botswana safari 7 tage

Best of Botswana Tour

Ultimate botswana safari best of botswana.

• Information
• Dates & Prices
• Similar Tours
• Additional Info

What's included

• Accommodations
• Domestic scheduled charter flights
• Full board including activities
• Land transport
• Sightseeing as specified (see itinerary)
• All international airfare, airport and departure taxes - subject to airline conditions
• Botswana Tourism Levy - payable upon entering Botswana
• Driver guide or local escort gratuities
• Medical, evacuation or travel insurance
• Telephone bill, laundry and any items of a personal nature

Tour Highlights:

• 5-Star, Luxury  accommodations
• Scenic flight to destination
• Morning and night safari game drives in Moremi Game Reserve and Okavango Delta
• Okavango and Moremi Motorboat trips
• Guided bush walks in Moremi Game Reserve
• Explore the Okavango Delta in a traditional mokoro (dugout canoe)
• Famous African Sunsets
• Boat cruises
• Scenic Helicopter Flips
• Victoria Falls Extension

Chobe River Front

The Chobe River forms the northern boundary of the Chobe National Park, renowned for its diverse and abundant game viewing opportunities. This section of the park is best known for its dense concentration of wildlife including elephant and hippo populations, but the waters attract all manner of game including large herds of buffalo and the lions that prey on them. A visit to this area guarantees close encounters with an array of African wildlife. Visitors can look forward to some exciting activities such as: driving along the game-dotted river banks in a 4WD; cruising along the river in a motorboat, spotting rare birdlife and for a unique, luxury safari experience, hire a houseboat.

Okavango Delta

Situated in the northwestern corner of Botswana, the Okavango Delta is a World Heritage Site as it is the largest inland delta in the world. The magnificent Okavango River sprawls out over the dry sands of the Kalahari Desert forming this flourishing waterlogged oasis featuring countless meandering waterways and crystal clear lagoons studded with water lilies, as well as fertile floodplains and reeded islands inhabited with abundant wildlife. The Okavango Delta stretches over 15000 square kilometres. Visitors can enjoy a number of wonderful activities such as game viewing, fishing, bird watching or taking an authentic guided Mokoro excursion through this wetland paradise in a traditional dugout canoe. Commonly spotted animals include: lion, rhino, leopard, giraffe, hippos, elephants, crocodiles and countless species of bird.

Moremi Game Reserve

Situated in the east of the Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve ranks as one of the most beautiful reserves in Africa. It covers more than 4871 square kilometres of pristine wilderness, and the varied terrain includes savannah, winding waterways, and dense forest. This diverse ecosystem supports an incredibly wide spectrum of wildlife, ranging from large herds of buffalo, wildebeest and zebra, to the rare sitatunga and lechwe antelope, lion, cheetah and packs of wild dog in the open grasslands. The birdlife is prolific and includes most of the 550 bird species recorded on Botswana’s national bird list. A range of luxury lodges in the reserve offers visitors the perfect base to experience this corner of paradise.

Chobe National Park

• Upon arrival in Kasane, Botswana, you will be greeted by a Safari Ventures Representative and transferred to your lodge.  Enjoy an afternoon boat cruise to admire the famed African sunset.
• Overnight at Chobe Game Lodge
• Full board provided

Spend your evenings overlooking the Chobe River and the game-rich Caprivi floodplains at Chobe Game Lodge, the only safari lodge situated within Chobe National Park. Your luxury en-suite accommodation blends stylish Africa with every modern convenience. Relax at the pool, bar, lounge or library with tranquil terraces offering fantastic river views. Enjoy star-lit dinners and traditional dancing around the fire in the open-air boma set on the river bank among the giant Mahogany trees.

• Spend the day enjoying Chobe National Park and its activities, including game drives and boat cruises.
• The Chobe National Park is home to Africa’s largest elephant population, mostly found along the banks of the Chobe River.
• The Chobe National Park is also one of the best places to witness dramatic predator and prey encounters, where lion, leopard and hyena vie for game like buffalo and giraffe. 

Chobe National Park to Okavango Delta

• After breakfast, you will be transferred back to Kasane Airport for your charter flight to the Okavango Delta. 
• Overnight at Camp Okavango

Enchanting Camp Okavango is set in the heart of the Okavango Delta on Nxaragha Island. The main lodge has a cocktail bar, sitting area and wildlife reference library, with the dining room leading onto an expansive patio where evenings around the fire can be enjoyed.  Other facilities include a secluded bird-viewing hide and sundeck with plunge pool. Guests are accommodated in African-style safari tents on raised teak platforms, with en suite facilities and private viewing decks. 

• Enjoy the meandering waterways by boat or traditional mokoro (dugout canoe), and enjoy guided game walks to encounter the Delta's incredible wildlife.

Okavango Delta to Moremi Game Reserve

• After breakfast, you will take a charter flight from the Okavango Delta to the Moremi Game Reserve
• Enjoy a night game drive
• Overnight at Camp Moremi

Nestled under a canopy of trees,overlooking the great expanse of the Xakanaxa lagoon and the Okavango Delta water system, Camp Moremi is ideally situated inside the Moremi Game Reserve,an area renowned for its diversity in landscapes and exceptional game viewing.The lodge comprises of just 11 guest rooms and one family unit with two bed-rooms and two bathrooms. Each of the rooms have en-suite bathrooms and private viewing decks. Game drives in custom designed 4x4 vehicles and river safaris are offered from Camp Moremi allowing guests to explore the Moremi Game Reserve from the land and water.

• Enjoy day and night game drives and seasonal water activities that take you closer to the unique inhabitants of the Moremi Game Reserve, located in the eastern part of the Okavango Delta. 

End of Itinerary

• After breakfast at Moremi Camp, board a charter flight to Maun Airport for your onward travel arrangements.

More about Botswana

More about this tour

Related Articles:

• Discover the top destination highlights of Botswana- " Top Destinations To Visit in Botswana "
• Five tips to planning your safari trip- " Tips to Planning a Safari Adventure "
• Suggested packing list for your safari- " What to Pack on an African Safari? "

Destinations

• South Africa
• Best Time to Go
• Map Overview

• Travel Journal
• About Safari Ventures
• Partners & Awards
• Travel Reviews
• Request iBrochure
• Travel Agent Program
• Safari Questionnaire

Our Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter and get exclusive offers straight into your inbox.

• Experiences
• Terms & Conditions
• Legal-Privacy

Fill out the form to book the Tour. Required fields are marked *

[tour_date]

Enquiry about the Tour availability or anything you’d like to know. Required fields are marked *

• Travel Guides Plan your adventure
• Destinations Our favourite places
• Tours Book a trip
• Travel Companies Independent specialists
• Travel Guides
• Destinations
• Travel Companies

Safari in Botswana

An expert guide to botswana's best safari reserves, camps and experiences.

Anthony Ham

• In this guide

Okavango Delta

Chobe national park, central kalahari game reserve, makgadikgadi pans national park.

• Need to know
• Getting around
• How it works

Of all the places I’ve been on safari in Africa, I think Botswana tops the list. There is so much to enjoy and, unlike in bigger safari destinations, in Botswana you’ll see a lot more wildlife than other travellers.

Botswana is where I went on my first self-drive safari, and, to this day, it remains my pick as the best place to drive yourself out into the wild in Africa. All but the inner reaches of the Okavango Delta are accessible in your own 4WD, and the experience of driving out into, and sleeping overnight in, lion country, or the amazing world of elephants, or miles from the nearest human being, remains my favourite way of going on safari.

At the heart of Botswana’s appeal are its signature wildlife destinations whose names – the Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park, Central Kalahari Game Reserve – read like a roll-call of storied wildlife kingdoms. And it’s not just the wildlife. From the deep greens and blues of the Delta in flood to the yellows and reds of the Kalahari, or the blinding whites of the salt pans, there is something elemental about Botswana’s call to the wild. In the following pages I’ll explain some of my Botswana safari highlights, and how you can see them for yourself.

featured botswana safaris

Popular Botswana Safari Through the Delta

Discover Botswana

Explore the okavango delta, kwando, the kalahari and chobe.

Best of Botswana Lodge Safari

Makgadikgadi Pans & Okavango Delta Safari Adventure

Botswana's Northern Highlights

10 day small group tour.

Okavango Delta horse riding safari

Discover botswana's amazing wildlife.

Affordable Victoria Falls & Chobe Safari

Chobe Camping Safaris

Okavango Kayaking Expedition

Unique camp-to-camp safari adventure.

Botswana Wildlife Camping Safari

Botswana's hidden gems.

Unlike Africa’s safari giants like Kenya , Tanzania , and South Africa , Botswana remains blissfully under the radar. Yet, it too faces the travel industry's irritating habit of focusing on the popular easy sellers at the expense of everywhere else. There's much more to Botswana than the Okavango Delta. In this guide I'll show you some of my favourite lesser-known Botswana safari spots.

Aerial view of the vast Okavango Delta, one of the best safari destinations in Africa

The best safaris in Botswana

Popular highlights & hidden gems, kgalagadi transfrontier park, tsodilo hills, northern tuli game reserve, okavango panhandle, nxai pan national park, kwando reserve.

Okavango kayaking expedition

Pretty much every Okavango tour itinerary will include a paddle on a traditional mokoro canoe. For something very different, set out on a multi-day, camp-to-camp kayaking expedition through the Delta. Paddle the gentle water spotting the planet's greatest wildlife and camp each night under the stars. Truly unique.

See elephants and more in Chobe National Park

Chobe incorporates two distinct regions: Chobe River (close to the Zimbabwe and Zambia borders), famous for its large elephant herds; and Savute (in the west), where a juxtaposition of contrasting habitats and handful of pumped water holes sustain a melting pot of species.

Chobe in general, but especially the riverfront, has one of the highest elephant densities in Africa and close-up sightings are almost guaranteed. Lions and leopards are also possible here, with giraffe, zebra, buffalo, hippo and crocodiles all commonly seen.

Game drives are the order of the day in Savute where wildlife-viewing is good year-round. Savute is known for its predators – I’ve always had luck with lion, leopard and cheetah here, and on my last trip I spent an afternoon watching a highly active den of African wild dogs. As with the rest of Chobe, elephants are everywhere in Savute.

Explore water world in the Okavango Delta

This is a world without fences and, because of the water levels, human settlements are mostly restricted to the Delta’s perimeter, leaving the rest to wildlife.

In the southern part of the Delta, including in Moremi Game Reserve and Khwai Community Concession, expect a mix of luxury tented camps and budget campsites catering mostly to those on self-drive safaris. The deeper you go into the Delta, the more the crowds thin, with entire concessions given over to the exclusive lodges and tented camps that are such a feature of a safari in Botswana. For most of the tourist season, many of these camps and lodges can only be reached by small plane. Out here, I’ve had the wildlife entirely to myself.

Taste true wilderness in the Central Kalahari

Measuring 52,000 square kilometres, I think this vast wilderness is a signature Botswana safari experience. Known for its golden grasslands, salt pans, sand dunes covered in vegetation and wide former river valleys, it’s a soulful experience that’s custom-made for a self-drive safari.

The mammal density and diversity are not quite a match for the northern parks making it less well-suited to first-time safari travellers but for the feel of a true African wilderness, CKGR is tough to beat.

Hugging the park’s northern boundary, the Hainaveld consists of a handful of compact, segregated, privately-owned reserves. The denser habitat means the landscape is less scenic than inside the park, but pumped waterholes concentrate the game in the dry season. Several of the lodges employ local Kalahari bushmen with legendary tracking skills, who will also teach you about their way of life on a guided walk.

Off the beaten path in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

In the far south of Botswana, this transfrontier park spills over into South Africa. The Botswana side of the park receives far fewer visitors than the South African sections across the border.

The scenery here consists of a dense scrubland and some of the loveliest salt-pan scenery anywhere in Botswana. With a number of hills overlooking these pans, they’re spectacular places, especially at sunset, and many of the self-drive campsites take full advantage of these hilltop positions.

Kgalagadi is known for its classic Kalahari wildlife, and aside from the usual oryx (gemsbok), giraffe and wide range of antelope species, I’ve always had luck with the extravagantly horned greater kudu, lion, cheetah and even a fleeting glimpse of meerkats.

The park provides habitat for nearly 300 different bird species, and I was particularly thrilled when the elusive Kalahari scrub robin and the vivid violet-eared waxbill visited my campsite one evening.

Ancient history in the Tsodilo Hills

Rising from the barren, sandy plains of the Kalahari in a remote corner of north-western Botswana, these four hills project a certain kind of magic. Sacred to the indigenous San people and reputed to possess mystical powers (as Laurens van der Post found in the 1950s on a visit that formed the centrepiece of his classic The Lost World of the Kalahari), the Tsodilo Hills are best known as one of the world’s finest galleries of ancient rock art. More than 4,500 artworks – mostly paintings, but engravings, too – adorn the rock walls of the range, and some date back thousands of years.

Walking trails lead past the artworks that range in subject matter from whales and penguins (despite Tsodilo Hills being more than 1000 km from the ocean) to lions and human figures. I highly recommend you visit with a local guide to greatly enhance your visit.

Unless you’re self-driving and staying at one of the campsites in the shadow of the Tsodilo Hills, there is no accommodation nearby.

Explore Northern Tuli Game Reserve

In the far southeastern corner of the country and formerly divided into a number of segregated farms alongside the Limpopo River, NTGR is now one of the largest privately-owned conservation areas in southern Africa. The spectacular landscape, featuring rolling hills, basalt cliffs, ancient riverbeds and towering granite kopjes , is unlike anywhere else in Botswana. In fact, when combined with its impressive portfolio of wildlife, it remains a mystery to me why more people don’t visit this remarkable place.

Expect regular sightings of elephant, giraffe, lion, leopard and cheetah as well as less common species like eland and klipspringer, and over 350 bird species. Ground-level photographic hides, ancient archaeological ruins and a choice of horse-riding, walking or even cycling safaris complete a chocolate box-assortment of activities.

Spot the flamingoes of Makgadikgadi Pans

Makgadikgadi Pans is famous for hosting one of the largest zebra migrations in Africa. Every year, tens of thousands of zebra migrate east-west through the park, between the pans in the east and the Boteti River out west. From high on the riverbank at the latter, I’ve watched zebras swarm down to the water’s edge in a haze of raised dust, dizzying stripes and distinctive zebra barks.

I’ve also seen flamingos away on the eastern pans in flocks so vast that they seem to move as a single entity. And I’ve drawn near to habituated meerkats just outside the park, and seen brown hyenas and aardvarks close to sunset.

Birding in the Okavango Panhandle

Although not a big game destination, the broad and meandering Okavango River in the northwest of the country is a birder’s paradise, with over 350 recorded species including several iconic Okavango specialties. It is also popular among anglers, particularly around September, when the receding flood waters concentrate huge shoals of baitfish, attracting a melee of catfish, tiger fish, bream and birds. Activities are mostly by boat or on foot.

Other wildlife is far less common, and you’d be lucky to see much more than a crocodile or hippo in the river’s waters.

Zebra migration in Nxai Pan National Park

I’ve always loved Nxai Pan – it’s never busy, my sightings of lion, elephant and cheetah seem perfectly framed by these big horizons, and the baobabs by the salt pans here are a striking presence. With a handful of campsites (including at remote Baines’ Baobabs, a remarkable cluster of seven ancient baobabs (named after explorer and painter, Thomas Baines) and just one upmarket lodge, there’s rarely more than a couple of other vehicles at any sighting.

As well as plenty of elephant, and a good chance of seeing lion and cheetah, Nxai Pan has a couple of other wildlife highlights to draw you here. After the rains, thousands of zebra migrate here from the Chobe and Linyanti rivers after the rains forming part of Africa’s longest zebra migration. And for reasons unknown, Nxai Pan is the only place in Botswana where you can see springbok and impala in the same place.

Linyanti, Kwando and Selinda Reserves

Scattered along the northern waterways of the perennial Linyanti and Kwando rivers, and the seasonal Selinda spillway, the camps in these three neighbouring private concessions operate in a similar manner to those inside the Okavango Delta.

Game-viewing is as good as in the Okavango, with predator-tracking a particular specialty of the Kwando camps. Most camps offer game or wildlife drives, mokoro boat trips, and sunset boat excursions.

What you see in these parts depends very much on the time of year you visit. In Linyanti, for example, from May to October, expect to see lots of elephants, while zebras migrate through the area, usually from February to April. At other times, wildlife can be very scarce, although the November-to-April wet season is excellent for birding in all three concessions, with migrants from Europe and North Africa here en masse.

Chitabe & Qorokwe concessions

In 25 years of African travel, I’ve never seen as much high-quality wildlife as I have in these fabulous Okavango concessions. Over two recent days, I saw leopards, nearly 30 lions, dozens of elephants, a pack of 20 wild dogs, and a cheetah mother with six sub-adult cubs.

Splash Camp

Rory Sheldon

Splash Camp is a small camp in the private Kwara Reserve. Operated by Kwando Safaris who have better responsible travel credentials than most: locally based, no greenwashing, and supporting valuable community projects.

Khama Rhino Sanctuary

Botswana doesn’t have many rhinos but most of them are here in this small, little-known sanctuary, in Paje, east of Central Kalahari Game Reserve. On a recent visit, I was waylaid for nearly an hour by two male black rhinos fighting for dominance right along the main track.

See the baobabs of Kubu Island

For the best of the pans, Kubu Island is a glorious ‘island’ of baobabs south of Makgadikgadi. This was the first place I ever camped in Botswana, and the magic has never left me.

Camp out in Khutse Game Reserve

The southern extension of the CKGR, Khutse gets very few visitors (except on weekends). I love its remote campsites (I once slept here, 40 km from the nearest person), its classic Kalahari scenery, and its lions, leopards and so much more.

Nata Bird Sanctuary

Out in the east of the Makgadikgadi Pans, the pans of this rarely visited community sanctuary draw up to 250,000 flamingos and other waterbirds from November or December until March or April.

Planet Baobab

A budget-friendly option with self-drive access, offering all the activities of its more expensive sister camps on the edge of the pans.

Savute Under Canvas

Easily the pick of the mobile camps in Chobe, &Beyond’s tented camp moves around the park almost weekly and captures the spirit of a mobile camp at its best.

Botswana Camping Safaris

Into Botswana & Zimbabwe

15 day small group tour, botswana safaris: need to know, everything you wish you'd known before you booked, inside tip: self-drive safaris.

Much is made of Botswana aiming for high-end, low-density safari tourism and it’s not uncommon for a luxury camp in the Delta to cost well over US$1,000 per person per night in high season. But it’s actually the mid-range, rather than budget, traveller that finds it difficult to build a reasonably priced safari in Botswana.

Much as the Botswana government prefers not to publicise the fact, it has a fantastic network of campsites around the country. Some are privately run, others are run by the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP). Standard camping fees are USD $50/25 per adult/child. You can book directly through the park authorities or the private operators of the campsites, but you're better off booking through an agent. Renting a 4WD camper can seem expensive, but a two-week self-drive safari could end up costing the same for two people as one day on a fly-in, fly-out safari.

The best times for safari in Botswana

My favourite time to visit Botswana is during the dry season, June to September. During this time, most 4WD tracks are open, water levels in the Delta are ideal for mokoro trips and wildlife watching.

This period also corresponds with the high tourism season (which usually starts in June or July), so it’s also the busiest (and most expensive) time of year. During these months, it can also get extremely cold overnight and early morning throughout much of the Kalahari.

May or October can be a good compromise, although there’s a risk that the rains could linger or arrive early.

Access to the Delta may be limited, but the best months for birding are from November to March or April, when hundreds of migratory species arrive from Europe and North Africa.

Getting there & around

Although Gaborone is the capital of Botswana, the overwhelming majority of safari visitors to Botswana fly into Maun, in the country’s north-west. Maun is right alongside the Okavango Delta and not far from the Kalahari, and it has lots of safari companies, hotels, camps and restaurants and places to stock up on supplies making it the ideal gateway town.

Those heading to Chobe National Park may fly into Kasane, in the north-east. Kasane receives fewer international flights than Maun, but its proximity to Victoria Falls (84 km away by road, across the border in Zimbabwe) makes it well worth considering.

How a Botswana safari works

There are two main ways to go on safari in Botswana. One is to fly into Maun or Kasane (perhaps stay overnight, perhaps not) and then fly into one of the airstrips of the Okavango Delta or Chobe National Park. There you’ll be picked up by your accommodation, and then fly in and out of however many tented camps you’ll be staying in.

You can book all of this yourself, but most international visitors tend to book it via a tour operator.

