Afrinkong
Nature & LandscapesThe Black Rocks and the Namib
Pungo Andongo's monoliths in the north, and the Namib running the whole southern coast.
Photo Kevyn Costa / Pexels
ANGOLA · Tourism
Kalandula
Kalandula is one of the largest waterfalls in Africa by volume, the Namib runs up the whole southern coast to the Iona dunes, and Luanda's bay is closed by a sand spit with the Atlantic on the other side of it.
Southern AfricaRegion
27Tourism experiences
The Kalandula falls, and a coast nobody has seenKnown for
01
Featured destinations
Where the country actually takes you.
Nature & Landscapes
MountainsMount Moco
2,620 metres in the Huambo highlands, with the last Afromontane forest in the country on it.
Kalandula and Ruacana
Kalandula in Malanje, and the Ruacana falls on the Cunene where Namibia begins.
Photo Victor Rutka / Pexels
Lakes & RiversThe Kwanza and the Cunene
The Kwanza runs to the Atlantic below Luanda; the Cunene is the Namibian border.
Sixteen Hundred Kilometres of Atlantic
The Ilha at Luanda, the Mussulo lagoon, and the dune coast running south to Iona.
Maiombe
Angola's Amazon — rainforest in the Cabinda exclave, north of the Congo river.
02
Wildlife & safari
What lives here, and how you see it without disturbing it.
Wildlife
Giant Sable
The palanca negra gigante lives in Angola and nowhere else, and was thought extinct until 2004.
Photo BabijaPhoto JB / Pexels
Kissama and Luengue-Luiana
Kissama two hours from Luanda, restocked and recovering; the southeast on the Okavango's headwaters.
Eco TourismBringing the Sable Back
The giant sable was found alive in 2004 and has been fenced, guarded and bred since.
Photo Chris John / Pexels
03
Culture & heritage
The part of a country you cannot photograph from a vehicle.
Culture
Semba, Kizomba and Kuduro
Semba became samba across the Atlantic, and kuduro went back the other way.
Photo basunga visual / Pexels
Ovimbundu, Mbundu, Bakongo, Ovahimba
Ovimbundu in the centre, Bakongo in the north, and Ovahimba along the Cunene.
Funge, Muamba and Calulu
Funge with muamba de galinha, calulu with dried fish, and Portuguese pastries after.
Festivals & CelebrationsCarnaval da Vitoria
Luanda's carnival on the Marginal, with the neighbourhood groups competing.
Photo Mario Spencer / Pexels
Traditional Arts & CraftsThe Pensador and Basketry
The Chokwe Thinker is the national symbol, and Chokwe masks and chairs are among Africa's finest.
Photo Tam Nguyen / Pexels
Historic SitesMbanza Kongo
The capital of the Kingdom of Kongo, and the first sub-Saharan city to have a stone cathedral.
Photo Rimiscky Tayuna / Pexels
Mbanza Kongo, Listed
Inscribed in 2017 as the seat of a kingdom that dealt with Portugal as an equal.
Photo Boris Hamer / Pexels
04
Cities & everyday life
Where people actually live between the landmarks.
CitiesLuanda and Benguela
A bay closed by a sand spit and a skyline that went up fast, and a quieter colonial port south.
Photo basunga visual / Pexels
ArchitecturePortuguese Colonial and Modernist
Fortaleza de Sao Miguel, Benguela's pastel streets, and Luanda's late-modernist blocks.
Local LifeThe Marginal at Six
The whole city walks and runs the bay road in the evening, and keeps doing it after dark.
Photo Semih Başaran / Pexels
Family & CommunityThe Mussulo
A lagoon behind the spit south of Luanda, calm, shallow and full of families at weekends.
Photo basunga visual / Pexels
05
Adventure & outdoors
For travellers who would rather walk it than watch it.
Adventure
The Southern Desert
Iona, the Tundavala gap and the escarpment road down to Namibe.
Outdoor ExperiencesThe Escarpment Roads
Serra da Leba's hairpins, and Tundavala where the plateau simply stops.
Luxury TravelLuanda, and Little Else
Good hotels in the capital, and very little organised outside it.
Photo K / Pexels
06
Travel inspiration
The frames people come home with.
Photography / Scenic ViewsWater and Rock
Kalandula in the wet season, when the spray reaches the viewpoint.
Hidden GemsTundavala
A gap in the escarpment where the ground drops a thousand metres, with no railing.
Photo Barnabas Sani / Pexels
Why Visit This Country
Why Angola
A waterfall to rival Victoria's, a desert coast, and a capital that surprises everyone.
Why Angola
A waterfall to rival Victoria's, a desert coast, and a capital that surprises everyone.
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