Lake Kariba — Siavonga.

Siavonga is Zambia's principal lakeside resort town on Lake Kariba, the world's largest reservoir by volume, created when the Kariba Dam tamed the Zambezi River in the late 1950s. Its hillside hotels and marinas look out over a vast, island-studded inland sea stretching to the horizon, offering houseboat cruises, sundowner boat trips and some of the finest tiger fishing in Southern Africa. The lake's drowned forests and quiet bays shelter fish eagles, hippo and crocodile, while the dam wall itself stands as a feat of mid-century engineering.

Just a few hours from Lusaka, Siavonga offers an easy, relaxed escape to open water rarely associated with landlocked Zambia.