The other option is a self-drive trip. You can fly into Maun or Kasane (or even Johannesburg) and pick up a 4WD, which will usually have a rooftop tent or other camping equipment. You’ll then drive yourself from one campsite to the next. Road and driving conditions in Botswana are significantly better than elsewhere in Southern Africa, but you’ll need to take obvious precautions such as driving during the day time and ensuring you’ve got sufficient supplies for long journeys.

Safari in the Okavango Delta

About the author.

Anthony is a renowned travel journalist and guidebook author and is one of the world's leading authorities on Africa safari, wildlife and conservation. He has been travelling to Africa for more than two decades to research Africa safari guidebooks for Lonely Planet. He is widely published in The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Monthly, Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR), National Geographic Traveler, BBC Wildlife, Lonely Planet Traveller, Africa Geographic, The Independent, Travel Africa, among many others.

Featured tours

Okavango Honeymoon

Luxury honeymoon in botswana.

The Fantastic Family Safari

Family-friendly adventure exploring victoria falls and chobe national park.

Other guides you might like

Safari in kenya, kenya's best safari reserves and camps.

Stuart Butler

South africa safari, an expert guide to safaris in south africa, wildebeest migration safaris, an essential guide to planning a migration safari in tanzania and kenya.

Hans Cosmas Ngoteya

Safari in zambia, an expert guide to zambia's best safari parks, camps & lodges.

Sarah Kingdom

Safari in tanzania, an expert guide to tanzania's best safari parks & camps, where and how to see the big 5 on safari in africa, safari in africa, our travel writers' top africa safari picks, zimbabwe safaris, an expert guide to the best safari camps in zimbabwe, chimpanzee trekking, an expert guide to seeing chimpanzees in the wild.

Philip Briggs

Namibia safari, an expert guide to the best safaris in namibia.

Melanie van Zyl

Featured tours view all.

Why Horizon Guides?

Impartial travel guides

Our guides are written by the leading experts in their destinations. We never take payment for positive coverage so you can count on us for impartial travel advice.

Expert itineraries

Suggested itineraries and routes to help you scratch beneath the surface, avoid the tourist traps, and plan an authentic, responsible and enjoyable journey.

Specialist advice

Get friendly, expert travel advice and custom itineraries from some of the world's best tour operators, with no spam, pressure or commitment to book.

Our guides are 100% impartial and are written by independent, professional travel journalists. We make money by charging carefully-screened travel companies to list their business on our website. Our advertisers have no influence on our editorial content and we never accept payment for positive coverage.

Read more about how we work and what we believe in here .

• Travel guides
• Work with us

Sitemap , Privacy Copyright © 2024 Horizon Guides

GENUINE BOTSWANA

8 days & 7 nights | botswana chobe river, khwai community area & okavango delta.

Families – Down-to-earth, no-fuss camps

Honeymooners – Great value for money option

Photographers – Excellent option for first-time wildlife photographers

AVAILABLE ACTIVITIES

Game drives

Night drives

Mokoro rides

Nature walks

Cultural tours

BEST TIME TO GO

High Season ⊕ :   July to October

Green Season ⊕ :   November to June

Down-to-earth camps, no-fuss destinations and three big-hitting safari destinations: this itinerary has a lot to offer without a similarly big price tag. In addition to the wildlife and game drives, it also has more of a cultural aspect as two of the camps are near villages, giving you a taste of everyday life in Botswana.

At the start you’ll be boating on the wide Chobe River, midway you’ll be exploring Khwai and end off in the great wilderness of the Okavango Delta.

THIS ITINERARY WAS DESIGNED BY JOANNE

I lived in Botswana’s safari capital – Maun – for seven years where I worked as everything from a camp manager to a travel agent. Being in the epicentre allowed me experience innumerable lodges first-hand and understand how the Okavango’s fluctuating levels affect your safari.

TRIP SUMMARY

7 Nights / 8 Days

DESTINATIONS VISITED

Chobe River, Kasane

Khwai Community Area

Okavango Delta

ACCOMMODATIONS VISITED

Chobe Elephant Camp

Sango Safari Camp

DAILY ITINERARY

Days 1 to 2.

The drive from Kasane Airport to Chobe Elephant Camp will give you a taste of what’s to come as you pass road signs alerting motorists of elephant crossings and see villages like Kachikau and Ngoma.

The view from CEC, as it’s known, is over the Chobe River to neighbouring Namibia. Each day, your guide will take you to explore Chobe National Park. A stand-out experience is sundowners on the water watching a panoply of wildlife like buffalo, ellies, hippos, crocodiles and aquatic birds.

Why we love Chobe Elephant Camp Camp:

• Afternoons at the sun-drenched swimming pool
• Being among the first through the Ngoma Gate of Chobe National Park
• Cultural exchange with villagers of the Sibuya tribe
• Unique sandbag construction is cosy in high season and cool in green season

DAYS 3 TO 4

It’s back to Kasane for the flight to Khwai Airstrip before you settle into Sango Safari Camp in the Khwai Community Area. This is a unique region where community members own and build lodges to be part of the safari world: Sango is named after a local family.

Sango’s position allows you to explore Khwai and Moremi Game Reserve, which is known for strong predator sightings. Today may be the day you see a postprandial leopard snoozing in the bough of a leadwood tree…

Why we love Sango Safari Camp:

• A small camp that is perfect for groups to take over
• Cool down in the elevated pool, overlooking the floodplain
• Night drives in the Khwai Concession to find nocturnal animals
• High-season mokoro trips to appreciate the uniqueness of the Delta

DAYS 5 TO 7

Goodbye Khwai and hello Okavango! You touch down at Santawani and drive through the Delta to the awesomely named Rra Dinare or ‘Father Buffalo’. Buffalo are solid, stable and calm – much like their namesake camp, which comprises comfortable tents.

This is one of the very few areas in Botswana with a slim chance of seeing rhino so keep your eyes peeled. Even if you don’t spot the rarest member of the Big 5, the prolific other game more than makes up for it.

Why we love Rra Dinare:

• Seasonal mokoro rides across the Gomoti floodplains
• A welcome digital detox away from email and the Internet
• Watching elephants munch mopane trees – their favourite snack
• Private vehicle to explore the Santawani Concession with a tracker team

If there is time, you might be up early for a last morning game drive at Rra Dinare, perhaps looking for unusual antelope like roan, sable or eland. If not, you can savour breakfast overlooking the Gomoti River before heading back to the Santawani Airstrip for your flight to Maun.

From Maun, you can connect to flights taking you south where the desert of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve offers the amazing experience of seeing extraordinary animals specially adapted for the arid conditions.

• All activities specified
• All transfers specified
• All meals, drinks and sundowners specified

Laundry if specified

• International flights
• Items from the safari shop
• Pre- and post-itinerary accommodation
• Travel insurance
• Medical insurance, tests and vaccinations where stipulated
• Tips / gratuities

* Subject to change. Your personal consultant will confirm all the details with you while helping you plan your safari to Africa so you have a full understanding of costs with no surprises.

PRICE IS IMPORTANT

This itinerary is here to inspire you and prices may change due to availability, season and the year that you plan to travel., why book with biggestleaf travel.

We are passionate about what we sell

The most competitive and flexible rates

We offer personalised and customised experiences

• Our consultants specialise in different safari-experiences

We have over 10 years’ experience in the travel industry

Our quick response and turnaround times

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY ABOUT OUR SERVICE

Experiences, insured with.

FEATURED IN

REGISTERED ASSOCIATIONS

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter for new accommodation, special trips and top tips for your African safari

© 2024 Biggestleaf Travel | All Rights Reserved | T’s & C’s | Privacy Policy | Tel: +27 (0)87 943 2658

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more

• Australian Dollars
• British Pounds
• Canadian Dollars
• New Zealand Dollars
• South African Rands
• Swiss Francs
• U.S. Dollars

Talk to an expert +44 203 405 6666 Lines now closed

The Okavango's waterways are often crystal clear; great for a tranquil mokoro trip.

The Makgadikgadi Salt Pans are the bed of an ancient lake

All of our fishing in the Okavango is done catch-and-release

Floating papyrus reed beds create a new experience for every boat trip

A leopard will exploit every possible advantage when hunting

Animals in Botswana's protected areas are generally relaxed around safari vehicles

The Gomoti River forms part of Moremi Game Reserve's southern boundary.

Botswana Safari Holidays

Botswana is a land of raw beauty, protecting one of the last great wildernesses on earth.

For a safari holiday, Botswana is hard to match. With no fences around the parks, reserves or wildlife concessions, the animals roam free across huge and mostly contiguous areas of the country. This, combined with strong protection of natural habitats, has resulted in healthy and stable wildlife populations. Here you'll find one of the highest concentrations of elephants in Africa, as well as a wide variety of other big game species, from buffalo and giraffe to the big cats: lions , leopards and cheetahs all thrive here. Botswana is even one of the last strongholds for Africa's most successful predators, wild dogs . For the visitor on holiday, the exclusivity of Botswana's safaris is a major draw – as is the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Okavango Delta . The government's policy of "low-volume, high-income" tourism has succeeded in spreading relatively few visitors across these vast expanses of wilderness, so you can expect a very private safari experience, one that you’ll share with animals, not people. If you're looking for a safari destination that offers the best of the best, Botswana is the place for you. With its stunning landscapes, abundant wildlife, and exclusive safari experience, Botswana is a truly unforgettable destination.

Botswana safari areas: the key destinations

A Botswana safari is often synonymous with the Okavango Delta , yet the entirety of northern Botswana mirrors the Delta's mosaic of ecosystems.

Even the Delta itself offers variety, with the central Moremi Game Reserve and surrounding private concessions providing secluded wildlife encounters. The private reserves in the Kwando-Linyanti area , and the Selinda Spillway, along with the popular Chobe Riverfront, boast impressive game sightings, and the lesser-visited Savuti in Chobe National Park is a magical spot for mobile safaris.

For a different Delta perspective, the more budget-friendly Okavango Panhandle to the north-west offers unique attractions and access to the ancient rock art of the Tsodilo Hills.

A comprehensive Botswana safari experience would also include the the vast, open saltpans like Nxai Pan and Makgadikgadi, set in the Kalahari with its transient wildlife and expansive skies, and the remote Central Kalahari Game Reserve .

Okavango Delta

41 places to stay

Often glamorous, always exclusive, a safari in the pristine wilderness of the Okavango Delta offers the ultimate in wildlife viewing.

22 places to stay

At the heart of the Okavango Delta, the game-rich Moremi has national-park status – without the exclusivity of the surrounding private reserves.

Kwando-Linyanti

13 places to stay

With wildlife aplenty and a heady mix of safari options, the exclusive private reserves of the Kwando-Linyanti area have serious appeal.

The most long-standing of Botswana’s safari destinations, Chobe is home to huge herds of elephant – and the lion who hunt them.

Central Kalahari

7 places to stay

Vast in scale, extreme in climate, the CKGR is the domain of adventurous-minded travellers in search of a very different wilderness.

Kalahari Salt Pans

Often overlooked, the vast, photogenic expanses of the Kalahari Salt Pans present unique rewards for the savvy visitor.

North-west Kalahari

3 places to stay

Much of the north-western Kalahari is very remote. There are a few good lodges here, but it is best visited on a mobile safari.

Long the starting point for expeditions into the wild, Maun is bustling little town that is still the safari capital of Botswana.

Ten best safari holidays in Botswana

All our wildlife safari tours are tailor-made, but to set the ball rolling we have carefully put together ten popular suggestions here.

These holidays vary, but each features all-inclusive safari lodges, excellent guiding and the incredible diversity of wildlife for which Botswana is renowned. So whether you’re in search of leopard or wild dog, or seeking out a magical mokoro trip along reed-lined channels, or looking for the vast African elephant herds that roam Botswana’s wilderness areas, you'll find all of them here.

Then contact us when you’re ready to delve deeper, and we’ll help to guide you through the complexities to find a trip that will be perfect for you.

Wild Dog Safari

13 days • 5 locations KASANE AIRPORT TO MAUN AIRPORT

An in-depth discovery of northern Botswana’s wilderness, from Chobe and the private Kwando Reserve to the Moremi and iconic Okavango Delta with a great variety of activities and wildlife.

US$12,230 - US$21,930 per person

Porcupine Safari

11 days • 4 locations MAUN AIRPORT TO MAUN AIRPORT

Visit dramatically contrasting landscapes boasting a variety of species during this exploration of Botswana’s top-safari destinations. A combination of national parks and private reserves allows for a range of activities.

US$10,710 - US$16,860 per person

Spring Hare Safari

9 days • 3 locations KASANE AIRPORT TO MAUN AIRPORT

An authentic and diverse safari to Botswana combining the Chobe Forest Reserve, Savuti Marshes and the Okavango Delta. Strong wildlife viewing, a variety of activities and excellent value camps.

US$7,290 - US$13,320 per person

Large-spotted Genet Safari

9 days • 3 locations MAUN AIRPORT TO MAUN AIRPORT

A luxury safari exploring the Okavango Delta and Linyanti–Savuti, two of the best wildlife viewing areas in Botswana, staying at three top camps renowned for their guiding for a first-class experience.

US$10,930 - US$23,640 per person

Red Lechwe Safari

Superb guiding from three fabulous camps full of character in three contrasting areas for a fabulous safari to the Okavango Delta and Kalahari Desert.

US$10,800 - US$25,210 per person

Steenbok Safari

A classic Botswana safari exploring the Moremi, Chobe National Park and Okavango Delta. Excellent wildlife viewing and a variety of activities from three of our favourite traditional tented camps.

US$7,260 - US$13,480 per person

Pangolin Safari

8 days • 3 locations MAUN AIRPORT TO MAUN AIRPORT

Three relaxed, local feeling camps in pristine settings – the Kwando Reserve and Okavango Delta. Guided by a driver and tracker at each, this a great trip for spotting Botswana’s top predators.

US$7,760 - US$16,190 per person

Bushbuck Safari

Discover three of Botswana’s best game-viewing regions with stays in the private Linyanti, Chitabe and Vumbura reserves. Intimate, smart camps offer a range of activities by which to discover these stunningly varied habitats.

US$13,570 - US$31,740 per person

Reedbuck Safari

Focussing on the Okavango Delta and combining the crème de la crème of Botswana’s camps – Zarafa, Vumbura Plains and Mombo – this is one of the finest safari experiences in Africa.

US$18,160 - US$36,280 per person

Tsessebe Safari

7 days • 3 locations MAUN AIRPORT TO MAUN AIRPORT

Visit three sister-camps in and around Moremi Game Reserve during this thorough exploration of the Okavango Delta. A range of activities provide excellent opportunity to observe the local birdlife, mammals and fauna.

US$7,790 - US$11,820 per person

View all holidays

Our travellers' most recent reviews of Botswana safari holidays

Feedback from our travellers is exceptionally important for us.

It helps us stay up to date with changes; it helps our travellers to plan their trips; and it even helps us to understand our travellers better. It’s also very valuable to partners running lodges and camps across Africa who appreciate feedback that is guaranteed genuine and often constructive.

All of our Botswana holiday reviews are published in full without us editing them. See all 1265 Botswana safaris reviews here , or click on a card below to read one of our most recent reviews in full.

Arrived 17 Feb 2024, 11 nights

"My Feb 2024 trip"

Overall rating: Excellent

Arrived 7 Feb 2024, 17 nights

"This was truly very special!"

Arrived 28 Jan 2024, 9 nights

"My Jan 2024 trip"

Arrived 18 Dec 2023, 20 nights

"My Dec 2023 trip"

Arrived 29 Oct 2023, 31 nights

"My Oct 2023 trip"

Arrived 29 Nov 2023, 8 nights

"My Nov 2023 trip"

Arrived 7 Nov 2023, 12 nights

Arrived 14 Nov 2023, 11 nights

Arrived 5 Oct 2023, 28 nights

"Our Oct 2023 trip"

Arrived 19 Oct 2023, 20 nights

See all Botswana reviews

Our travellers' wildlife sightings across Botswana

Many of our travellers record their wildlife sightings for us – of the big cats, wild dogs, buffalos, elephants, giraffes, etc … – and kindly share these with us after their safari.

This is great citizen science! Analysing the data gives us a unique picture of the distribution of the species, and your chances of sighting a species at a camp on one of our Botswana safari holidays. ( Read how this survey works. )

The percentages below just give an ‘average’ percentage showing how likely a visitor on safari is to see each species in Botswana. To see much more detail for individual camps and lodges, see our interactive map showing the best locations for wildlife species in Botswana .

96% success

95% success

90% success

85% success

81% success

61% success

56% success

53% success

51% success

37% success

34% success

27% success

19% success

17% success

10% success

Where to find Botswana’s key wildlife species

Our travellers’ wildlife reports help us to work out the best camps and lodges to see Botswana’s key wildlife species.

So whether it’s wild dogs or leopard you’re after, or you’re passionate about pangolins, take a look at our data-driven maps which show the best places to seek each species out amongst the abundant wildlife that characterises Botswana’s wilderness.

For a map of the best camps and lodges for sightings of a given species, click on a card:

Panthera leo

Lions are at the top of the food chain and also most safari wish-lists, but with their numbers falling fast, any encounter with these majestic apex predators always feels like a privilege.

81% SUCCESS

2,971 sightings from 3,648 observations

Where to see lion in Botswana

Panthera pardus

The most numerous of Africa’s big cats, leopard occur across many habitats, from wild tracts to populated areas. Their grace and their elusive nature make them a unique safari drawcard.

47% SUCCESS

1,892 sightings from 4,036 observations

Where to see leopard in Botswana

Acinonyx jubatus

The cheetah is the fastest land animal and the only cat that hunts by pure speed. Found largely in open grasslands, its slim, elegant form is today an increasingly rare sight.

33% SUCCESS

1,030 sightings from 3,090 observations

Where to see cheetah in Botswana

Lycaon pictus

African wild dogs are among the continent’s most compelling animals. Much misunderstood, these rare, tie-dyed canids are amazingly efficient hunters with a fascinating social life.

31% SUCCESS

843 sightings from 2,710 observations

Where to see wild dog in Botswana

Spotted Hyena

Crocuta crocuta

The spotted hyena may be thought of as ‘ugly’ and ‘cowardly’. In fact, this versatile and intelligent carnivore is one of Africa’s most fascinating and warrants attention on any safari.

55% SUCCESS

2,130 sightings from 3,847 observations

Where to see spotted hyena in Botswana

Brown Hyena

Parahyaena brunnea

This largely solitary scavenger is one of the more elusive and little-known of Africa’s carnivores. Shaggier than its spotted cousin, it occurs only in the arid southwest of the continent.

16% SUCCESS

239 sightings from 1,455 observations

Where to see brown hyena in Botswana

Suricata suricatta

These highly sociable little mammals have an endearing appearance and comical antics. Found in the drier areas of Southern Africa, close encounters are a sought-after experience.

22% SUCCESS

85 sightings from 395 observations

Where to see meerkat in Botswana

Loxodonta africana

By far the biggest of the so-called Big Five – indeed, the largest land animal on the planet – the elephant shapes the very landscape it inhabits and is a defining presence on any safari.

91% SUCCESS

3,545 sightings from 3,899 observations

Where to see elephant in Botswana

Syncerus caffer

One of the ‘Big Five’, buffalo earned a fearsome reputation in hunters’ tales. By contrast, big herds of these sociable bovids are placid, but mount formidable defences against predators.

83% SUCCESS

2,505 sightings from 3,025 observations

Where to see buffalo in Botswana

Giraffa camelopardalis

The world’s tallest land mammal, giraffes are herbivores which have evolved many unique adaptations. Their iconic outlines tower above the bush in many of Africa’s wildlife areas.

86% SUCCESS

3,422 sightings from 3,962 observations

Where to see giraffe in Botswana

Hippopotamus amphibius

The territorial calls of the hippo create a signature soundtrack to Africa’s rivers & wetlands. Despite an endearing smile, this aquatic herbivore has a notoriously aggressive disposition.

89% SUCCESS

2,596 sightings from 2,915 observations

Where to see hippo in Botswana

Black Rhino

Diceros bicornis

The black rhino is the smaller and rarer of Africa’s two rhino species but has the more fearsome reputation. Shy and heavily persecuted, it tends to stick to cover.

617 sightings from 1,999 observations

Where to see black rhino in Botswana

White Rhino

Ceratotherium simum

The white rhino is the largest and most numerous of the world’s five rhinoceros species. They are larger, easier to see and generally more approachable than the black rhino.

44% SUCCESS

483 sightings from 1,093 observations

Where to see white rhino in Botswana

Oryx are impressive antelopes, with a powerful physique and elegant markings set off by rapier-like horns. They cut a distinctive dash in some of Africa’s harshest landscapes.

