I live in a mountain community mostly consisting of retired people 20= miles from Jackson, CA- we are fortunate to have a variety of small businesses that make it convenient to not have to drive 20+ miles down to Jackson for any major shopping. One of those businesses is a small but good grocery store with all the thing of a larger supermarket
- good meat, produce, deli Items not carried by Dollar G. - Well a couple years ago Dollar G came up with a deal to take over the lease on the building of the grocery store- the areas population screamed blood murder - got petition and stopped the take over - well Dollar G bought a lot across the road built a building and was quoted of saying "they were going to run the grocery store out of business - as I said we are in a mountain community 3,500 ft elevation it is known as "the snow line" we get some snow 4 to 10 inches mostly but every year or so 18 to 24 comes in and dew to this being CA some times it is quite wet and heavy OK Dollar G is cheap on everything so the must have been cheap on their building as on our first snow fall this year it was heavy and deep 30 inches on my driveway. This was too much for the new Dollar G store as the roof caved in, destroying the building - no word of them rebuilding.

To follow on Steve's post, there are now walking safaris in some places. You may have seen a recent Youtube video by a (in)famous YouTuber (TML, initials), on getting on the ground so you can shoot at eye level lions and the painted dogs. Not sure personally I would do this (with a lion or painted dog) though for the first time ever our guide in Tanzania allowed us to do that with a cheetah (we stayed next to the vehicle). It was quite a thrill when it ran by us. Got some of my favorite shots that way, like this one:

We traveled to South Africa in the fall of ‘22. Our first stop was a 3 day Safari on a private reserve adjacent Kruger National Park. There are many of these preserves adjacent Kruger and with no fences the animals wander around freely. All the Safari camps seem to use 9 person custom Toyota Land Cruisers, 3 rows of 3. Twice daily trips with a morning trip at 5:30 am that lasts 3-4 hours and an evening trip of similar duration starting at 4. In three days we saw an immense variety of game, all the so called big five; rhino, elephant, leopard, lion and water Buffalo. Plus hippo, wild dog, giraffe, 4-5 varieties of antelope, hyena, zebra and more. We stayed at Tangala Safari camp, I recommend it highly if you go. We traveled the south coast along the “Garden Route” with seals, ostrich, the famous penguin colony at Boulders Beach.
I rented a Nikon S 100-400 for the trip and it worked out quite well. There were times I needed a 600 lens. If you’re a Nikon shooter you might consider the 400 with the internal flip down 2x tele converter.
SÁ is one of many fine locations for wildlife. Also consider looking into Botswana, Kenya, and Namibia. We met people who spoke very highly of all of them.

Thanks Cindy! Have you planned your flights yet? It is easiest to get to Johannesburg and then from there, you can take small planes to reserves in SA. We went to Mala Mala, which is one of the more expensive ones, in Sabi Sands but any of those in Sabi Sands are great. And you can catch flights right from JHB into the camp. We also went to a very expensive place in the Kalahari region of SA (the camp is called Tswalu). But again there are lower cost options there.
For Tanzania, we went to Asilia Africa in Namiri Plains. Even though it isn't a private reserve, there are fewer cars there. If you can, you can fly Qatar airlines and then into Kilimanjaro Airport, bypassing the large cities.
Airfare and lodging prices vary according to the seasons, So in addition to choosing your country, you need to choose the time. But you will find Africa is not cheap! And often the better places for game viewing have more expensive lodges. For example in Masai Mara, we stayed at the Serena Lodge. Again a very expensive place but you fly right into the lodge area and go for game drives right there. So basically one can fly into Nairobi from the US and be on a game drive right away. Part of how I choose places is the convenience of getting there so that a day is not spent traveling.
Kafue National Park in Zambia is supposed to be great (on my list for the future). Bushcamp is one of the camps there that gets great reviews. Again lots of different lodge choices with different price ranges.
More pics from Kenya:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/60519499@N00/albums/72157630798685650/
and Tanzania:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/60519499@N00/albums/72177720312511178

Many choices, private reserves and public.

Adding a few more notes to my post.
My trip was during the last two weeks of April, so new borns were already growing but the young ones are so cool to see. During the two weeks we were seldom near other Toyota Land Cruisers, only a few times where we saw 2-4 other vehicles and only briefly. Ideally, you guides will have three or max four photographers per vehicle so that you can shoot on either side of the vehicle. (I have seen photos of the Wildebeeste crossing the river in August/September and then at the River's edge there are many vehicles...not my interest)

I agree with another post recommending staying in one country. The days go by quickly and taking time out to travel certainly reduces time in the field with the animals.

Don't forget to look for landscape/scenery shots as well. We saw some beautiful sunrises, sunsets and storm cloud formations along with the Acacia Trees that I loved.

You can check out FB for posts from African Nature Photography and also their website.