting on your epic journey across Malawi.

After a final leisurely morning on Likoma Island, perhaps a last swim in the clear water or a quiet walk along the empty beach, you take a scenic light-aircraft flight back over the lake to Lilongwe to connect with your onward international flight. You leave having experienced almost every facet of extraordinary Malawi in one unforgettable grand tour: the rolling grasslands of the Nyika Plateau, boat safaris and reintroduced rhino and big cats in Liwonde, the Big Five in triumphant Majete, the forested heights of Zomba, and the crystal-clear water and islands of the Lake of Stars. Above all, you carry with you the genuine warmth of the Malawian people that gives this beautiful country its famous name. The images of mountain, bush and beach stay vivid long after you land, and you depart already dreaming of a return to the Warm Heart of Africa, having truly discovered it from end to end.