70% SUCCESS

1,285 sightings from 1,845 observations

Where to see oryx in Botswana

Taurotragus oryx

Africa’s largest antelope, eland are culturally important from prehistoric rock art to modern game farms. Though widespread, they are also shy so sightings are uncommon and often fleeting.

49% SUCCESS

1,444 sightings from 2,924 observations

Where to see eland in Botswana

Roan antelope

Hippotragus equinus

Africa’s second largest antelope and one of its most handsome, with a powerful build and distinctive markings, roan are wary of people, but renowned for their bravery against predators.

23% SUCCESS

459 sightings from 1,968 observations

Where to see roan antelope in Botswana

Sable antelope

Hippotragus niger

Perhaps Africa’s most beautiful antelope, sable are renowned for their combative nature, even holding off lions. Shy and restricted in range, sightings of sable are always special.

439 sightings from 1,959 observations

Where to see sable antelope in Botswana

Tragelaphus spekii

The sitatunga is the most aquatic of Africa’s antelopes and specially adapted to its swampy habitats. Though widespread across Africa, only a handful of places offer reliable sightings.

19% SUCCESS

60 sightings from 317 observations

Where to see sitatunga in Botswana

Connochaetes sp.

Superficially bovine in appearance, wildebeests are known for their spectacular migrations sometimes in huge numbers. These resilient animals are some of Africa’s most successful herbivores.

68% SUCCESS

2,417 sightings from 3,564 observations

Where to see wildebeest in Botswana

The zebra is a quintessential African animal: the horse in stripy pyjamas at the end of every child’s A–Z. There are three species, of which the plains zebra is much the most common.

84% SUCCESS

3,732 sightings from 4,421 observations

Where to see zebra in Botswana

Smutsia sp.

Pangolins appear to be more pine cone than animal in their unique armoury of scales. These nocturnal, ant-eating oddities are not only highly elusive but also increasingly rare.

54 sightings from 3,242 observations

Where to see pangolin in Botswana

Orycteropus afer

The aardvark is one of Africa’s most bizarre and enigmatic animals. A shy, nocturnal termite-eater, signs of its presence may be scattered about the bush whilst sightings remain elusive.

67 sightings from 3,244 observations

Where to see aardvark in Botswana

When to go on safari in Botswana

Botswana’s weather is just one of the factors to consider when planning a safari holiday in Botswana.

The country’s climate pattern is typical of southern Africa, with a largely dry season between May and October, as daily temperatures rise to a sticky peak during October. Rain is expected November to April, typically afternoon thunderstorms. Then it can be harder to spot animals, but it’s an excellent time for birders. Click on the months below; see rainfall and temperatures here .

For water activities in the Delta, the Okavango Flood is relevant. Boating and mokoro trips are most likely to be possible between May and September – but choose your camps carefully.

Botswana peak season, when safaris are most expensive, is typically July to October. Wildlife watching can still be excellent during the “shoulder season” months of April, May and November – with the bonus of fewer visitors.

Botswana in January

January is at the peak of Botswana’s rainy season. These rains are often in the evening and are short but heavy, with occasional thunderstorms. Temperatures will still be high but cooler than October–December. Animals are generally dispersed, and not easy to spot, with the best game viewing found in the north of Chief’s Island and on the eastern and southern sides of the Okavango Delta . January is also one of the best months to see the zebra and wildebeest migration in the Makgadikgadi salt pans and at Nxai Pan . Migratory birds abound throughout northern Botswana, along with a large number of breeding flamingos in the flooded salt pans. Rates are generally relatively low, making this a good time to visit on a budget.

• Temperatures are still warm, with occasional thunderstorms
• The bush feels alive; birdlife is at its most spectacular
• Big game is dispersed
• Zebra & wildebeest migration at its height
• Availability in lodges and camps is often very good

A good time to visit, with pros & cons

Weather in January

Botswana in February

The weather in February is very similar to January, with heavy rain most days – often towards evening – and temperatures on the high side, albeit cooling off from the rains and surface water. Across northern Botswana, the landscape feels green and alive; insects and smaller animals are more easily seen, and many birds and animals are raising their young. However, the rains have created pools and waterholes in the bush and thicker vegetation and tall grass makes it trickier to spot larger animals. Further south, the game viewing is beginning to pick up in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Visitor numbers remain low, with attendant rates and availability in camps and lodges.

• Temperatures still warm with occasional thunderstorms
• Many animals with young; birdlife at its most spectacular
• Game viewing picking up in the Central Kalahari
• Visitor numbers are low, so camp availability can be very good

This is not a great time to visit

Weather in February

Botswana in March

March usually sees Botswana’s main rains starting to tail off. Many days will be clear, with a strong sun raising temperatures. On some days clouds will build, and the late-afternoon may see a short thunderstorm. Across the country, the landscape is green and alive. Many birds and animals are finishing raising their young. Much of the migration is now moving north towards the Savute area or Chobe National Park, though thick vegetation still makes it trickier to spot even larger animals. March is one of the best times to be in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, where many of the pans fill up and animals come to drink, closely followed by predators. With few visitors in most areas, rates may still be relatively low.

• Variable weather: rains tailing off but still hot
• Occasional small thunderstorms
• Many animals finish raising their young; birdlife still spectacular
• The best time to visit the Central Kalahari Game Reserve
• Few tourists visit during March, so rates often low

Weather in March

Botswana in April

During April the rains have usually stopped, though there may be still be the odd late downpour. This results in clear skies and a lovely green, lush landscape. Night-time temperatures usually start to drop during April with this being most noticeable in the Central Kalahari and the Makgadikgadi areas. The Central Kalahari is really coming into its own at this point and from April through to May/June the Savute region is a particular favourite of ours, with good predator/prey interaction. In much of northern Botswana, the camps are coming into their “shoulder” season, so rates are on the rise but still relatively low.

• Evening temperatures cooling with just the odd shower
• Northern Botswana is green and lush
• Many animals still with young; good predator/prey interaction
• Central Kalahari and Savute the best places for wildlife
• A popular shoulder season time to book. Rates relatively low

Weather in April

Botswana in May

May is a very popular month to visit Botswana, often the last month of the “shoulder” season before camp rates hit their peak. While there is very little chance of rain, the annual floods from Angola are starting to make their way through the northern part of the Delta, and will eventually reach the majority of the Okavango late June. With cooler temperatures morning and evening, predator activity tends to be higher, although tall grasses can still obstruct game viewing. With cool crisp evenings, and the game viewing really picking up, this is the favourite time to visit for many of our team – and camp bookings throughout Botswana are snapped up quickly.

• Cool mornings and evenings with little chance of rain
• Game viewing is beginning to pick up
• Predator activity increasing, though grasses still quite high
• Last month of “shoulder” season for most camps
• Availability goes quickly throughout Botswana

A very good time to visit

Weather in May

Botswana in June

June is the real start of the dry season. Temperatures are still cool in the morning and evenings with night-time temperatures sometimes reaching freezing, rising to 25–30 degrees Celsius during the day, with blue skies. Along with this comes a certain clarity to the air, favourable for serious photographers. Surface water and waterholes begin to dry up during this period and many animals begin to congregate around the remaining areas with water. Visibility is improving as the grass is beginning to die back, and game viewing is very good everywhere, with particular improvement in the Kwando–Linyanti areas. Not surprisingly, camp availability is becoming scarce and rates are high.

• Warm, comfortable days; cold nights, morning & evenings
• Air clarity favours serious photographers
• Wildlife is gravitating to waterholes, making game-viewing productive
• Grasses beginning to die back
• Most camps are into peak season, with rates correspondingly high

Fantastic: the very best time to visit

Weather in June

Botswana in July

Evenings and mornings are still cool in July, and this combined with great game viewing makes it one of the most popular times to visit Botswana. Vegetation is really thinning out now making game easier to spot, with the few remaining waterholes attracting lots of wildlife. The north-eastern side of Chobe National Park, along the Chobe River, is also very rewarding, although this area can become very busy. Game viewing is extremely good in the Khwai areas, too, but again, this is a public area and – unlike in the private concessions of the Delta – vehicle numbers can be high. Camps are now very much into the peak season, and tend to be full.

• Comfortable days; cold nights, morning & evenings
• Game viewing very good as vegetation dies back and waterholes dry out
• Chobe Riverfront and Khwai areas become very busy
• Private concessions helps to avoid potentially high vehicle numbers
• Now very much into peak season

Weather in July

Botswana in August

August is a popular time to visit Botswana, coinciding with the European summer holidays, and camp availability is difficult. Temperatures are generally cool at night, and comfortable during the day, although towards the end of the month they can rise above 35 degrees Celsius (albeit with low humidity). Cloudless skies bring spectacular star-gazing. Wildlife has congregated around the few remaining water sources, and much of the vegetation has now died back, so wildlife viewing tends to be varied and rewarding, particularly in the Okavango Delta. Depending on the rains in Angola this can also be one of the best times to see the delta floods at their peak.

• Dry, warm days, with mainly cool nights
• Cloudless skies with spectacular stars at night
• A fantastic time for wildlife watching, particularly in the Okavango
• Traditionally one of the best times to see the Delta in full flood
• Peak season: so high rates and many lodges full

Weather in August

Botswana in September

September is another favourite month for some of our team members. Daytime temperatures are getting warmer, but nights remain cool. With the drier conditions, most of the greenery has faded from the landscape, and dust or even smoke create hazy conditions that aren’t great for photographers – though this does result in fantastic sunsets. This is another extremely good month for game viewing, with large numbers of elephant and buffalo congregating in the Chobe region and migrant birds begin to return to Botswana. Rates remain high – and availability correspondingly low.

• Warmer days and cool nights
• One of the best months for wildlife viewing
• Large congregations of elephant & buffalo in the Chobe region
• Hazy conditions less good for photographers, but brilliant sunsets
• High season rates; many lodges & camps are full

Weather in September

Botswana in October

October is the one of the hottest months of the year, and usually one of the driest. Towards the end of the month the chances of rain can increase, and along with this can come greater humidity. The air is usually dry and hazy, making photography more challenging, but the lack of water and vegetation result in very good big-game viewing. Water levels are now much lower, so water-based activities such as boating, mokoro trips and fishing cease in many of the camps which are not on major tributaries.

• Hot temperatures, with the chance of rain towards the end of the month
• Great big-game viewing
• Less opportunity for water activities in camps as floods recede
• Hazy air not great for photographers
• Final month of the peak season in camps

Weather in October

Botswana in November

November usually marks the end of the dry season in Botswana, when increasing temperatures drive a rise in humidity, sometimes culminating in the first rains. These are often short but very heavy showers in the late afternoon or during the night, and can be spectacular. The rains lower the temperatures slightly but bring a flush of green back into the dry landscapes. As waterholes in surrounding areas fill, wildlife will gradually begin to disperse as it is not restricted by the availability of water. November is a great time for birdwatching, with the arrival of many migrant birds. The first couple of weeks are very popular with travellers looking for great game viewing at lower rates as Botswana enters the “shoulder” season.

• Hot in the middle of the day; sometimes humid
• Heavy showers increasingly likely as the month progresses
• Wildlife watching still good, but less reliable once it rains
• Migrant birds start to arrive
• “Shoulder” season brings mid-range rates in camps

Weather in November

Botswana in December

The rains in Botswana have now started, bringing some respite to the high temperatures. Game viewing becomes harder as wildlife is more dispersed but great sightings can still be had in the right areas such as Khwai and the Kwara and Mombo concessions. Areas such as the Makgadikgadi Pans change completely with the salt pans becoming covered in a shallow layer of water attracting large numbers of breeding flamingos. Low-season rates at many camps are a draw.

• Temperatures starting to fall from the highs of October/November
• Very high chance of rain, usually large heavy storms for short periods
• Flamingos return to breed at the Makgadikgadi Pans
• Wildlife more dispersed, so game viewing more challenging
• Typically low-season rates in the camps

Weather in December

Country guide

A guide to visiting Botswana

At first glance, the choices for a Botswana safari are bewildering. Public or private parks? Wet or dry areas? Permanent lodges or guided mobile safaris?

Whatever your choice, Botswana safaris are seldom cheap, but can be good value. Most trips include meals, activities, laundry and park fees; some even include drinks. There are no hidden extras. You'll see superb wildlife and have pristine environments virtually to yourself. For a holiday, a Botswana safari is wild, magical and very exclusive!

Where to go on a Botswana safari holiday

Before choosing where to go, consider the style of holiday you’d like. What wildlife is top of your wishlist? When do you plan to visit, and for how long? And would you like a lodge-based holiday or a mobile camping safari? If you have plenty of time, and the budget, combining a couple of different areas can provide a more comprehensive experience of Botswana's diverse wildlife and landscapes. Northern Botswana’s key destinations include the exclusive private reserves of the Okavango Delta Safari Reserves which, like similar reserves along the Kwando and Linyanti rivers , come with a hefty price tag. Two national parks offer similarly excellent wildlife but are slightly less exclusive: Moremi Game Reserve at the heart of the Delta, and the busier but more affordable Chobe Riverfront within the Chobe National Park , while for something seriously remote, make for the big, open skies of the Kalahari's Salt Pans and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve .

Botswana’s best wildlife areas: public parks or private reserves?

The public parks of Chobe National Park and Moremi Game Reserve form the core of northern Botswana's protected areas. Their wildlife and scenery are often superb, but you will share the area with other vehicles and people so these public reserves don't offer the most exclusive of safari experiences in Botswana, especially along the Chobe River. Strict park rules forbid driving at night, conducting walking safaris, or driving off “road” – which is especially annoying when interesting game is spotted away from the track. Surrounding these parks, however, is a patchwork of private wildlife reserves or “concessions”. Each covers about 800–2,500 square kilometres (some 300–950 square miles), yet each contains just a handful of small, private safari camps, with guests arriving by air. They have no campsites or public access so wildlife watching is generally undisturbed. They also offer much greater flexibility. Their guides may drive off the tracks when searching for game; most offer night drives; and some offer walking safaris guided by expert armed guides.

Environment: dry or wet areas?

For the purposes of deciding on your holiday options, you can divide Botswana’s safari environments very roughly into two categories: dry and wet areas. We usually advise travellers to mix different types of camps and environments, in order to experience the full range of safari activities, flora and fauna. Most camps stand on, or close to, large dry areas, which are easiest to explore by 4WD on a game drive. It's in these drier areas that you'll usually have the best sightings of big game, plus dry-country bird species. Many camps also have access to wet areas – some with deep water, others with shallow. You'll usually explore areas with deep water by motorboat, driven by a guide. Shallower floodplains are best seen from a mokoro, or dug-out canoe. Birdwatching can be excellent, and the ambience amazing, but you'll usually see less game in a wet area than in a dry one.

Permanent camps or guided mobile safari?

All Botswana's permanent safari camps use open 4WD safari vehicles and professional safari guides, and most are very comfortable. Tents and chalets usually have en-suite flush toilets and hot/cold showers; many have fans and some even have air conditioning. Take a look at our suggestions for Botswana safari holidays , then talk to us : the specialist team at Expert Africa can describe them from personal, first-hand experience, and guide you to the best options for your trip. Comfortable camping and luxury tented mobile safaris are a great way to explore the best wildlife areas in Botswana, led by a professional and knowledgeable guide. Join a small group of like-minded travellers on a scheduled holiday or take a private guided mobile safari to a location of your choosing on dates that suit you.

Botswana in context: history, environment & people

Bordered by Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia, Botswana arose from the former British protectorate of Bechuanaland in 1965. Within just a few years, the discovery of diamonds was to underpin the economy, and tourism was introduced, based on a “high-revenue, low-volume” policy to protect the country’s pristine environment. A land-locked country just a little larger than France, Botswana consists mainly of a gently undulating sandsheet punctuated by the occasional isolated outcrop of rock. In northern Botswana, two major features stand out: the vast inland river delta of the Okavango and the Kalahari’s enormous saltpans. Botswana’s climate follows a similar pattern to that of most of southern Africa. The people of Botswana date back some 60,000 years to the hunter gatherers of the Kalahari, whose ancestors are the San (or Bushmen). Today’s society is dominated by the Batswana, whose Bantu language of Setswana is one of the country’s official languages – the other being English. For some general country information, see our General Information on Botswana .

Maps of Botswana: two styles

Take a look at the satellite map of Botswana , below, and the geography of northern Botswana is thrown into graphic relief. Even at this scale, the dramatic sweep of the Okavango Delta , fanning out from the broad Panhandle as it enters the country in the north-west, stands out against the surrounding, largely arid terrain. Most of Botswana’s main safari camps are found within the wider parameters of the Delta, but some are clustered in the Kwando-Linyanti area to the north-east and along the Chobe River within Chobe National Park . To find the location of these and other safari camps and lodges, just zoom in on the map.

To the south-east, the huge white expanse of the Kalahari's Salt Pans is clearly visible, while south again is the vast emptiness of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve . With just a handful of safari camps in these areas, visitors are a rarity – but the rewards can be significant.

Need inspiration?

Let our trip chooser narrow down the options for you

Understand more about Botswana

Information to help you prepare for your trip to Botswana.

Okavango Delta Flood

Types of Botswana safaris

Migrations in Botswana

LGBT Travel in Botswana

Tipping in Botswana

This complex variable may seem like a minor point for most visitors – but both the flooding levels, and the levels of local recent rain, will influence your activities and should be taken into account when choosing where you visit in the Delta. The water levels at any point in the Okavango Delta depend mainly on three variables: first, the local rainfall in your location; second, the height of the seasonal flood of the Okavango; and third, your location within the Okavango Delta. Roughly speaking, the further north and west you are in the Okavango, the higher the flood you’re likely to experience. So read up more by clicking here, and chat to our Botswana experts who will be able top guide you in much more detail as to the current situation is.

Most travellers visit northern Botswana on a fly-in safari , so can explore a combination of environments. Flight transfers between camps are quick and easy, and seeing Botswana’s key safari destinations from the air is a scenic flight in itself: all part of the adventure. Most of our Botswana safari holidays are fly-in safaris, suitable for single travellers, couples, or small groups of friends or family. We offer a variety of private mobile safaris in Botswana, like our private guided mobile in Moremi . These safaris focus purely on you and your companions, using small, private camps which are exclusive to your group. Expect a team of staff looking after you, spacious tents, excellent food and private guiding. Visitors who prefer very independent holidays occasionally ask us about self--drive safaris in Botswana – but with routes through the national parks which are barely tracks in the sand. We can’t recommend self-driving holidays in Botswana: best look west, where we there are some great self-drive safaris in Namibia .

Much of southern Africa’s wildlife moves with the seasons, including zebras, wildebeest, buffalo and elephants. Large numbers of these animals seem to spend the driest months beside permanent water – the Chobe River, the Kwando–Linyanti rivers and the Okavango Delta – and then move into the vast vegetated sand-sheet of the Kalahari for the wetter months. During the rainy season, researchers have shown the great Salt Pans in the Kalahari to be the focus of one of the longest terrestrial migrations in Africa, primarily zebra but also including wildebeest and other animals. Bird migration may have a lower profile, but Botswana’s wet season sees huge numbers of migratory birds arriving into the Okavango Delta from the northern hemisphere, making this a mecca for birders.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) travel to Botswana

The vast majority of Botswana’s people are very friendly to visitors, and we have never heard of any issues experienced by our travellers, or other travellers in Botswana, due to their sexuality – including any LGBTQ+ travellers. To put this in context, Botswana has long been recognised as one of Africa’s most stable countries, with the longest continuous multi-party democracy in Africa. The constitution implies freedom of individuals and expression, and while there are some laws against homosexuality, we aren’t aware of them ever having been applied to tourists. That said, it's important to be aware of both the law and the current climate of opinion. So read on and do please check your government's latest travel advice before you go.

Tipping in Botswana is always voluntary, and should depend on the quality of service received. While we would encourage visitors to tip in appreciation of good service, we’d also like to point out that excessive tips can throw out the local economic balance. Before you decide on what to tip, consider who and when. Behind every successful safari is a dedicated team of staff, all of whom have worked hard to ensure that you have enjoyed your trip – so do consider them as well as your guide and your waiter. Usually we would recommend tipping at the end of your stay, perhaps using the staff tip box, or placing your tip in a labelled envelope or series of envelopes so that there can be no misunderstanding.

Ideas for safari holidays in Botswana

In the heart of southern Africa, northern Botswana offers a real variety of options for an unforgettable safari holiday.

