Anantara Tented Camp Kafue River has opened on the banks of the Kafue River in Zambia, and it belongs on your shortlist if you want a safari camp before the crowds find it. This is Minor Hotels' first tented camp under the Anantara brand, a 13-key property built into Kafue National Park, and it arrives as the marquee project of Anantara's 25th anniversary year, according to Minor Hotels.
That combination, a brand-first format in a park most safari travelers still haven't heard of, is worth paying attention to now rather than after the reviews land. Book it if you want early access to a new safari category from an established operator. Skip it if you need a park with the name recognition of the Serengeti or the Okavango Delta, because Kafue isn't that, at least not yet.
Inside the Anantara Tented Camp Kafue River Opening
The camp sits within a private concession on the Kafue River, raised at least 3.5 metres above the ground on timber platforms, a design choice Minor Hotels says preserves wildlife movement beneath the structures. That makes it, per the operator, the only lodge in Zambia built to that height. The three Horizon Terrace Suites go further: suspended 14.3 metres above the ground and reached by glass elevator, described by Minor Hotels as the highest suites in the country.
The 13 keys break down as nine Pool and Bush Villas with private plunge pools and dedicated indoor spa rooms, the three Horizon Terrace Suites, and a single 400-square-metre Presidential Villa with river views, exclusive boat access, and a private spa zone. Every villa comes with a dedicated host handling dining, activities, and wellness bookings, which matters if you're the kind of traveler who wants a camp that runs itself around your schedule rather than the other way around.
Design came from Meg Ralph Spaces, and the camp has picked up recognition from the LIV Hospitality Design Awards. The build uses prefabricated structures specifically to preserve existing trees on-site, and lighting at night runs soft red to limit disturbance to nocturnal wildlife. It's a camp engineered around the idea that the structure should defer to the landscape, not the other way around, and that shows up in details most safari properties skip: on-site water purification and bottling, zero single-use plastics from opening day, and full solar power.
Dining doesn't sit in one fixed room. A floating pontoon on the river hosts dawn breakfasts, afternoon tea, and sunset dinners above the water. Luzuba Harvestry and Twalumba Bar & Lounge cover modern Zambian cuisine, cocktails, and fireside gatherings, and Spice Spoons runs hands-on Zambian cooking classes. Wellness extends the same logic: the full Anantara Spa menu is available in-room, steam sessions run in the privacy of your own suite or villa (a first for Zambia, per Minor Hotels), and a floating Technogym platform anchored in the river handles private training and yoga sessions.
Why Kafue National Park Is Zambia's Next Safari Frontier
Kafue National Park is Zambia's largest and oldest reserve, and it's the setting that makes this opening worth tracking rather than just another camp announcement. The camp gets access to nearly seven kilometres of Kafue River frontage, shared, per Minor Hotels, only with resident wildlife: hippos, elephants, large predators, antelope, and more than 500 bird species.
Compare that to the traffic patterns at Zambia's better-known reserves, or to Kenya's Maasai Mara and Tanzania's Serengeti during peak season, where multiple vehicles at a single sighting is standard. A private concession with seven kilometres of exclusive river frontage is a different proposition entirely. If your safari priority is volume of game sightings packed into a week, Kafue won't out-perform East Africa's marquee parks. If your priority is space, quiet, and a river safari without another boat in view, this is the pitch.
The opening also lines up with wildlife restoration work backed by the Zambian government and African Parks, aimed at long-term ecological recovery in the region. Minor Hotels frames the camp's arrival as coinciding with a wilderness that's actively recovering rather than static, which is a meaningful distinction for travelers who track conservation credentials alongside thread counts. Activities on offer include game drives, river safaris, guided walks, bush picnics, and catch-and-release fishing, giving guests both land and water access to the same restoration story.
Getting there requires some commitment: private charter flights from Livingstone or Lusaka to Chunga airstrip are the stated access route. That's a filter in itself. This isn't a camp you stumble into on a broader regional itinerary without planning around it, which is part of what keeps a place like this uncrowded in its early seasons.
How This Camp Fits Anantara's 25th Anniversary Milestone
Anantara built its reputation on resort properties across Asia and the Middle East. A tented safari camp is a new format for the brand entirely, and Minor Hotels is positioning this specific opening as a key milestone in the brand's 25th anniversary year. That's a deliberate signal: this isn't a quiet regional add-on, it's the anniversary flagship.
For travelers who track brand expansion the way collectors track a winery's new appellation, that context matters. A first-of-format opening timed to a landmark year tends to get disproportionate internal investment, design attention, and press push compared to a routine seasonal opening. The design pedigree (Meg Ralph Spaces, LIV Hospitality Design Awards recognition) and the sustainability commitments (full solar power, on-site water treatment, no single-use plastics) both read as brand-defining choices rather than standard-issue safari camp features.
What this means practically: expect Anantara to lean into Kafue Camp as a reference point in its marketing and potentially as a template for further safari-format expansion. Early bookers get in before the camp's reputation catches up to its design ambitions, and before word-of-mouth among safari-focused travelers pushes availability tighter.
Who Should Book This Now
This camp suits travelers who've already done a conventional East Africa safari and want something quieter and more architecturally distinct for a second or third trip. It also suits design-forward travelers who track LIV Hospitality Design Awards winners the way others track Michelin stars, since the timber-platform construction and glass-elevator suites are unusual enough to be the trip's centerpiece rather than a backdrop to it.
It's less suited to first-time safari travelers chasing maximum game density in a short window, or to anyone unwilling to route through a private charter to Chunga airstrip. Group travelers should note the villa-and-suite configuration favors couples or small groups over large parties, given the 13-key total.
With a 13-key count and a private concession model, availability at Anantara Tented Camp Kafue River will tighten as the property's design credentials and conservation story circulate among safari-focused travelers. Anyone building a 2026 Zambia itinerary should treat this as a name to call now rather than a place to discover later.