From the arid Kalahari in the south to the well-watered forest glades further north, the region’s varied ecosystems attract the large numbers of big (and small) animals for which Botswana safaris are famous. Huge herds of elephants and buffalos , for example, gravitate to the Okavango Delta , the area close to the Kwando and Linyanti rivers , and the northern Chobe Riverfront . Whilst cheetahs and other dry-country species frequent the drier areas, including the Central Kalahari Game Reserve .

Every bit as impressive as the wildlife on a Botswana holiday is the wilderness: endless pristine areas almost untouched by human influence. The feel of remoteness in the middle of stunning landscapes combined with the constant presence of wildlife make a safari holiday here unique.

Look through the ideas below, then Talk to us ; we can create the ideal Botswana safari holiday for you.

Pygmy Mouse Self-drive Safari

18 days • 10 locations WINDHOEK AIRPORT TO VICTORIA FALLS AIRPORT

A truly epic southern African self-drive safari adventure from Namibia’s mountains and deserts, along the lush Caprivi Strip to Botswana and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, staying at luxury lodges throughout.

US$5,420 - US$8,760 per person

Mopane Squirrel Safari

6 days • 2 locations MAUN AIRPORT TO MAUN AIRPORT

Visit two wildlife-rich private reserves in an exploration of the Okavango and Kwando regions. Sister camps Splash and Lagoon camp provide a range of immersive activities, and their long-stay discounts make for an excellent-value safari.

US$5,890 - US$11,770 per person

Honey Badger Safari

Two smart sister camps offer access to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the heart of the Okavango Delta. Experience a spectacular range of habitats and wildlife through diversely exciting safari activities.

US$5,790 - US$10,150 per person

Great Egret Safari

12 days • 4 locations MAUN AIRPORT TO VICTORIA FALLS AIRPORT

A wonderfully varied adventure to Botswana and Zimbabwe combining three fantastic safari areas, a luxury river cruise and the mighty Victoria Falls.

US$9,210 - US$17,110 per person

Slaty Egret Safari

4 days • 2 locations MAUN AIRPORT TO MAUN AIRPORT

Two luxurious, intimate camps provide a highly personalised exploration of the Chitabe concession and private Vumbura reserve within the Okavango Delta. A range of water and land activities allows for stunning sightings.

US$7,000 - US$14,130 per person

The Highlights of Africa

17 days • 7 locations CAPE TOWN AIRPORT TO KIGALI AIRPORT

An epic adventure taking in some of Africa’s most incredible sights and wildlife experiences, from Cape Town to the Okavango Delta, Victoria Falls, the Maasai Mara and an encounter with mountain gorillas.

US$14,320 - US$18,180 per person

Rock Hare Self-drive Safari

20 days • 12 locations WINDHOEK AIRPORT TO VICTORIA FALLS AIRPORT

An in-depth look at Namibia from the Namib Desert to the Caprivi, with additional stops in Botswana and Victoria Falls. This three-week adventure includes an unrivalled mix of environments and is great value.

US$5,120 - US$7,300 per person

Sable Self-drive Safari

12 days • 7 locations WINDHOEK AIRPORT TO VICTORIA FALLS AIRPORT

A great-value southern African self-drive adventure from Namibia along the Caprivi Strip to Botswana and Zimbabwe, combining other-worldly landscapes, unforgettable wildlife spectacles and rarely visited places, and ending at Victoria Falls.

US$6,020 - US$8,150 per person

Let us help you customise your trip

All of our holidays on this site are just ideas; none are fixed. All of our trips are tailor-made, so we'll always adapt them to suit you. Talk to an Expert and let us help you to work out your perfect trip.

Talk to an Expert

Call us now! We’ll match you with the Specialist in our team who is best suited to help you. Then together we can start planning your trip.

Set up your itinerary

Based on our experience and your ideas, your specialist will create a detailed, costed itinerary. We’ll refine it together, until we have a trip that you’re perfectly happy with.

Prepare for your trip

The same Specialist will make the seamless arrangements for your trip, send you detailed travel documents, and be available to answer any questions before you depart.

Travel with peace of mind

After you set off, you’ll be cared for by our partners in Africa, most of whom have worked with Expert Africa for decades. And if you ever need us urgently, we’re available 24/7.

When you return

We love to learn about your trip, and so will always be grateful if you’ve the time to give feedback to your Specialist when you return.

Special kinds of holidays in Botswana

From Family safari holidays to the most indulgent, luxurious safaris – Botswana has an exceptionally broad appeal.

Wildlife is a given, but so are the birds; with more than 400 species to be found in the Okavango Delta alone. Less obvious, perhaps, are adventure activities, all with expert guides, from walking safaris to riding safaris .The exclusive private reserves offer the perfect setting for a Botswana honeymoons safari : think moonlit baths, dinner by candlelight and sleeping under the stars.

Lodges with spas add a further touch of indulgence. At the other end of the spectrum, family-friendly safaris offer real flexibility, with some exciting “bush” school options. Then there are specialist photography holidays in Botswana : camps have specially-adapted game-viewing vehicles and boats; some even have high-end cameras and lenses available to guests.

Whatever matters to you about your safari holiday; talk to us about it and if it can be done – we’ll make it happen.

Birdwatching

Diverse habitats, discreet hides and superb guiding.

Cultural experiences

Get an insight into Africa's cultures and history.

Family holidays

Hand-picked camps for an incredible family safari.

Romantic safaris and castaway island retreats.

First-class service, scenic vistas and unparalleled comfort await you during these carefully selected luxury holidays. 

Photography holidays

Great holidays to suit the keen photographer.

Private villas & houses

Enjoy Africa with just your friends & family

Riding holidays

Explore Africa's wilderness on horseback.

Solo Travel

Trip ideas ideally suited for a solo traveller.

Explore Africa's most scenic trails on foot.

Walking safaris

Explore Africa's untouched wildernesses on foot.

Wellness escapes in stunning locations

Wildlife safaris

These trips include hard-hitting game and fascinatingly elusive species alike, as well as superb guiding and a variety of diverse ecosystems.

Frequently Asked Questions

Botswana FAQs

Numerous questions occur when you’re planning a Botswana safari, the sort of thing that you’d like to ask a friend who has been before, but may seem trivial.

Those below are some of the questions that we’re frequently asked, from what to expect on a mobile safari, to why Botswana is expensive. Everyone is different, though, so please do contact us with your questions – however trivial; we’re here to help.

Why are Botswana safaris so expensive?

Botswana has positioned itself as a high-cost, low-impact tourism destination, in order to protect the environment. In addition, many of the region’s great wildernesses are exceptionally remote, making operational and transport costs proportionately high. For the visitor, the rewards are many. Exclusivity is at the heart of a Botswana safari, with only a few lodges and camps in each of the vast private reserves, employing some of the industry’s top guides. Even in Botswana’s national parks and game reserves, safari lodges – and visitors – are limited. A further plus is that except in hotels in places such as Maun and Kasane, most trips include meals, activities, laundry and park fees, and some even include drinks. So while costs are often high, Botswana safaris can offer very good value for that money.

What are the tents like on a tented safari?

Except on a mobile safari like this , the “tents” in a game lodge are as far from camping as you could imagine. For the most part they’ll be walk-in structures with a metal or wooden framework, with stretched canvas sides and roof. In the simplest, screened windows set into the canvas keep out bugs, and roll back “doors” may open onto a private veranda with a view, while see-through covers and canvas blinds can be rolled down at night or during the rainy season. At the luxury end of the spectrum, some “tented rooms” may boast sliding glass doors and air conditioning. All will have en-suite bathrooms, ranging from the simple but functional to the seriously hedonistic.

What's a mobile safari like?

Essentially, you’ll be staying in small but comfortable tents – think glamping, or “comfort camping” – that are moved on a regular basis by your mobile safari crew, leaving no permanent footprint. There’ll usually be at least two if not three different locations, with guests enjoying guided safari activities while the camp is moved to the next location. Typically you’ll have breakfast in camp, prepared over an open fire, then you’ll set off to explore on a game drive, sometimes with a packed lunch, sometimes returning to camp at midday. Come the evening, you’ll return to camp for a bucket shower in your own tent, followed by drinks and a hearty meal under the stars. All mobile safaris cater for just small numbers, with some, such as our private guided mobile safari , exclusive to one group of travellers – making them ideal for a family safari or small groups of friends travelling together.

What’s a typical day on safari?

Most Botswana safari lodges offer two activities a day. After an early-morning wake-up call – usually at or just before sunrise, when wild animals are at their most active – you’ll be offered a hot drink and a snack, or a more substantial breakfast, before you set out. This is usually on a morning game drive, but it could be a walking safari, a mokoro or motorboat trip, or even a short canoe safari. At most lodges you’ll return late morning for a substantial, well-prepared meal, either brunch or lunch. Siesta time follows, the opportunity to sit back with a pair of binoculars and scan the surroundings, or to relax with a book. Mid-afternoon sees tea or coffee with cake, and perhaps a savoury snack, ready for your late-afternoon activity. Sometimes you’ll return to the lodge before sunrise; in the private reserves you may stay out for sundowner drinks before returning for dinner.

Can I self-drive around Botswana?

While driving yourself around parts of northern Botswana is possible, it’s not something we offer – with the exception of short forays into the Okanago’s Panhandle as part of an add-on to a self-drive trip around Namibia. Firstly, because many of the best safari areas in Botswana are in private reserves, which are completely off-limits to all self-drive travellers. The only way to visit most these is on a fly-in safari. Self-drive safaris are effective limited to the national parks and reserves – typically Chobe , Moremi , Nxai and Makgadikgadi – which are generally much busier, and more regulated, than the surrounding private reserves. Through these national parks, the “roads” these are scarcely more than sand tracks, which change with the seasons. Trips through these become expeditions on which you must take all of your camping equipment, food and supplies. The complete lack of back-up means that they’re far from relaxing holidays: what do you do if your track is blocked by a fallen tree, or an area is made impassable by a flood? Without a knowledgeable guide, finding the very wildlife that you’ve come for is simply pot luck on a self-drive – and you’ll spend much of your time focusing on getting around, camping and cooking for yourself. Whilst several of Expert Africa’s more adventurous Botswana experts have done these trips – and we’ve even written the definitive guidebooks on how to do them – we don’t recommend them and don’t organise them for travellers. So our safaris in Botswana leave the driving, the cooking and your comfort to the experts, leaving you to enjoy the animals, the landscape, the sheer wilderness that is Botswana’s biggest draw.

How many nights should I stay?

Many of our suggested Botswana safaris can be fitted into a week’s vacation, ranging from four to seven nights. This is plenty to explore a couple of areas of northern Botswana, perhaps two camps within Moremi Game Reserve , or visiting both Chobe National Park and a private reserve within the Okavango Delta , without feeling rushed. For those with plenty of time, the options are endless. Combine a week on a Botswana wildlife safari with time visiting the lesser-known attractions of the North-west Kalahari , or the Kalahari's Salt Pans , or seek out the rarities – such as sitatunga, Pel’s fishing owl, the slaty egret or sable antelope – in different areas of the Delta . A balance of wildlife and cultural attractions can also be appealing; Botswana has a wealth of ancient rock art just waiting to be explored.

Our other African destinations

At Expert Africa, we're experts in African travel. If Botswana is too pricy, we can guide you to look at several great alternatives.

Zambia stands out with its exceptional wildlife and intimate camps, including several top-notch owner-operated establishments that compete with Botswana's best. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe offers an experience which is often more rustic, but hugely enhanced by the sheer quality of its safari guides.

For an entirely different but equally thrilling safari, consider Namibia . Its vast landscapes allow for self-drive adventures that come at a fraction of Botswana's cost – including world-class safari elements.

For those wishing to pair their safari with aquatic activities or seaside relaxation, the east coast of Africa beckons. We recommend Kenya , Mozambique , Malawi , and South Africa . Island extensions to Zanzibar or the Seychelles are also fantastic options.

And if encountering mountain gorillas is a dream of yours, Rwanda should not be overlooked.

The choices are varied, so contact us ; to help you to craft your perfect safari – wherever that may be.

Humanity’s ancestors lived in Kenya, which is now home to people speaking 42 languages, and some of Africa’s rarest, most magnificent wildlife.

With tropical rivers, Rift Valley plateaux, the crystal-clear waters of Lake Malawi and a stunning lakeshore, Malawi invites relaxed exploration.

An ocean paradise protected by world-class marine parks, Mozambique’s idyllic archipelagos offer heavenly hideaways, outstanding diving and laid-back luxury.

Spectacular scenery, diverse wildlife and a rich cultural heritage await discovery by air, with a guide or on a self-drive adventure.

This small, mountainous country offers Africa’s best gorilla treks, other good safari options and a profound human element in every trip.

The ultimate glamorous getaway: the lush islands of Seychelles are enchantingly beautiful and stylish sanctuaries for both wildlife and ocean-lovers.

South Africa

Cosmopolitan Cape Town, world-class wineries, brilliant ‘Big Five’ safaris and spectacularly diverse scenery make South African holidays fabulously exciting and enjoyable.

East Africa’s biggest country has a wide range of parks to explore and some of the Indian Ocean’s best island retreats.

Home to walking safaris, exceptional wildlife, superb guiding and the mighty Victoria Falls, Zambia is Africa at its most alluring.

The ultimate Spice Island: Zanzibar’s mystique, marine life and chic beach retreats make it Africa’s most alluring archipelago.

Stunning national parks teeming with game, plus Africa's finest professional guides and the spectacular Victoria Falls: Zimbabwe is enthralling.

Elephant safari in Linyanti

Login to Expert Africa

Sign in with password

Sign in with email link

New to Expert Africa? Create an account

Forgotten your details?

It's free & quick to set up

• Save your wish-list
• Send us an enquiry
• Pay online for your trip
• Subscribe to our newsletter
• Give us feedback on your trip
• Full site benefits of the site

Need some help? Talk to our team

APRIL SALE:   Book now and get   up to 60% off!

8 Days Safari tour itinerary for Botswana: Venture Into The Untamed Wilderness Of Africa

• Fully Guided
• Personalized

Animals You Might See

• Introduction
• Day 1-2 Mokoro & Game drive
• Day 3-4 Big 5 Game Drive & Safari walk
• Day 5-6 Wilderness Camp and Big 5 Game drive
• Day 7-8 Chobe Safari Criuse

Want to read it later?

Download this tour’s PDF brochure and start tour planning offline

What's Included

• Accommodation
• Additional Services
• Optional Extras

Where You'll Stay

Adventure type.

• Group of 10 travelers max.
• Fast booking confirmation
• Carefully planned itineraries
• Travel with like-minded people
• Choose your preferred dates and duration
• Upgrade your accommodation
• Customize the itineraries

Reviews About This Operator

• Tour Operator Little Roz Tours 4.8
• Arthur · 24th July 2023 We had a wonderful time! Rocky, Jimmy, and Simba were excellent as drivers, guides, cooks, and problem solvers. We... Show more
• Marion · 20th September 2022 Our Tour Guide Bronah was informative, courteous and happy to help us. Our boat ride with Ian was informative and he... Show more
• Bryan · 6th September 2022 Good morning, my wife and my sister and I had an OUTSTANDING trip to Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana in June... Show more

Dates & Availability

Pay-by-instalments

Take advantage of our 0% interest instalment plan on selected departures. Learn More

• Upcoming departures
• August 2024
• September 2024
• October 2024
• November 2024
• December 2024
• January 2025
• February 2025
• Sunday 12 May, 2024 Sunday 19 May, 2024 English Multiple Room Types €2,390 Confirm Dates
• Get Instant Confirmation Sunday 16 Jun, 2024 Sunday 23 Jun, 2024 English Multiple Room Types €2,390 Confirm Dates Hold space for 48h
• Get Instant Confirmation Sunday 14 Jul, 2024 Sunday 21 Jul, 2024 English Multiple Room Types €2,390 Confirm Dates Hold space for 48h
• Get Instant Confirmation Sunday 18 Aug, 2024 Sunday 25 Aug, 2024 English Multiple Room Types €2,390 Confirm Dates Hold space for 48h
• Get Instant Confirmation Sunday 15 Sep, 2024 Sunday 22 Sep, 2024 English Multiple Room Types €2,390 0% Interest Instalments Confirm Dates Hold space for 48h
• Get Instant Confirmation Sunday 13 Oct, 2024 Sunday 20 Oct, 2024 English Multiple Room Types €2,390 0% Interest Instalments Confirm Dates Hold space for 48h
• Get Instant Confirmation Sunday 17 Nov, 2024 Sunday 24 Nov, 2024 English Multiple Room Types €2,390 0% Interest Instalments Confirm Dates Hold space for 48h
• Get Instant Confirmation Sunday 15 Dec, 2024 Sunday 22 Dec, 2024 English Multiple Room Types €2,390 0% Interest Instalments Confirm Dates Hold space for 48h
• Get Instant Confirmation Sunday 19 Jan, 2025 Sunday 26 Jan, 2025 English Multiple Room Types €2,390 0% Interest Instalments Confirm Dates Hold space for 48h
• Get Instant Confirmation Sunday 16 Feb, 2025 Sunday 23 Feb, 2025 English Multiple Room Types €2,390 0% Interest Instalments Confirm Dates Hold space for 48h

Frequently Asked Questions

We are there for you! If you have any questions about this tour, then please don't hesitate to contact us 24/7 and we will get back to you latest within 2 hours!

Got a question about this tour?

Reach out to our travel experts.

Good to Know

• Currency P Pula Botswana

As a traveller from USA, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand you will need an adaptor for types D, M.

• These are only indications, so please visit your doctor before you travel to be 100% sure.
• Typhoid - Recommended for Botswana. Ideally 2 weeks before travel.
• Hepatitis A - Recommended for Botswana. Ideally 2 weeks before travel.
• Tuberculosis - Recommended for Botswana. Ideally 3 months before travel.
• Hepatitis B - Recommended for Botswana. Ideally 2 months before travel.
• Rabies - Recommended for Botswana. Ideally 1 month before travel.
• Yellow fever - Certificate of vaccination required if arriving from an area with a risk of yellow fever transmission for Botswana. Ideally 10 days before travel.
• Unfortunately we cannot offer you a visa application service. Whether you need a visa or not depends on your nationality and where you wish to travel. Assuming your home country does not have a visa agreement with the country you're planning to visit, you will need to apply for a visa in advance of your scheduled departure.
• Here is an indication for which countries you might need a visa. Please contact the local embassy for help applying for visas to these places.
• For any tour departing before 25th July 2024 a full payment is necessary. For tours departing after 25th July 2024, a minimum payment of 20% is required to confirm your booking with Little Roz Tours. The final payment will be automatically charged to your credit card on the designated due date. The final payment of the remaining balance is required at least 90 days prior to the departure date of your tour. TourRadar never charges you a booking fee and will charge you in the stated currency.
• Some departure dates and prices may vary and Little Roz Tours will contact you with any discrepancies before your booking is confirmed.
• The following cards are accepted for "Little Roz Tours" tours: Visa, Maestro, Mastercard, American Express or PayPal. TourRadar does NOT charge you an extra fee for using any of these payment methods.
• Insurance Unless otherwise mentioned, TourRadar does not provide travel insurance. We do however recommend purchasing it through our tried and trusted partner, World Travel Nomads .
• Accessibility Some tours are not suitable for mobility-restricted traveller, however, some operators may be able to accommodate special requests. For any enquiries, you can contact our customer support team , who are ready and waiting to help you.
• Switzerland Tours
• Cape York Frontier (Fly/ Drive, 7 Days)
• Egypt - Pharaonic Egypt and Abu Simbel
• Treasures Of Turkey - Preview 2021 (15 Days)
• Italian Treasures Rome to Budapest (2024)
• Gokyo Renjo-La Pass Trekking - 15 Days
• Hiking in Europe in June

Similar Tours

Keep Exploring Botswana

• Botswana Travel Guide | All You Need to Know
• All You Need to Know About Okavango Delta: Facts & Information
• 10 Best African Safari Tour Operators 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in December 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in August 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in January 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in November 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in October 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in September 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in July 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in June 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in May 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in April 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in March 2024/2025
• 10 Best Safaris in February 2024/2025
• 10 Best Luxury African Safari Tours 2024/2025
• 10 Best African Camping Safari Vacations 2022
• 10 Best Walking Safaris 2024/2025
• 10 Best Beach Safaris: Places & Packages 2022
• Compare Hot Air Balloon Safaris in Africa 2022
• Chobe National Park Facts & Information: All You Need to Know
• Botswana from Maun
• Botswana Safari
• Small group tour
• 8 days Botswana
• From Maun to Kasane
• Operators in Africa
• Moremi Game Reserve
• Chobe National Park
• 8 Days Safari tour itinerary for Botswana: Venture Into The Untamed Wilderness Of Africa Tours in Botswana
• Safari Tours
• Okavango Tours
• Active Tours
• Family Tours
• Group Tours
• Fully Guided Tours
• Personalized Tours
• Botswana tours

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Manage Your Subscription
• Give a Gift Subscription
• Sweepstakes
• Hotels + Resorts

This 7-night Safari in Botswana Is All About Wildlife, Water, and Sustainability — Here's What It Was Like to Visit

The Okavango Delta creates a safari landscape like no other.

Courtesy of Wilderness Safaris

Less than an hour after landing at a remote airstrip, we're having sundowners en route to the lodge. A troop of dozens — perhaps a hundred — baboons returns to the trees around us to roost for the night. A nosy kudu slowly circles our makeshift camp. Chatty squirrels chitter away in the branches above our heads. We sip our gin and tonics and watch as the Okavango Delta settles into dusk. So it goes on safari in Botswana.

We hop back into the jeep and make for Vumbura Plains, our home for the next few nights, passing elephants under trees and lechwe antelope spread across the flooded plains. But interestingly, it's not the wildlife that captivates me on the ride. It's the water.

The Okavango Delta is a sprawling inland delta, and each winter, floodwaters from the Okavango River inundate some three million acres of grassland and desert. It creates a vast waterscape that not only draws human visitors like me but plenty of animal ones, too. So as we're driving to the lodge, my heart stops as the road disappears into the waters — and I hold my breath as we plunge right in. "You might want to pick up that bag," our Wilderness guide Dave Luck says to me as the water gurgles beneath the floor of the jeep, seeping in through the crevices.

The floodwaters aren't very deep, though, and the local guides know where the roads twist and turn, even if I can't see anything through the murk. It's a surreal feeling to be navigating these waters in a jeep rather than on a boat.

We arrive at Vumbura Plains , and there's plenty more water to be found here. The camp was newly rebuilt in 2022 and now has a series of 14 open-air suites connected by elevated wooden walkways. I sit in my sunken living room adorned with water-lily motifs, and even though it's after dark, I can hear wildlife wading through the water all around me.

The water remains a source of intrigue for me during our stay at Vumbura Plains, perhaps even more so as we take to the skies in a helicopter. From our aerial vantage point, I can see just how expansive the floodwaters are — and how filled they are with wildlife. Water-loving hippos and crocodiles are spread across the saturated plains, while elephants march single-file through the reeds, creating meandering pathways visible from the air. 

Our next adventure takes us away from the floods, in the Linyanti Concession, where the eight-room DumaTau camp becomes our next home. There is water here, too, as the lodge sits on a riverfront that's very popular with elephants. In fact, one waltzes right past my tented suite as I'm reclining for an afternoon nap.

On one of our game drives across the dry terrain, we see dozens of vultures perched on every tree within eyesight. And that means one thing: dinner is served. (Not ours, of course, but lions'.)

As we make our way through the tall, rustling grass, we spot a few lounging lionesses and their playful cubs. Then the smell hits us: it's a slightly putrid buffalo, one that the lions have been feasting on for some time. One lioness is polishing off its exposed ribs, her strong teeth tearing into the flesh and peeling it straight off the bone. Dave hands me a small tin filled with a fragrant salve. "For the smell," he notes, rubbing some under his nose. The trick works wonders, and we continue our observations of the feast.

You might think such a sight (and odor) might deter us from our own dinner back at DumaTau, but the cuisine at this camp is too delectable to pass up. The food system, as the printed menu tells me, is responsible for some 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. So Wilderness designs "mindful menus" here, incorporating locally sourced, sustainable ingredients into its dishes to reduce its "foodprint." What's more, food waste is minimized by the kitchen's upcycling team, which turns scraps into preserves, pickles, and stocks. Nothing goes to waste in nature, and so it shall be at Wilderness camps, too.

Our final leg of the safari takes us back to the Okavango Delta, this time to the camp Jao. And here, I'm awestruck at the architecture. Jao feels like a movie set. It's a series of striking, modern tree houses that blend natural elements with high design and sustainable engineering. (The thatch, for instance, is actually made from recycled plastic.)

The room that really takes my breath away is the double-height library and wine room, at the center of which is a giraffe skeleton. Jao is equal parts futuristic and classic safari, and it's certainly a feast for the eyes.

We return to watery adventures in the delta, but not in jeeps. One afternoon, we take a more traditional form of transportation: a hand-carved mokoro canoe. Skilled gondoliers use long poles to propel us through the floodwaters, pausing at points to teach us about the flora of the region. We make necklaces out of water lilies and wear them proudly as we glide through the reeds.

On our last night in Botswana, the staff prepares us a beautiful sundowner send-off — a massive spread arranged on my suite's terrace surrounding a fire pit. As we watch the light fade over the water, we once more sip on our gin and tonics, the sights and sounds of our trip shining brightly in our memories.

A seven-night, three-camp Bucket List Botswana safari with Wilderness starts at $12,120 per person; book your trip at wildernessdestinations.com . 

• Inspiration
• Destinations
• Places To Stay
• Style & Culture
• Food & Drink
• Wellness & Spas
• News & Advice
• Partnerships
• Traveller's Directory
• Travel Tips
• Competitions

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Botswana: six incredible safari lodges

By Stanley Stewart and Douglas Rogers

I wake when it’s still dark. Elephants are trumpeting from the island and I can hear hippos grunting beneath the lodge. Somewhere, hyenas are whooping. Africa is waiting for me, out there in the darkness. It’s still chilly from the night; at this hour, my game drive feels almost furtive, an early-morning raid to catch nature unawares. A white-headed fish eagle flies away into the grey pre-dawn followed by a host of long-tailed starlings. A startled impala vanishes like a ghost. Giraffes glide among mopane trees, and a family of warthogs retreat, trotting away in military formation, their tails in the air like salutes. Around a bend, a herd of elephants is shambling across the track, dusty behemoths glancing at us over their shoulders. Carefully tucked into the centre of the group, their little legs working double time, are two baby elephants hardly bigger than Labradors. At the first light, here is a vision of earth long before the arrival of man.

Botswana is arguably the greatest wildlife destination on the planet. The Kalahari, Chobe National Park, the Moremi Game Reserve, Linyanti, the Okavango Delta are all legendary habitats. But Botswana is also home to the luxury safari, with some of the continent’s finest lodges, and I have come to see two of the most highly esteemed – Wilderness Safari’s King’s Pool Camp and Jao Camp, both established in the 1990s – which have recently undergone major sustainable rebuilds. Founded in 1983 by Colin Bell and Chris McIntyre, Wilderness has always been a pioneer among safari operators. Long before it became fashionable, they saw their camps and lodges as playing an important role in conservation and community development. The work of their two formidable non-profit organisations – Children in the Wilderness and Wilderness Wildlife Trust – is what attracts shareholders such as Bono and Richard Branson to the company.

King’s Pool, an isolated camp set on an oxbow lagoon by the Linyanti River, was named after King Carl XVI Gustaf who came to Botswana on honeymoon with his wife Silvia in 1976. It’s the archetypal Wilderness property – luxurious, sophisticated and small-scale. Location is everything here. Bordering Chobe, it shares the national park’s concentration of game, particularly predators, but benefits from the flexibility of a private concession, offering a range of activities from walking safaris to scenic helicopter flights that are not possible inside the reserve. It is also close to the Delta, and days end with a sunset cruise on the Linyanti, a world of hippos, crocs and aquatic wildlife, where you can watch elephants crossing the river into Namibia. The rebuild is a delight. Nine tents look out over the water with hippos wallowing and crocodiles snoozing open-mouthed, arranged discreetly beneath colossal lakeside trees so there are great views of the animals but not of the neighbours.

Pictured: the bedroom of villa four at Jao Camp, Botswana

I say ‘tents’, but it is like calling Longleat a country manor – they are really stylish villas of canvas and thatch. Carved African doors open into spacious bedrooms with colonial desks, handsome travelling chests, wardrobes and a pair of double-width armchairs – the kind you might have curled up in as child with your mother to read The Wind in the Willows – where you can drink morning coffee while watching jacana birds tiptoeing across the water lilies. In atmosphere, King’s Pool is the close cousin of Zarafa Camp, one of Botswana’s grandest, where a lagoon is also the compelling focus.

Pictured: walking safari with a river Bushman

In the bathrooms , pale travertine stone surfaces frame double showers; motifs of burnished brass, bleached wood and woven rope recur in light fittings, wall divides and tableware; weathered artefacts such as bowls, shields and gourds are links to the cultures of southern Africa. On the main reception terrace, which is open to the lagoon, the different elements – library, bar, seating areas, dining tables, fire-pits and fireplaces – manage to be both connected and independent, allowing for privacy or engagement with other guests over supper of local venison carpaccio and a wonderful South African Shiraz. The property is also completely solar-powered and has one of the lightest eco-footprints in Africa.

Pictured: thatching made of recycled plastic at Jao's Camp

But for all its smart details, King’s Pool is still a classic safari camp. A short flight to the west, in the middle of the Delta, Jao Camp is something else entirely. Privately owned by the Kays family but marketed as part of the Wilderness Safari group, Jao originally opened in 1999 as one of the first luxury properties in the Okavango. Since then, others have been playing catch-up. With this overhaul, Jao has raised the bar again. The camp sits on an island of leadwood trees and termite mounds, in the midst of shallow lagoons in the wet season and savannah woodlands in the dry. Elevated on high terraces and boardwalks to keep above the annual floods and enhance game viewing, Jao feels like the world’s most spectacular tree house. It is contemporary, innovative and dramatic. Like Singita Boulders Lodge in the Sabi Sands or Chinzombo Camp in Zambia ’s South Luangwa, it has escaped safari traditions for bold design concepts inspired by its environment.

The architectural design studio of Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens has created award-winning lodges throughout Africa and I would put my money on Jao Camp adding a statuette to their mantelpiece. There’s a thrilling mix of materials: steel tendons and hardwood beams support soaring thatched roofs; leather and linen sofas gather round a fireplace flue of oxidised steel; woven room dividers overlook bathroom sinks of matt metal. Botanical themes run through the place like creepers, in tables printed with leaf motifs, lamp shades mimicking palm leaves and a cascade of white ceramic flowers tumbling down towards the bar, while the pool , gym and spa canopies are large, open-weave ‘nests’ of bleached sticks. As for the trees in which the whole structure stands, they become just another exciting material integrated into the fabric of the building.

Pictured: a giraffe skeleton in Jao’s library

There are only seven villas – larger, lighter and more open than Jao’s former incarnation. From the plunge pools and fire-pits on the private terraces you can watch leopards shadowing impala. Game drives are unrivalled. We track a lioness with two cubs strolling past with the indifference of a boulevard flâneur. Back at camp, my favourite place is the rosewood-lined museum filled with books, maps and artwork, and a giraffe skeleton that reaches the ceiling. In the gallery on the first floor is a fascinating account of the Kays family, who still run Jao and now count six generations in Botswana. That they were able to acquire this concession against stiff competition, and make it one of the most gorgeous lodges in Africa, is a tribute to their professionalism and energy.

Africa Travel can arrange a trip to Botswana from £6,950 per person, including three nights each at King’s Pool Camp and Jao Camp, full board, British Airways flights via Johannesburg, transfers and safari activities.

Botswana's Okavango Delta is the undisputed king of the African safari, a land where swimming lions clash with buffalo. Douglas Rogers approaches it from four different angles in this feature from the June 2017 issue of Condé Nast Traveller.

In 1997, the wildlife filmmaker Dereck Joubert was flying over northern Botswana in a light aircraft when he saw a cloud of dust rising from the earth below. Joubert thought it was strange, given he wasn't flying over desert but the vast palm-and-papyrus-covered wetland of Botswana's Okavango Delta. Back then the delta was still something of an undiscovered world and this north-eastern pocket of the oasis - a remote island of marsh, grass and riverine forest known as Duba Plains - was thought to be deserted.

CNT Editors

Olivia Morelli , CN Traveller

Suspecting the red cloud was being caused by poachers, Joubert dipped the plane to take a closer look. What he saw took his breath away: a primordial battle taking place between a herd of Cape buffalo and two ravenous island lions, the thunder of the buffalos' hooves and sinewy thrash of the bodies creating that great swirl of dust.

Joubert was so thrilled by the sight that, four years later, he and his photographer wife Beverly moved to Duba Plains and built a home (later to become their first safari camp under the Great Plains Conservation banner). The couple went on to shoot two of the most spectacular wildlife documentaries ever made: Relentless Enemies (2006) and The Last Lions (2011), chronicling the dramatic conflict between buffalos and lions stranded on Duba by the incoming rush of flood waters.

Pictured: &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge

I have tap-danced around the delta all my life, but never dived in. Born and raised in Southern Africa , I've travelled in and written about the region for decades, including the Chobe National Park in the north-east of Botswana, just 200km from the Okavango. Yet the scale and wonder of Africa's largest oasis has featured large in my imagination.

A Jackson Pollock splatter of blue on the bone-dry canvas of the Kalahari, the Delta's seasonal flood is caused not by local rains but by water originating 1,200km north, in the rugged highlands of central Angola. The Okavango River, known in Angola as the Cubango, flows south from those highlands for many months until it hits the flat Kalahari Basin. With its route to the ocean blocked, it then fans out to flood the landscape, seeping into deep hippo trails and forming swamps, islands, creeks and crystal-clear lagoons.

Pictured: the lodge bar at Belmond Eagle Island Lodge

When we think of floods, we think of devastation, but the Okavango Delta flood is different. It brings life: a luminous mosaic of plants, fish, birds and other wildlife. Botswana is famous for its diamonds, but its true jewel is the Okavango.

For most of Botswana's history, access to the delta was limited. Local tribes such as the Bayei navigated the channels in dugout canoes known as mokoros , but only the eastern edge of the region, Moremi, had any significant tourism. It was designated a game reserve in the early 1960s, when the country was the British protectorate of Bechuanaland. Back then, Botswana was one of the poorest countries on earth, but after independence in 1966 that changed. Democratic rule established under new president Seretse Khama, coupled with the discovery of vast diamond reserves in 1967, ushered in prosperity and growth hitherto unseen in the rest of Africa. (Khama and his marriage in 1948 to a white Englishwoman, Ruth Williams, is the subject of the biopic, A United Kingdom ).

Today, Botswana is a middle-income nation, often referred to as the Switzerland of Africa. The delta's emergence as the country's unrivalled draw only began in 1993, when the government modified its laws to allow companies to lease land on which to build safari lodges. So began Botswana's astonishingly successful low-volume, high-price safari model: lodges are limited to 24 guests, structures must be easy to dismantle, and the relatively short 15-year leases drives standards. In Botswana's big-stakes safari game, if you want to keep your concession, your product had better be brilliant.

Pictured: Belmond Eagle Island Lodge

From a handful of camps in the early 1990s, there are now some 90 lodges in the Okavango Delta, many among the smartest and most expensive in the world. But the genius of Botswana's safari model is that even as the area has become more popular, it has managed to maintain its natural state.

In Botswana's big-stakes safari game, if you want to keep your concession, your product had better be brilliant

The other miracle of the delta is that it is not a monoculture. 'You can fly 20 minutes in a light aircraft from a marshland to a riverine forest to a grassland habitat on an island ,' says Joubert. 'In other parts of Africa you'd have to fly for hours to see such variety.' Such complex and changing ecosystems mean lodges here offer a variety of different settings and experiences.

This past December I finally paid my first visit. Travelling in a clockwise loop, I had four camps in mind that would give me an idea of how varied the delta can be: the Belmond Eagle Island Lodge in the south; Little Tubu, an intimate three-tent camp in the north-west; Dereck and Beverly Joubert's Duba Plains Camp, where I hoped to see those lions and buffalo; and &Beyond Sandibe, a property so stylish it is said to have completely reinvented the architectural possibilities of the safari lodge.

Pictured: the sitting room at Duba Expedition Camp

Just a 20-minute puddle jump from Maun, gateway town to the delta, is the Belmond Eagle Island Lodge . Belmond (formerly Orient-Express Hotels ) also owns the Cipriani in Venice and Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire, among others. It has a reputation to maintain - and this classic camp, built in the 1990s, had started to look a little tired. So a decision was taken to close the lodge for 10 months and completely rebuild it. It reopened just before my visit in 2017.

Set under a canopy of fig and jackalberry trees, the main lodge is built in a figure-of-eight shape that mimics the bends in the Doro Channel, flowing 90 metres in front of it. A cocktail bar, its curved banquettes splashed with burnt-orange throws and tables laid with decorative chess sets, is at one end; a restaurant at the other, bird's-nest chandeliers of weaved brass swinging above. The most striking feature is a spinal wall in smooth black and rough grey Cemcrete. At first I was confused. Then I got it: the colours and textures allude to the hides of elephant emerging, wet and black, from the channel, turning grey as they graze and dry in the sun.

Pictured: entrance to &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge

December is the green (rainy) season in Botswana, but conversely the dry season for the delta, which floods between May and November. During the floods the main means of game viewing is by mokoro or river boat. But what sets the new-look Belmond Eagle Island Lodge apart is something rather grander: 35-minute aerial safaris in a Bell 206 four-seat helicopter.

I take an early-morning flight with master guide Franz Schmidt, a 30-something German. Lions had been heard overnight to the north, and after removing the chopper doors to allow unhindered views, we take off to find them, flying low over an oxbow river, skimming strangler fig trees and scattering giraffes. Hippos and crocs wallow in the mud on the banks.

Pictured: the kitchen at Belmond Eagle Island lodge

Schmidt points to a shady palm grove near a herd of grazing buffalo, the likely location of the lions. We circle a while and appear out of luck, but then I glimpse it: the tawny flash of a pair of cubs wrestling in the dust before disappearing behind the fronds.

The view is the thing, the land below a vast green plain dotted with palm trees, buffalo, elephant, waterbuck, warthogs and dozens of delicate termite mounds. Schmidt is as knowledgeable about the small things: palm trees are not indigenous here - 'their seeds come down river from Angola'. And those termite mounds, part of the classic delta landscape, are a vital element of the life cycle: they will eventually become dry islands on which animals will find sanctuary from the floods.

Pictured: the sitting room of Duba Expedition

Back at the lodge I find sanctuary in my tent, accessed by a wooden walkway from the main lodge. It has a private deck with an infinity plunge pool facing the river; the mini-bar is styled on a vintage Louis Vuitton travel case and is stocked with gin, olives and a cocktail shaker. I mix myself the requisite Martini. Later that evening I opt out of the regular game drive (wild-dog prints had been spotted) to fish from a mokoro , my guide Boitshepo Maphane poling me gondolier-style through the lilies and mud flats. I get some nibbles from catfish but the real thrill is watching four elephant appear on the eastern shore, slide down the bank, and wade tusk-deep to the other side, as if crossing a road. A herd of red lechwe antelope judged their progress like traffic cops.

If Belmond Eagle Island Lodge is all about high-flying glamour, my next stop, Little Tubu , is more concerned with keeping it wonderfully old school. This intimate three-tent camp, baby sister to adjacent Tubu Tree Camp - both managed by Wilderness Safaris - is owned by fifth-generation Botswanans David and Cathy Kays, whose family helped pioneer safari tourism here in the 1930s.Wilderness Safaris, arguably Southern Africa's leading blue-chip eco-tourism operator, founded in Maun in 1983, is still headquartered in the country. It's a winning combination.

Pictured: thatched rooms at Belmond Eagle Island Lodge

Little Tubu's beige canvas tents are set on raised decks linked by a roped boardwalk leading to a shaded sitting and dining area, with a bar counter built into a giant woodland waterberry tree. The entire camp overlooks an open floodplain. During the floods a lower deck and boma (a sand-floor enclosure where afternoon tea of carrot cake and fresh-baked scones is served) becomes a civilised dock from which to step into a mokoro and pole out on game-viewing expeditions. In the dry season there are traditional, twice-daily game drives.

Heading off at dawn with a garrulous guide called Cruise (who I naturally name Tom), I see my first adult lions of the trip: three females and a giant male enjoying a post-prandial nap in the shade of a strangler fig. The bloody carcass of a red lechwe, last night's feast, lies a few metres away. For the rest of the drive I take in the spectacular bird and plant life: iridescent lilac-breasted rollers flash through a sycamore forest; scarlet fireball lilies and white and pink crinum lilies add dazzling bursts of colour.

Pictured: the thatched sitting room at Duba Expedition Camp

There is a relaxed, artisanal atmosphere to Little Tubu. Run entirely on solar power, it feels more like remote bush home than lodge; my tent has a ceiling fan, but no air-conditioning, and a rustic, outdoor shower (from which I spy a bushbuck grazing happily below me). At night, glass jars containing mini solar lamps light the walkways. The dining room table is fashioned out of a thick slab of felled sausage tree. Meals have a traditional home-spun feel, too. On my final night I eat slow-cooked pumpkin, bream fillets and a beef stew heated on steel pots over a fire pit, shooting stars darting in the vast skies above.

My long-anticipated visit to Dereck Joubert's Duba Plains Camp, did not, at least initially, go as planned. My stay was due to coincide with the release of a white rhino on the 31,000-hectare concession, part of Rhinos Without Borders, a campaign led by the Jouberts' Great Plains Conservation company to translocate 100 endangered rhino from South Africa to Botswana. Twenty-five have already been moved, but the Duba delivery was cancelled when word got out of a poacher's camp in the Caprivi Strip, 130km north in Namibia .

Pictured: interiors at &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge

Botswana takes its conservation and anti-poaching seriously. Safaris long ago surpassed cattle ranching as the country's second biggest earner (after diamonds), and 40 per cent of the population in the wildlife-rich north is employed in the trade. Animals are the diamonds up here. The president, Ian Khama, in the same progressive tradition as his father Seretse, banned commercial hunting in 2014, and was a driving force behind the delta's UNESCO World Heritage listing.

We fly low over an oxbow river, skimming strangler fig trees and scattering giraffes. Hippos and crocs wallow in the mud

Great Plains has three camps in Kenya and six in Botswana, five of which are in (or on the edge of) the Selinda Reserve, in the country's north-east. Duba, however, is the flagship. In 2000, the Jouberts built a home here on the banks of a papyrus marsh (where they still live), then erected a separate six-tent camp after founding Great Plains. In 2016 they began a complete rebuild of that lodge and a new seven-tent camp set in a forest area overlooking marshland opened in March 2017. In addition, there's the fresh and contemporary Duba Expedition Camp: six sleek explorer-style tents of light canvas on raised decks, all set around an open-sided canvas dining marquee, with glorious views of a floodplain. Great Plains tends to attract fans of the Jouberts' films, and all their camps, including Duba Expedition, come with 400mm Canon cameras and heavy-duty Swarovski Optik binoculars for guests to use. It's the same hi-tech equipment Dereck and Beverly work with.

Of course, the great attraction of Duba Plains is what brought the Jouberts here in the first place: those animals captured so powerfully in Relentless Enemies . The film documents how the Tsaro lion pride, stranded on Duba, developed a taste for the buffalo they share the island with. The buffalo in turn learn to fight back. In one incredible scene the lions swim into the onrushing delta waters to take down their bovine prey. All the while the Tsaro numbers diminish, as the far bigger buffalo become expert at repelling the lions.

Pictured: the dining space at Belmond Eagle Island Lodge

At last I am close to the battlefield captured so memorably by Joubert. Led by my guide, Kops, I cross a makeshift wooden bridge over the reed marsh (I can see the Jouberts' rustic home on the edge of the tree line) and then, rather like crossing a border into another world, the landscape opens up into a vast floodplain. It reminds me of Kenya's Masai Mara during the rains: lush green grass stretching to the horizon, broken only by watering holes and giant termite mounds. We find the descendants of the famous Tsaro pride lazing against one of those mounds, the male alone, several females and eight cubs nearby. There are buffalo too, but they respectfully keep their distance, as do vast herds of lechwe.

The following morning, we run into two young lions from the same pride ambling down a rutted road. A minute later, a warthog crosses their path. On such chance meetings hangs life or death. The lions crouch, then spring. That little pig has no chance. Within seconds, the cats are crunching through its bones.

Pictured: a copper dugout canoe at &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge

It's a 30-minute flight south from Duba Plains and then a half-hour drive to &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge , through lush grassland and finally a forest of wild palms and tall figs. And there it is, a domed building of overlapping white cedar shale rising out of a clearing like the shell of a giant pangolin.

A symphony of wood, two-and-half storeys high, with giant arched beams of laminated pine holding up the dome, its front and sides are entirely open to a marshy everglade too thick with reeds to make out the river running through it. Café tables of bleached pine dot the lower-floor restaurant; upstairs there's a loft-like mezzanine bar, its swooping counter carved into the shape of a vintage ocean liner. My first thought is, this would be a great concert venue; my second is to order an espresso.

Pictured: a bedroom at Little Tubu Camp

The 12 rooms, identical pangolin-shaped pods, are built on raised platforms, like most places in the delta. But, unlike most places, my raised box bed (with remote-control mosquito netting) faces sliding doors that open onto a private deck with a plunge pool overlooking the reeds. But the star of the show is the indoor shower, a conical tower built in the shape of a termite mound with a shower head the size of a satellite dish.

This is safari lodge as design hotel: urbane, fashion forward, relentlessly contemporary. Aside from the design, the ethos is reflected in the organic, seasonal menu: lavish breakfasts of fresh fruit, waffles and artisanal coffee; build-your-own pizzas and deconstructed salads (beetroot, goat's cheese, rocket) for lunch; and fresh-baked red velvet cakes and pastries for afternoon tea. Dinners of springbok tenderloin and rosemary rack of lamb are served in an open-air boma, the area lit not by traditional lanterns but giant LED balls suspended from the trees.

Pictured: a hanging chair at &Beyond Sandibe

Now here's the thing: I'm an African and I'm supposed to scoff at such opulence. This is not a real safari! There are animals out there! Why are people checking emails?!

But the truth is, I love it. Instead of going on the requisite twice-daily game drives I read on the daybed by my plunge pool, cool down in that conical shower, mainline coffee in the restaurant, and email and Facetime with friends back home. And I'm filled with wonder at it all. Here, in tiny land-locked Botswana, on the edge of a vast African wetland that 50 years ago was cut off from the outside world, I'm immersed in state-of-the-art luxury and design. Hat's off to the little country that could.

The Explorations Company offers a nine-night trip to Botswana and the Okavanga Delta from £9,500 per person (based on two sharing). These Botswana safari holidays include two nights at &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge, two nights at Little Tubu camp in the northern Delta region, two nights at Belmond Eagle Island Camp and three nights at Duba Plains Camp, which adjoins the Moremi Game Reserve. The price includes accommodation on a fully inclusive basis, all activities in the camps and internal flights. Not included are international flights to Maun, Botswana, visas and travel insurance. South African Airways and Emirates both fly direct from London to Maun, Botswana.

This feature first appeared in Condé Nast Traveller June 2017

Keep scrolling to see more pictures of the best safari camps in Botswana

Like this? Now read:

Ngorongoro, Tanzania - a guide to the best safaris, camps and lodges

The best hotels in Namibia

Bar stools at &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge

The dining table at &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge

Interior details at &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge

Pans in the kitchen at &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge

New cement domes at Belmond Eagle Island lodge

Design detail at Belmond Eagle Island lodge

Earthenware at Belmond Eagle Island lodge

Exterior details at Belmond Eagle Island lodge

Inside Belmond Eagle Island lodge

One of the sofas at Belmond Eagle Island lodge

A chair in the bar at Belmond Eagle Island lodge

A cake at Belmond Eagle Island lodge

Pelicans flying over the Okavango Delta

Jao’s lodge at night

TOP DESTINATIONS

• Kruger Park
• Okavango Delta
• Serengeti National Park
• Victoria Falls

TOP COUNTRIES

• South Africa

TRAVEL DEALS

View All Travel Deals

SOUTHERN AFRICA

East africa, indian ocean islands, top experiences.

• Beach Holidays
• Family Safaris
• Honeymoon Safaris
• Desert Safaris
• Luxury Rail Safaris
• Multi-Generational Safaris
• Positive Impact Safaris
• Photographic Safaris
• Walking Safaris

WILDLIFE SAFARI

• Big Five Safaris
• Birding Safaris
• Gorilla Trekking Safaris
• Migration Safaris
• Mobile Camping Safaris
• Horseback Safaris

FEATURED EXPERIENCES

Comfort levels, property types.

• Tented Camps
• Boutique Hotels

Featured Safari Collections

• Ker & Downey Botswana
• Saruni Basecamp
• Extraordinary
• Natural Selection

GET TO KNOW US

• Meet The Team
• Pricing Explained
• Traveller Reviews
• Traveller Stories
• Why Book With Us?
• HerdTracker
• Safari Cost Calculator
• South Africa In 360
• Trusted Safari Partners

What are you looking for?

• Safaris & Tours
• Destinations
• Experiences
• Accommodations
• Why book with us?

Hello traveller!

It's in Cape Town now.

We're sorry. Our safari planners aren't available now. Our office hours are 08:00 - 19:00 (GMT+2).

Call us to speak to an experienced safari planner.

Alternatively, we recommend...

Schedule a phone or Zoom call with one of our safari planners

Complete our travel enquiry form to connect with a safari planner

Botswana Highlight Safari Collection

8  days, 1  country, transfers + internal flights included, meals + drinks (local brands only) included, lodge game activities.

Visiting: Southern Africa > Botswana > Chobe National Park > Moremi Game Reserve > Okavango Delta > Makgadikgadi Pans

International flights, visas, travel insurance, gratuities

Ready to plan a tailor-made safari in Southern Africa

Enquire now and a Travel Expert will get back to you within 24 hours.

Is This Trip for Me?

This journey offers the perfect safari highlights of Botswana with 3 very different wildlife areas. Start with the world renowned Chobe National Park, continue with the famous Okavango Delta and Moremi Reserve, ending with the less visited Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. Ideal for a first time visitor to Botswana and new safari goer, you will have the most rewarding safari experience.  The trip will give you a chance to view large herds of elephants, experience morning and evening game drives to view the predators, and glide through the waters in search of the smaller animals and birds.

Botswana Highlight Safari Collection Video

Best Time to Go on this Trip

Peak, low and mixed are an indication of season and price, learn how pricing works.

What you'll Experience on this Tour

Your itinerary.

Chobe River Front

On arrival at Kasane Airport, you’ll be met and transferred to the Chobe Game Lodge. This will be your home...

Staying at Chobe Game Lodge

On arrival at Kasane Airport, you’ll be met and transferred to the Chobe Game Lodge. This will be your home for the next two nights with all your meals and drinks included. The only permanent game lodge situated within the famous Chobe National Park, Chobe Game Lodge is Botswana’s premier venue for guests looking for a perfect base from which to explore the national park and the Chobe River.

Chobe’s diverse wildlife roams in abundance and is also home to the largest concentration of elephant in Africa. During the dry season, elephant well as vast herds of buffalo, congregate on the fertile flood plains along the Chobe River to drink, bath and play.

There are frequent sightings of lion, African wild dog, puku, Red lechwe, sable, giraffe and Roan antelope.

Includes & Excludes

Meals: All meals and local drinks

Transport: Included

Moremi Game Reserve

Today you will be transferred to the airstrip for your scheduled charter flight to the next camp. Located on the...

Staying at Camp Xakanaxa

Today you will be transferred to the airstrip for your scheduled charter flight to the next camp. Located on the banks of the Khwai River on the Xakanaxa Lagoon, in the heart of the Moremi Game Reserve, camp Xakanaxa offers an authentic, year-round Okavango Delta land and water safari experience, in open 4x4 safari vehicles or powerboats.

The ancient riverine forest, open savannah, serpentine channels and seasonal floodplains that surround the camp, make for a varied habitat of exceptional fauna and flora. The diverse habitat ensures prolific sightings of elephant, buffalo, hyena, giraffe, hippo, wildebeest, kudu, lechwe and leopard, among many others.

Birding is spectacular, especially in the spring and summer months, when the migrants are breeding.

Boteti River - Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

Transfer to the airstrip on time for the scheduled charter flight to your last lodge - spend 2 nights at...

Staying at Leroo La Tau

Transfer to the airstrip on time for the scheduled charter flight to your last lodge - spend 2 nights at Leroo La Tau situated above the Boteti River. It stretches across the western border of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park and offers a stunning, seasonal game viewing experience where wildlife can be seen congregating along the river.

The lodge offers a raised hideout above the river where you can spot the wildlife. Spend your time on game drives through the national park or experience thrilling night drives in search lions that prowl the area.

Relax at the lodge during the heat of the day, by the pool or the shaded main area. Your stay includes your meals, selected beverages and 2 game activities a day.

End of itinerary

Last day on safari, enjoy breakfast at the lodge and transfer to Maun airport on time for your international onward...

Last day on safari, enjoy breakfast at the lodge and transfer to Maun airport on time for your international onward flight. Alternatively we can assist you for an extension to your safari.

Travel with Confidence

With over 20 years of experience, our team will help you tailor your itinerary to your perfect adventure., 24/7 support, personalized, looking for something different, here are some more itineraries to start your planning.

Classic Botswana Family Safari

Southern Africa Botswana Makgadikgadi Pans Okavango Delta Moremi Savuti

From $ 6060 /USD

Best of Africa Safari

Botswana Okavango Delta South Africa Johannesburg Kenya Nairobi

From $ 19690 /USD

FAQs about Botswana Highlight Safari Collection

• Safari lodges have guest rooms similar to a hotel with en-suite bathrooms. They are comfortably furnished with facilities normally associated with a hotel rooms, except your rooms are normally set in beautiful wilderness settings, with nature and wildlife around.
• Tented lodges have rooms which are tents on a platform and with a roof and also have en-suite facilities with showers, flush toilets and hot water. Basically all the amenities of a hotel room, except canvas walls and roof.
• The boutique lodges and camps can be very stylish and smart in terms of design and decor, often with very spacious rooms and even going so far in some cases as having plunge pools for each room.
• Eco-camps and smaller tented camps have insect-proof tents with en-suite facilities including a safari shower and flush toilet.  They give a more authentic safari experience but the tents are comfortably furnished with proper beds and you don’t need to bring your own sleeping bag! The emphasis is usually on having excellent guides and great wildlife viewing away from the crowds. Guests often eat together and people travelling alone usually say that they found the atmosphere friendly and enjoyed meeting other like-minded travellers around the campfire in the evening or at dinner.
• The Adventure Camps are a budget option with guests bringing their own sleeping bags and towels. Accommodation is in small dome tented with a mattress on the floor. Each tent has its own nearby cubicle with a flush toilet, safari shower, and wash basin. The Adventure Camps are suitable only for those who don’t mind “real camping” and can put with some degree of “roughing it”. Apart from the accommodation in simple dome tents, the meals and the guiding are the same standards as the higher quality camps and game drives are in 4x4 safari vehicles. For those on a limited budget, the Adventure Camps are a good alternative to the big tourist lodges and minibus tours for those for whom the safari experience is more important than hotel accommodation.
• Botswana official currency is the Botswana Pula (BWP).  Other countries using the same Botswana currency include Zimbabwe.
• Botswana Banks accepts the following foreign currencies: US Dollars, Pounds Sterling, Euro and South African Rands in cash.
• Credit and debit cards, including International Visa and MasterCard, are accepted at most lodges. However, Express and Diners Club are not accepted by the banks of Botswana or by the camps.
• Although some of the game parks have become quite overrun with tourists during certain times of the year, there are still many very remote and untouched areas to view games in Africa two examples of this are in Northern Mozambique and Uganda.

Why travel with us?

Recent reviews from travellers who planned and booked their africa trips with discover africa safaris, efficient, listened to our needs and produced an excellent itinerary..

11 Day Kgalagadi Park Safari Review

Adele, South Africa 27 Nov 2023

Highly experienced, knowledgeable, polite, responsive, honest safari tour operator..

Mala Mala Game Reserve & Cape Town Safari Review

Avi, United States 05 Jan 2023

World class experience.

Cape Town, Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve and Mauritius Honeymoon Review

Stacey, United States 20 Oct 2022

Amazing moremi game reserve safari..

Moremi Game Reserve Safari Review

Karen O’Connor, United States 24 Apr 2018

Your services are 10 / 10.

Hluhluwe Imfolozi park tour review

Mokatse Itumeleng, South Africa 01 Sep 2013

Thank you ellena for your professional service.

A Safari Experience in Africa Review

Dirk Van Den Berg, Congo - Kinshasa 01 Feb 2013

Ready to plan your tailor-made safari.

Alice Lombard, Destination Expert

Free safari planning advice from destination experts

Registered Members of these Organizations

USEFUL LINKS

• Safari Tours
• Accommodation
• Why Book with us?
• Content Collaborations
• Safari Cost Estimator Tool
• Wildebeest Migration
• Privacy Policy
• Website Terms of Use

POPULAR COUNTRIES

• View All Countries

POPULAR DESTINATIONS

• View All Destinations
• Cape Town Holidays
• Kruger National Park
• Etosha National Park
• Chobe National Park

TRAVEL BLOGS

• Travel News Digest, 26 April:
• The Best of Kenyan Cuisine: 10 Dishes to Savour on your next Safari
• Norse Atlantic Adds New Direct Flight to Cape Town
• Travel News Digest, 19 April: SA Airports Celebrated, Rhino Poaching Concerns, Cape Town ‘Big Six’ Appeal
• FastJet Adds Surcharge to Vic Falls Route

OUR LOCATION

• 2nd floor, Tygervalley Chambers One, 27 Willie van Schoor Avenue, Bellville, Cape Town , 7530

• Activities Cape Town
• Activities Swakopmund
• Activities Victoria Falls
• Eswatini/Swaziland
• 4 days – Deluxe Kruger
• 4 days – Kruger On Foot (Walking Safaris)
• 5 days – Cape Town Magic
• 6 days – Cape Town & Winelands Combo
• 6 days – Deluxe Cape
• 13 days – Best of Southern Africa
• 13 days – Best Southern Africa Family Magic
• 16 days – Ultimate Southern Africa
• 16 days – Ultimate Southern Africa Family Magic
• 4 days – Captivating Kruger Safari (Guided Tour)
• 5 days – Kruger Under Canvas (Guided Camping Tour)
• 14 days – Walking South Africa (Small Group Tour)
• 14 days – Mozambique & Kruger: Beach & Bush (Small Group Tour)
• 17 days – South Africa: Rainbow Route (Small Group Tour)
• 21 days – Cape Town to Victoria Falls: Grand Explorer (Small Group Tour)
• 5 days – Self-Drive South Africa: Kruger Magic
• 7 days – Self-Drive Luxury Cape
• 9 days – Self-Drive South Africa: Kruger Family Magic
• 9 days – Self-Drive South Africa: Magic of the Kalahari
• 11 days – Self-Drive South Africa: Cape Town and the Garden Route
• 14 days – Self-Drive South Africa & Mozambique: Bush & Beaches
• 15 days – Family Self-Drive South Africa: Cape to Kruger
• 15 days – Family Self-Drive South Africa: Sun, Fun & Wildlife
• 15 days – Self-Drive South Africa: Mountains, Wildlife & Wetlands
• 17 days – Self-Drive South Africa & Namibia: Cape to Windhoek
• 17 days – Self-Drive Namibia & South Africa: Deserts, Dunes & Canyons
• 22 days – Self-Drive Classic South Africa
• 18 days – Self-Drive Namibia & South Africa: Deserts, Dunes & Canyons
• Special Interest Safaris
• 3 days – Sossusvlei Magic (Guided Tour)
• 4 days – Etosha Magic (Guided Tour)
• 21 days – Namibia & Botswana: Southern Circle (Small Group Tour)
• 31 days – Namibia & Botswana: Off The Beaten Track (Guided Self-Drive Camping Tour)
• 13 days – Self-Drive Luxury Namibia
• 14 days – Self-Drive Classic Namibia
• 16 days – Family Self-Drive Namibia: Deserts & Wildlife Explorer
• 17 days – Self-Drive Namibia Wonders
• 23 days – Self-Drive Complete Namibia
• 25 days – Self Drive Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe: African Explorer
• 28 days – Self-Drive Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe: African Adventure
• 31 days – Namibia & Botswana: Off The Beaten Track (Guided Tour)
• 4 days – Fly-In Okavango Delta Magic
• 4 days – Okavango Delta Family Magic
• 5 days – Victoria Falls & Chobe Combo
• 5 days – Victoria Falls & Chobe Family Magic
• 8 days – Botswana & Zimbabwe: Deltas & Rivers
• 11 days – Botswana Luxury Safari
• 12 days – Botswana Honeymoon Heaven
• 14 days – Victoria Falls & Botswana: Honeymoon Safari
• 3 days – Eastern Delta Delight (Camping Safari)
• 7 days – Essential Botswana (Premium Mobile Camping Safari)
• 8 days – Highlights of Botswana (Adventure Mobile Camping Safari)
• 9 days – Wild Botswana (Premium Mobile Camping Safari)
• 10 days – Grand Botswana (Luxury Mobile Camping Safari)
• 11 days – Botswana’s Best (Adventure Mobile Camping Safari)
• 15 days – Self-Drive Botswana: Wildlife Wonderland
• 15 days – Family Self-Drive Botswana: Wildlife Wonderland
• 11 days – Self-Drive Botswana Adventure
• 15 days – Self-Drive Classic Botswana
• 22 days – Self-Drive Botswana & Zimbabwe: Safari Circuit
• 25 days – Self-Drive Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe: Africa Explorer
• 4 days – Victoria Falls Magic
• 6 days – Zimbabwe: Falls & Elephants
• 10 days – Wonders of Zimbabwe
• 25 days – Self-Drive Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe: African Explorer
• 14 days – Self-Drive Zambia Explorer (Camping)
• 15 days – Self-Drive Classic Zambia (Camping)
• 16 days – Zambia & Malawi: Livingstone Trail (Small Group Tour)
• 14 days – Self-Drive South Africa and Mozambique: Bush and Beaches (Accommodated)
• 16 days – Zambia & Malawi: Livingstone Trail (Small Group Tour)
• Tours & Packages
• Self Drive Vehicle Options
• Self Drive Accommodation Options
• Activities for Children in Southern Africa
• Mobile Safaris
• Luxury Southern Africa: One-Of-A-Kind
• Romantic Getaways
• Walking Safaris
• Activities and Special Touches
• Inspiration Gallery
• Tailor Made Holidays in Southern Africa

Testimonials

• Latest Blogs
• Travel Safety and Wildlife in Southern Africa
• Personal Safety in Southern Africa
• Frequently Asked Questions
• What You Need To Know
• Terms and Conditions
• Travel Africa Newsletters

Highlights of Botswana - 8 Days

(adventure guided mobile camping safari).

Maun - Moremi Game Reserve - Chobe National Park - Victoria Falls

Tour Departures 2023: October 10, 14, 17, 28; November 4, 11, 18; December 16

Tour Departures 2024: April 9; June 1, 18; July 11, 30; August 12, 29; October 3, 17; November 5

Tour Start: Maun Tour End: Victoria Falls

From AUD$2,625 per person twin share From AUD$2,950 per person single 

Notes: 1. Tour will depart with a minimum of 4 passengers. 2. Maximum group size - 12 passengers.

Equipment : 2.1m x 2.1m x 1.75m canvas dome tents. A 5cm thick high density foam mattress is provided for each guest together with a sleeping bag and small pillow. Ablutions are shared and bush ablutions set up by the team when staying in game reserves and national park campsites.

Vehicle : Custom-built 4x4 safari vehicles and trailers.

• All camping equipment for the trip duration including spacious dome tents with mattresses.
• 1 night lodge accommodation in Victoria Falls.
• All transfers and activities as per the itinerary.
• All meals as per the itinerary and tea/coffees.
• Services of a Professional Guide and Camp Assistant.
• All Botswana park fees for activities included on itinerary.
• Transportation by specialised custom-built safari vehicle.
• Restaurant meals (Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe).
• Entrance to the Victoria Falls National Park.
• Visas fees.
• Airport transfers.
• Optional excursions (scenic flight over the Delta and activities in Victoria Falls,)
• Beverages (alcohol, soft drinks and bottled mineral water)
• Personal insurance.
• Any increase in National Park Fees.
• All activities unless stated.

Detailed itinerary

An early departure from Maun as you enter Moremi Game Reserve, one of the best wilderness areas of Botswana which covers swamp and dry areas. The next three days will be spent searching for the wide variety of wildlife and birds that this area is renowned for while absorbing the sounds and beauty of this region. Game drives in the early morning as the sun rises and in the late afternoon as the sun sets will be the norm. After your morning game drive, you will return to camp for lunch and a siesta. On Day 3 you will move campsites to explore a different area of this diverse park. .

Stay at: Days 1 & 2: Camping in private designated campsites with bush ablutions in Western Moremi. Day 3: Camping in a private designated campsite with bush ablutions in Eastern Moremi.

Chobe National Park, with its diverse and striking landscapes, will be your next destination. As you continue your search for wildlife, you will traverse the drier region of Savuti where bull elephants dot the plains. You will then head northwards to the Chobe River where your game drives will meander along the banks of the river, followed by the call of the majestic African Fish Eagle.

Stay at: Day 4: Camping in a private designated area with bush ablutions in the Savuti area (Savuti Main or Zwei Zwei Pan). Days 5 & 6: Camping (Day 7) in private designated areas with bush ablutions in the northern part of the park close to the riverfront.

After a short morning game drive you will drive to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe ( visa required ), where you will spend the night at a comfortable lodge. In the afternoon there will be time to visit the thunderous Victoria Falls and shop for curios. A final tour dinner will be at your own expense at the lodge.

Stay at: Pioneers Lodge.

Your safari officially ends at 10.00am today.

Travel Africa is happy to arrange post-tour accommodation, activities and transfers to Victoria Falls airport or lodges at an additional cost. There are a wide variety of activities on offer in both Livingstone or Victoria Falls including whitewater rafting down the Zambezi Gorge, canoeing on the upper Zambezi, and helicopter flights over the Victoria Falls and more - ask us for details.

What else can Travel Africa help you with?

Travel Africa specialises in all types of travel in Southern Africa. Please enjoy looking through our website. Here are some other itineraries you might be interested in.

Fly-In Okavango Delta Magic 4 Days

Essential Botswana 7 Days - Premium Mobile Camping Safari

Wild Botswana 9 Days - Premium Mobile Camping Safari 

Eastern Delta Delight 3 Days - Camping Safari

Victoria Falls Magic 4 Days

Botswana's Best: Delta, Rivers & Wildlife 11 Days - Adventure Mobile Camping Safari

Highlights of Botswana Gallery

Quick Links

Destination Guides

Travel Styles

Itinerary Ideas

About Travel Africa

(02) 9940 3684

[email protected]

travelafricayourway.com.au

The Best Safari Destinations in Botswana

Central kalahari game reserve.

Great For : Escaping the rest of the world and self drive safari.

Highlights : The great zebra migration, tracking animals around shrivelling waterholes.

An evocative desert that covers most of Botswana, the Central Kalahari is where you’ll find thrilling safari drama . There isn’t much to eat nor much water, so the animals are widely spread.

But if you seek adventure and have a little patience you’ll be bumping between waterholes, coming across all kinds of desert magic.

Check out the national park campsites as this is one of the best places in Africa for a self drive safari .

Best Time to Visit the Central Kalahari : January to April, during and after the rains will show the most wildlife although it’s hard to get around. May to August is also wonderful.

Also Consider : Etosha National Park in Namibia has a similar, wild desert feel.

Combine With : Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park, Caprivi, or destinations in Namibia.

Chobe National Park

Great For : Elephants, elephants, elephants. And lots of hippos.

Highlights : The world’s largest elephant population; river safari and budget mobile camps.

It’s possible to picture a herd of 15 elephants. Maybe you can imagine what 100 elephants look like. But 100,000? That’s how many reside in and around the Chobe forests and the experience is unfathomable.

Giraffe and hippos are also incredibly numerous, although the thick greenery makes it pretty hard to see the big cats.

River safaris provide a great introduction and you only need two days to really get a sense of what Chobe is about. Best of all, Chobe is really good value for such a unique safari, especially wild mobile camps in the forest.

Best Time to Visit Chobe : The dry season of May to November has the highest concentration of animals and it’s easy to get around; many of the herds disperse during the rains.

Also Consider : Nearby Linyanti and Selinda for a more exclusive safari in this region.

Combine With : Victoria Falls and the Okavango Delta for a brilliant holiday week.

Okavango Delta and Moremi Game Reserve

Great For : Celebrating the wonder of nature and being surrounded by wildlife.

Highlights : The landscape itself; water and walking safaris; getting lost.

Every year the Kalahari Desert floods , thanks to water that has spent three months snaking down from the Angolan Highlands. It creates one of nature’s great events , an oasis that attracts animals from hundreds of miles around.

Moremi Game Reserve is the game-rich heart of the Delta. More than a dozen concessions surround Moremi, each offering a fairly exclusive safari experience.

Just note that a Delta is difficult to get around so it can get expensive to safari here. In general, the further you go towards Moremi the more animals and the higher cost.

A mixed safari program is recommended as the Okavango is probably the best in Africa for a water-based safari and there are great walking and riding options.

Best Time to Visit the Okavango Delta : June to August is when the water is highest and is when the animals migrate here, but the Okavango remains a great destination throughout the rest of the year.

Also Consider : There’s nowhere else in the world like the Okavango.

Combine With : Chobe for a varied safari.

Selinda, Kwando and Linyanti Concessions

Great For :  Highly exclusive and intimate safari experiences.

Highlights : Everything; the landscapes, the guides, the activities and the chance to be alone with nature.

These private concessions showcase a mix of habitats, mingling Chobe-style forests with swamplands, grasslands, and floodplains. The safari experience is unparalleled but it’s also expensive and highly exclusive.

You’ll be paying upwards of USD 1000 per night and access to these concessions is restricted to just a handful of guests.

If you can afford such a premium it’s hard to find a better safari in the whole of Africa , given the abundance and variety of wildlife, plus the intimacy and diversity of experiences.

Best Time to Visit Selinda, Kwando and Linyanti : These destinations are superb all year around. July to October are considered the best months but the other months mean low-season price discounts.

Also Consider : Private concessions in the Greater Kruger .

Combine With : Victoria Falls and the Okavango Delta.

The Best Botswana Safaris – 3 Incredible Itineraries

Safaris to Botswana are out of this world. The Telegraph even named Botswana ‘ the BEST safari in Africa ‘ and I’d have to agree. Botswana safaris are non-short of magical.

Being out in the wild, amongst nature. I would say that Botswana is one (if not the) most relaxing and natural places I’ve ever been to with not much going on really, except for pockets of activity here and there.

I just re-watched Levison Wood’s ‘Walking With Elephants’ and it made me want to go back even more. Where he went on that trip is where I take my tours and I can confirm, it really is like what you see on TV.

I’ve travelled Botswana on tours and on a self-drive and both are amazing, but very different experiences.

Due to where everything is in Botswana, there is no real easy way to see all of the highlights without doubling back on yourself or veering wildly off course. Which is great if you have time and money, but not so great if you don’t.

But to be honest, Botswana is so amazing and there are so many great activities on offer that you will have a great time no matter where you go! So below I’ve listed some of the key places to visit and some suggested itineraries to allow you to plan your own trip of the back of it.

If you want some tips on how to travel Botswana on a budget, check out this post where you’ll find some important info on how to get around, where to stay and how to travel – including self-driving vs taking a tour.

This post focuses on overland trips. The other option in Botswana is to do a fly-in safari. Doing one of these allows you to hop around from national park to national park, no problem.

But…these are always at the high-end of the spectrum and usually for those staying at pretty expensive lodges that cost a minimum of £500 per person, per night (and often much more).

The reason these lodges are expensive is due to the fact that they are very luxurious and also very remote, therefore a logistical nightmare to run. But you will have a lot of stuff included in your stay, such as transport, food, drinks and activities.

The budget outfitters tend to drive (or sometimes canoe) to the campsites and bring everything in with them. There are no hostels in the national parks.

Please Note:  Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate sales help with the running costs of this site, so thank you for your support!

Table of Contents

Botswana Safaris – 3 Incredible Itineraries

Botswana itinerary 1 – the overland/backpacking route.

This route is great if you are travelling the classic ‘Nairobi to Cape Town Overland Route’, via Zambia/Zimbabwe and Namibia. It’s the route that most overland tours take, good for self-drivers or backpackers, if you’re on a budget and don’t want to use a tour company and also the route that you would take if you are travelling by public transport.

Can also be done in a non-4×4 car (although you will still need to take a tour for the Okavango Delta).

• Chobe National Park & Kasane: 2 – 3 Days
• Nata (Elephant Sands): 1 – 2 Days
• Gweta, Magkgadikgadi Pans National Park & Nxai Pans National Park : 2 – 3+ Days
• Maun: 1 – 2 Days
• Okavango Delta: 2 – 3 Days
• Dekar:  2 Days
• Livingstone, Zambia or Vic Falls, Zimbabwe: 3 – 5 Days

From Dekar (sometimes called D’Kar – but there are two, so don’t get confused, it’s the one near Ghanzi) you can head back to Maun to catch your flight or you can continue towards Namibia .

From Kasane, you can hop across the border to Livingstone, Zambia or Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. You can also easily reverse this route.

Botswana Itinerary 2 – The Off-Road Route

If you are looking for an immersive safari experience that goes into the wild, then this may be the route for you! Just be aware that you will need a 4×4 for this route and it cannot be done by public transport.

You spend a lot of time in nature and the route travels through the national parks, rather than along the main road as the above itinerary does. Again, this route can be reversed.

*Just be aware that this is a very ‘wild’ route, so you may need to do it in the dry season, especially if driving yourself.

• Maun: 1 -2 Days
• Dekar: 2 Days (if coming from Namibia you can go to Dekar first)
• Moremi Game Reserve: 1 – 2 Days
• Khwai Concession: 1 – 2 Days
• Savuti: 2 Days
• Chobe National Park & Kasane: 2 Days

Botswana Itinerary 3 – The Full Circuit Route 

This combines the two above routes, starting and ending in Kasane. You could start in Maun too. You will need a 4×4 for most of this route.

If starting/ending in Kasane, you can tag on Victoria Falls/Livingstone at the end or the beginning. This is the itinerary we follow on my Botswana & Victoria Falls tour .

*Just be aware that some of this route is a very ‘wild’, so you may need to do it in the dry season, especially if driving yourself.

You could also make a detour to see the San in Dekar.

• Kasane: 1 Day
• Maun: 1 Day
• Chobe National Park: 2 Days
• Livingstone, Zambia/Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe: 3 – 5 Days

You don’t have to stay in Kasane at all, as most of the safari companies can arrange transfers direct from Livingstone/Vic Falls to Chobe National Park and back again, however, Kasane is the town closest to Chobe National Park and there is an international airport so many Botswana safaris start from there.

So, if you have a bit of time, or are coming from/going to somewhere further away than Livingstone/Vic Falls you could relax here for a night before or after your Chobe Safari.

It’s also a good place to stock up on food, petrol and other supplies.

On the other hand, you also don’t have to stay inside the park if you are doing a Chobe safari, so you could use Kasane as your base and take day trips into the park. There are LOTS of options.

Last time I was there, I stayed at a couple of different places. The first was Senyati Safari Camp a few kilometres outside of Kasane town, and what a great choice it was!

Senyati Safari Camp overlooks a beautiful waterhole where lots of animals congregate (especially elephants) and they have an underground bunker so you can get really close to the action!

Our chalet was number 1, which sleeps 4 and has a fantastic view over the waterhole (as does the bar and chalet number 2). As we were chilling on our porch in the afternoon, we saw lots of elephants, kudu, impala, warthogs, baboons and even a rare sable antelope galloping by, which I thought was very cool, but the best was yet to come…

Around sunset, we were sat in the bar when a herd of maybe 25 – 30 elephants came trundling into camp, including a few tiny (like really tiny) babies. Jessi and I bolted for the bunker (where the photo above was taken) and watched as they drank and played right in front of us, for a while before wandering off into the night.

They’d only been gone for a few minutes when 10 more arrived to drink. This group were a bit more feisty and I almost pooped my pants when one of the older elephants trumpeted angrily at one of the little ones.

Then as soon as they’d left, another showed up, then another, then another…you get the idea. It was bloody amazing!

I’d say that this place is even better for elephant spotting than the more famous Elephant Sands as you can get way closer and the waterhole is floodlit at night, but Elephant Sands is also awesome – bring on the elephants!

You heard it here first – this is now one of my favourite camps in Africa (yes, in the whole continent, not just Botswana).

I also stayed at Thebe River Safaris Lodge. This place was nice with a good and lively bar and relatively good wifi.

Things To Do in Kasane: Day or overnight safaris to Chobe National Park, river cruises, day trips over to Livingstone/Vic Falls, fishing trips, take a dip in the hot springs, shop at the Chobe Women’s Arts & Crafts Centre and visit the old baobab tree.

Time Needed: 1 – 2 Days

Chobe National Park (Riverfront)

One of the most popular Botswana safaris is a trip to Chobe National Park. I’ve been to Chobe quite a few times and it’s one of my absolute favourite national parks in all of Africa and one of the best places in the world to see elephants. Definitely a staple of any Botswana itinerary.

Plus it’s great for a budget safari too, as you can easily take day trips into the park with someone like Kalahari Tours .

Last time I was there was on the Rock My Malawi, Zambia & Botswana Adventure and I swear we saw about 1000 elephants over the 2 days. Seriously. It was pure magic.

But as well as the elephants, we saw a ton of buffalo, lions, giraffes and 3 leopards, including the closest leopard sighting I’ve ever had in my life. Seriously amazing!

There are a whole load of safari companies that offer trips to Chobe of varying lengths, some include boat trips along the river too.

Things To Do in Chobe National Park (Riverfront): Camp in the bush, take a river cruise, go on safari and take millions of pictures of elephants, leopards, lions…

Chobe National Park (Savuti)

Savuti is part of Chobe National Park, however, it’s much deeper into the bush than the Kasane part of Chobe.

On a good day, Savuti may just be the most magical safari in Botswana.

When we were there on the last Rock My Botswana & Victoria Falls Adventure , we saw a leopard eating an elephant (seriously), 3 male lions covered in blood (who had also been eating the elephant, hundreds of live elephants, a pride of lions and lion cubs, hyenas fighting over a baby elephant carcass, jackals trying to get the baby elephant carcass and 3 cheetahs. That was a pretty amazing day.

To get to Savuti you can either fly (an expensive option as you have to stay in a lodge) or you can drive in via Chobe or Moremi/Khwai and camp. You will need a 4×4 and I’d recommend having a guide.

Things To Do in Chobe National Park (Savuti): Safari, safari, safari!

Time Needed: 2 Days

Nata (Elephant Sands)

Around 50km before the town of Nata (if coming from Kasane), you will find Elephant Sands, a lodge with a fantastic waterhole that is very popular with the local elephants. Every day (and night) elephants and other animals visit the lodge to drink.

All of the tents, campsites and the bar/restaurant face the waterhole, so no matter where you stay, you always have a front-row seat and elephants wander through the camp all the time.

We arrived at around 4pm in the afternoon and within about half an hour 7 elephants showed up. Just don’t do what I did and arrive with a flat battery! I spent my time running between the charging point at the bar and the waterhole trying to get pictures and I definitely missed a few of the best shots.

After dinner, a few more elephants showed up as well as a honey badger, which is only the second one I’ve seen in all my years travelling Africa (the first was in South Luangwa in Zambia earlier this year).

As I was drifting off to sleep later that evening, I could hear the low rumbling of elephants just beside our tent. Just beautiful.

There is also a road taking you from Savuti to Nata, but it’s a gravel road and not always open. So you can go direct from Savuti to Nata before going to Chobe, but you will have seen tons of elephants, so I’d say Elephant Sands is more of a novelty if you haven’t already been camping out in the bush

Things To Do at Elephant Sands: They have game drives departing in both the morning and the evening, as well as a morning bush walk that you can join. They also offer bush braais (bbq’s). Other than that, just sit back relax and enjoy the view.

Gweta, Makgadikgadi Pans National Park & Nxai Pan National Park

Did you know that the zebra is Botswana’s national animal? Well, they are! And each year, they (and wildebeest) migrate hundreds of miles through Botswana in the largest animal migration in Southern Africa.

The best place to see them is in Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, which lies alongside the main road from Kasane to Maun and the best time to view the migration here is between January and March, with the animals spending the rest of the year in the more densely vegetated north.

There are a number of luxury lodges with one of the most popular places to see the migration being Meno a Kwena. Jack’s Camp, Camp Kalahari and San Camp are the best places to hang out with habituated meerkats – but you can also see them on day trips from Planet Baobab (see below).

However, if you are on a budget, there are some public campsites too and safari companies usually have access to dedicated self-supported camping areas. But just check whether you need a 4×4 to get there and there is no public transport, so you’ll need your own vehicle.

If you’re a backpacker or on a budget self-drive without a 4×4, there’s also a cool, quirky and reasonably priced lodge called Planet Baobab which is in the town of Gweta, a bit further away but they can arrange lots of excursions to Makgadikgadi Pans National Park and Nxai Pan National Park.

Things To Do in Gweta, Makgadikgadi Pans National Park & Nxai Pan National Park: Viewing the zebra migration (January to March), quad biking (June to October), hanging out with meerkats and overnight camping trips into the salt pans. Visit the local village to learn about the local Batswana culture. Take a Baobab Bushwalk.

Time Needed: 1 Day (if just stopping off in Gweta), 2 – 3+ if you want to do any activities

Maun is a busy town and a staple stop on most Botswana safaris, as it’s the jumping-off point to safaris in the Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve & Khwai (and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve too if coming from that direction – if going the other way, you may want to arrange your CKGR safari from Dekar/Ghanzi).

You can just turn up and book your safari (just be aware that accommodation books out quickly in Maun), but I wouldn’t bank on you always being able to get on a safari the next day. Well, you probably can, but you’ll need to ask around a bit in town.

If you are on limited time (and/or money) I would try to book your accommodation and tour to the Delta/Moremi/Khwai in advance where possible, even if just a few days before.

Whilst you’re in town, stop by Hilary’s for some hearty, healthy food. I had one of the specials – avocado and toasted coconut flakes on garlic bread with salad and homemade lemonade and it was delicious.

The road between Gweta and Maun is full of potholes, so please drive carefully. We saw a ton of burst tyres scattered along the roadside.

Things To Do in Maun:  Go on safari into the Okavango Delta and Moremi Game Reserve, take a scenic flight over the Delta, go for a ride in a mokoro (traditional canoe) and go bush camping.

Okavango Delta

Safaris to Botswana usually include the Okavango Delta. ‘The Delta’ as it’s usually called, is basically a giant swamp, formed when seasonal water flowing from the Angolan highlands creates a flood, which produces channels and islands which form one of the most unique landscapes and environments on earth.

It’s also perfect for wildlife viewing making it one of the best safari spots in Africa.

Most people make 2 or 3-day trips, starting in Maun. These trips usually involve taking a mokoro (traditional canoe) ride into the Delta (with all your stuff) or you can also fly in if you’re staying in one of the remote lodges. The lodges all offer mokoro rides.

Once there you’ll either bush camp (budget) or stay in pre-built tents/lodges (mid-range to high-end).

For a budget traveller, the best option is to join a group safari. For those not on a budget, the world is your oyster as there is a whole host of beautiful and luxurious static and mobile safari camps for you to live out your safari dream.

Things To Do in the Okavango Delta: Take a scenic flight, ride in a mokoro, take a motorboat, camp out in the bush, go on a walking safari, go on a game drive, go fishing and just enjoy being in nature.

Time Needed: 2 – 3 Days

Khwai Concession & Moremi Game Reserve

In the northern part of the Delta, you’ll find the Khwai Concession and the Moremi Game Reserve. I’ve put them both together as they are right next to each other and they can be easily combined.

Both are incredible places to see wildlife and Khwai is probably my favourite place for elephant spotting in the whole of Botswana.

The last time I was there, we saw so many elephants in Khwai and they were right there in full view of all the campsites. Literally, you can sit down with a beer and watch them bathe in the river from your private campsite.

If you are self-driving you with need a 4×4 car and I would check on the road conditions before you attempt to enter. For those with a bigger budget, you can fly into Moremi and there are a number of luxury safari lodges too.

For the budget to mid-range safaris or self-drivers, there are several campsites in both Moremi and Khwai but book in advance as they can get busy.

Central Kalahari Game Reserve

If you are looking for an off the beaten path adventure in the Botswanan wilderness then visit the Central Kalahari Game Reserve which lies slap bang in the middle of the country.

The CKGR is an epic and remote place which should definitely be on the itinerary of every intrepid traveller and is a great place for wildlife, with good numbers of brown hyenas, lions, spotted hyenas, leopards, cheetahs and wild dogs.

The most famous part of the CKGR is Deception Valley, where Mark and Delia Owens studied lions and brown hyenas, as detailed in their book ‘Cry of the Kalahari’. The other areas are the Northern CKGR, Passarge Valley, the Western Pans and the Far South.

There are a number of waterholes in the reserve that make a great stop to watch wildlife and you’re unlikely to see many other people whilst you are there.

Getting there is a bit of a mission, so you really need to be prepared, especially if you are doing self-drive (you need a 4×4) and self-supported trip. You’ll need to take all of your supplies with you including water.

You have to camp at designated campsites within the reserve and the campsites they do have vary in facilities (some don’t have toilets etc), so make sure you do your research before you go! For budget, try Passarge Valley Campsites, Piper Pan Campsites and Kori Campsites. For more info, see here . For something a little more comfortable (and expensive), stay at Kalahari Plains Camp or Deception Valley Lodge .

Things To Do in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve:  Game drives, San Bushmen walks and quad biking. If you have the time, you can always visit the neighbouring Khutse Game Reserve.

Time Needed: 3 – 4 Days (minimum)

The reason most people come to Dekar (pronounced dee-car) is to meet and spend time with the San people, one of the oldest (if not the oldest) ethnic groups on earth.

I always have a wonderful time here at the Dqae Qare San Lodge with my tour groups, we do the full day San Experience, which encompasses spending time with the San, foraging for roots, setting (fake) traps, storytelling, playing games, music, dancing/singing and learning about their culture.

In nearby Ghanzi you’ll find supermarkets, petrol stations and ATM’s.

Things To Do in Dekar:  Spend the whole day with the San and go to the Kuru Dance Festival (held at the lodge, usually in August).

Other Places To Consider

These are places that aren’t on any of the routes above but are definitely worth the detour if you have the time! Botswana is a big country with so much to see and do!

• Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park: Straddling the border with South Africa, can get booked up well in advance.
• Gabarone: The capital city.

Leaving Botswana – Where to Go Next!

When you’ve finished your Botswana safaris, you can depart or continue on to other places in Southern Africa.

Dekar is within a day’s drive of Windhoek, Namibia, so you could finish your trip there. If you are using public transport you will need to change buses at the Buitepost/Mamuno border as I believe there are no cross border services going into or out of Namibia.

If you don’t want to travel the whole way to Windhoek in one go, there are places to stay near the border such as Kalahari Bush Breaks or Zelda Game & Guest Farm.

If you want to extend your trip a bit more, here are a few alternative routes:

• You could drive south after Dekar, through the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (in which case you’d be better going, Maun – Dekar – CKGR) and Khutse Game Reserve down to Gaborone and then cross over the border at Pioneer Gate and end in Johannesburg, South Africa.
• Or travel down through Central Kalahari Game Reserve and Khutse Game Reserve down to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, cross over the Bokspits border into South Africa and then drive down to Cape Town.
• Or follow the same route as option 2, but instead of going down to Cape Town, you could enter southern Namibia via the Ariamsvlei border and do a Namibia road trip .
• If you are doing a Namibia and Botswana road trip, you could go around the country clockwise, ending in Windhoek or drive along the Caprivi Strip (the panhandle in northeast Namibia) and end where you started in Kasane, Botswana. From there it’s an easy journey to Livingstone/Vic Falls by public transport, shuttle or taxi.

Livingstone, Zambia or Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Many safaris to Botswana also include Livingstone, Zambia or Vic Falls, Zimbabwe.

Ok, so neither are in Botswana, but if you’re flying in for a Botswana safari, you may want to start (or end) in either town, as both have good international airports and are very close to the border with Botswana (which is only a 45-minute drive away). Plus – they’re home to the impressive Victoriall Falls.

You could easily spend a few days/weeks here as there’s so much to do! Just make sure you have a lot of money as the activities are expensive (although there are lots of cheap things to do too).

Alternatively, if you were going the other way, you might find it easier to fly into Windhoek, Namibia and fly out of Livingstone or Vic Falls.

Things To Do Livingstone & Victoria Falls: There are so many wonderful things to do at Victoria Falls and both towns offer pretty much the same activities. Although they are sometimes a little cheaper on the Zimbabwe side, I much prefer Livingstone as it’s a much less touristy (in town).

Time Needed: 3 – 5 Days (you could manage in a day or two if you just saw Victoria Falls and did no other activities, I could stay here for a month personally).

Other Botswana posts you might enjoy…

• Come With Me to Botswana & Victoria Falls!
• How to Visit Botswana on a Budget – My Top Tips
• 20 Amazing Things To Do in Botswana
• Highlights of the Rock My Botswana & Victoria Falls Adventure (August 2019)
• Spending Time With the San People at Dqae Qare San Lodge in Botswana
• Visiting the Okavango Delta on a Budget – Everything You Need to Know
• Safaris in Southern Africa – The Best Places to Visit
• The Best Places in Africa to See Elephants
• The Ethics of Visiting an African Tribe: What You Need to Know
• How To Visit the Devil’s Pool, Victoria Falls
• 30 Best Things to See & Do at Victoria Falls (Zambia & Zimbabwe)
• Best Time To Visit Victoria Falls in Zambia & Zimbabwe: Everything You Need To Know

Botswana safaris are the best you’ll find in Africa so I know you’ll love it! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below!

Pin This Post For Later

I love to travel all over the world, but it's Africa that holds a special place in my heart. My mission is to help people travel Africa in an authentic, safe, fun, adventurous and ethical way.

Similar Posts

The Best Things to Do in Liverpool: City Guide & 2-Day Itinerary

Liverpool is in my opinion, one of the best cities in the world. I may be a little biased (but…

Finding the Lion King in the Serengeti

“You know you are truly alive when you’re living among lions.” (Karen Blixen) When I’m on safari, I’m in my…

From Malawi to Zambia on a Solo Safari in South Luangwa

I found myself with a few days to spare at the end of my last trip to Africa. I’d been…

Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro Solo – Machame Route

It was mid-July and couple of days I would be climbing Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak. Having travelled in quite a few…

10 Reasons to Take a Group Tour in Africa

Thinking about travelling in Africa? Contemplating taking a group tour? As much as I love solo travel, there are lots…

An Awesome Africa Playlist

Just like in the movies, every great adventure needs an epic soundtrack, so I created an Africa playlist! Music always…

One Comment

Wow, this looks like such an amazing itinerary. I’ve started my research into visiting Africa but there are so many places with so many things to do and see, I’m happy you called out Chobe as your favorite because I heard a lot about it and was thinking that would be a great place to visit.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Privacy Overview

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

Looking for a unique destination for your next holiday? Try St Helena!

Botswana Safari Holidays

See our Botswana Trip Ideas , or our Botswana Accommodation

O kavango Delta

• Botswana Under Luxury Canvas
• Active Botswana Safari
• An epic mobile safari through Botswana
• Classic Botswana Family Adventure: Okavango Delta, Makgadikgadi and Vic Falls
• Best of Botswana
• An affordable honeymoon to romantic Botswana
• Luxury Botswana Honeymoon
• Off the Beaten Track
• Wild Botswana
• Botswana Travel Advice
• Best Time To Visit Botswana

Botswana is home to some of the most beautiful and diverse regions in Africa

The reserves in Botswana are truly wild and it is here that the opportunities for viewing some of the most plentiful game in Africa

Botswana is home to some of the most beautiful and diverse regions in Africa. In the north-west, the crystal-clear river channels of the Okavango Delta make up one of the richest ecosystems in the world. This is one the world’s largest wetlands, with prolific wildlife and enchanting scenery, a safari holiday here promises an experience of great variety. In contrast to this watery wonderland are the great salty expanses of the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans , where man elevated himself from four legs to two; and the vast Kalahari Desert where bushmen and wildlife have adapted to survive the parched dryness. The landscapes here are like nothing you’ll have seen before, and are firm favourites on many tailor made Botswana safari holidays .

The best way to really get to know the country on any Botswana holiday is to combine these highlights. Venture into the wilderness on quad bikes, gallop across the plains on horseback, glide silently through the Delta in mokoros (traditional dugout canoes), or track game on foot and enjoy the feeling of being part of nature. There are 4x4 game drives too, so there really is something for everyone, and no two days will be the same. Botswana offers world class wildlife safaris hosted by outstanding guides and accompanied by fantastic lodges, creating truly wonderful tailor-made holidays and lifelong memories.

OUR FAVOURITE TAILOR-MADE BOTSWANA TRIPS

Popular Botswana Safari Holiday Ideas

Affordable Botswana Safari & Victoria Falls

• Victoria Falls

Chobe National Park

Okavango delta.

• £4100 PP

Classic Botswana Safari & Victoria Falls Honeymoon

• £6705 PP

Luxury Tented Botswana Safari: Okavango Delta & Makgadikgadi

• Okavanga Delta
• Makgadikgadi Pan
• £13450 PP

Exploring Botswana: Chobe, Khwai & Makgadikgadi Safari

Khwai concession.

• Makgadikgadi Pans
• £7630 PP

Wild Botswana: Rivers, Delta and Desert

• £9315 PP

Complete Botswana: Okavango Delta, Moremi, Chobe & Vic Falls

• South Africa
• Makgadikgadi Plains
• Moremi Reserve
• £3150 PP

Luxury Botswana Honeymoon: Okavango Delta, Chobe & Victoria Falls

Linyanti concession, moremi game reserve.

• £22380 PP

Botswana Self Drive & Cape Town

• £7620 PP

Botswana Baobabs & Okavango Delta

• Savuti & Chobe
• £3670 PP

St Helena, Vic Falls, and Botswana Safari

• Johannesburg
• £9595 PP

WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO ON SAFARI IN BOTSWANA?

Best Places to Visit in Botswana

The Okavango Delta houses a diverse range of wildlife in its many ecosystems.

A private concession with incredible wildlife

One of the smallest yet most scenic areas of Botwana

One of the best places to see wild dogs

Savuti Concession

Savuti has long been the destination of choice for safari aficionados

Chobe is one of the largest parks in Botswana, and without doubt, one of the most impressive

Makgadikgadi Salt Pans

Makgadikgadi is famous for its huge salt pans

Kalahari Desert

Kalahari is a must for those who want to enjoy the diversity of Botswana

A safari far off the beaten track

Maun Hotels

A comfortable stopover before your safari

Call Us - 01768 603 715

Unsure where to start? Give us a call and speak to our team.

What would you like to do in Botswana?

Explore our Different Types of Botswana Safari Holiday

Botswana Honeymoons

Perfect luxury honeymoons in Botswana

Botswana Family Safaris

Family fun in thrilling and diverse Botswana

Luxury Botswana Safaris

Botswana Walking Safari

Get closer to nature on a Botswana walking safari

Horseback, Walking & Active Safaris

Walk with elephants, quad bike with zebras, ride with giraffe

Botswana Responsible Travel

How to travel responsibly in Botswana

When to go to Botswana

Find out the best time to visit Botswana with our month by month guide.

January is the heart of the wet season, with heavy downpours usually in the late afternoons, which is a great excuse to watch the storm from the luxury of your camp or lodge. Much of the wildlife is still there it may just take a little longer to find as its more dispersed due to the surrounding surface water. The lightning can put on quite a show making it an excellent time of year for photography! This time of year is hot, and aside from the rainshowers it's sunny. Migratory birds are breeding, and the young offspring of the plains game will be skipping about the savannahs. This is the best time to see the Zebra and Wildebeest migration as well as large flocks of flamingos down in the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. Rates are lower during the wet season.

February is also one of the warmer months, and is defined by both sunshine and heavy storms, which making it another great time for photography. It's now that the Central Kalahari begins waking up, with herds of game coming to graze the lush grassland. Again the peak migration should be in the Makgadikgadi now with large herds of wildebeest and zebra in the area. Game viewing is still great in many areas of the Okavango Delta with many of the dried camps on the western side top choice.

The wet season slowly comes to an end, leaving hot, drier days. There is still some rain, but only for short periods during the afternoon. Enjoy the green scenery and the lower accommodation rates. Towards the end of March the wildlife in the Central Kalahari really begins to pick up as large numbers of plains game head in the pans and Valleys. This is a great time of year to combine the Central Kalahari and Okavango Delta.

April is a fine month to visit Botswana, as the nights become cooler and sleeping is easier. Breeding season is underway for plains game, so keep an eye out for the clashing males attempting to woo the females out on the savannahs. Along with the breeding season comes more predator activity as the young animals are easy pickings. This is peak game viewing time in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve making it an integral part of any itinerary.

With the rainy season at an end, the temperature falls, making bush excursions more pleasant. Nights can be a little chilly, so you'll probably need an extra layer if you're heading out on an evening game drive. Skies become clearer and there are fewer mosquitoes. This is one of our favourite months to travel and also marks the final month before the peak season rates kick in in most camps.

June is the middle of winter in Botswana, and is one of the best times to visit the country. Days are pleasantly warm, and nights are spent tucked up cosily in your camp or lodge. Wildlife becomes concentrated around waterholes making it easier to spot. This is a great time to visit the Okavango Delta, Moremi and Chobe .

With warm sunny days, and cool nights, July is the perfect time to be in Botswana. Although this is the dry season, it's a great time to enjoy a traditional mokoro canoe trip as floodwaters begin to rise in the Okavango Delta , flowing down from the highlands of Angola.

The temperature begins to rise again in August, but it's still a superb time for game viewing, and the Makgadikgadi Pans are now accessible through until October. Water is now scarce in many of the parks, making game viewing easy. It's a good time to visit Savute and Linyanti .

Days in September are hot with sunny blue skies, and the nights are no longer cold. It does get quite dusty out in the bush thanks to many months without rain, and game viewing is excellent as predators and prey alike hunt to find water.

October is warmer, and safari activities take place during early mornings and late afternoons to avoid the worst of the heat. This is one of the final month before the rains come and the ground is at its driest making for exceptional game viewing. If you don’t mind hot days this is one of the peak game viewing months

November remains hot, but the rains return mid-month, bringing the plains and forests back to life. If you want to see young animals being born, and lots of predator action, this is the month to come. With rates dropping in November and the rains often falling later on in the month the first 2 weeks of November are a very popular time to travel. It also ties in nicely with great weather in Cape Town and the garden route.

The rainy season is now in full swing with often short heavy down pours int he evening, days are still mostly sunny. landscapes are lush and there is plenty of wildlife activity as the newborns flourish.

Far & Wild Customer Reviews

See what our customers have to say about us...

It was SO NICE to have someone else do it for me.

Cathy travelled to Tanzania and Zanzibar in December 2023 on a trip organised by Alistair .

100% value for money

Adam travelled to Kenya in January 2024 on a trip organised by Ruth .

I didn't realise my high expectations could be so easily exceeded

Hannah and Elaine travelled to Kenya in November 2023 on a trip organised by .

I've already recommended Far and Wild to a couple of friends

Paula travelled to South Africa in December 2023 on a trip organised by Alistair .

A dream to visit Mum's birth place!

Christine travelled to St Helena Holidays and South Africa in December 2023 on a trip organised by .

Adventure of a Lifetime in Kenya

Maria travelled to Masai Mara Safari in October 2023 on a trip organised by Ben .

Our favourite Botswana Accommodation

Best Places to Stay in Botswana

Golden Africa Safaris Mobile Camp

Exclusive, tailor-made mobile safaris in Botswana

Linyanti Bush Camp

Six stylish tents in the seriously remote Chobe Enclave

Khwai Guest House

Blending traditional African and modern style

Xugana Island Lodge

A wonderfully romantic camp tucked away on a private island in the heart of th...

Meno A Kwena

Midway between the Okavango Delta and the Kalahari

Lagoon Camp

Access to some of the best wild dog sightings in Botswana

Speak to a Botswana expert

The trips on our website are to inspire you, but everything we do is tailor-made. Contact us today to create your dream holiday.

Botswana Specialist

Call an expert on

01768 603 715

Plan with an expert

Have a look at our original holiday experiences and then contact us with your brief, or call 01768 603 715

A tailor-made itinerary just for you

Our experts will send you a detailed holiday itinerary specified to your desires. It's our service promise to you.

Value guarantee

Tailor-made doesn't mean expensive! Ask about our price promise and book with financial security.

Thank you for making an enquiry

Our travel experts will be in touch soon. Feel free to call us on 01768 603 715.

Start planning your next adventure

Give us a call on 01768 603 715 , chat with an expert instantly on WhatsApp or fill in the form below and we’ll be in touch.

Tell us about you...

Tell us about your trip….

Please enter your comments.

• You are here:
• Botswana Tours

Savanna Safaris and Tours

7-Day Last Minute Deal - Kalahari / Linyanti / Okavango

5.0 /5 – 16 Reviews

$4,752 to $4,884 pp (USD)

Your request will be sent directly to the operator

If preferred, you can contact the operator directly

This is our last-minute safari deal to Botswana for 6 nights & 7 days to 3 different parks, valid up to November 2023. This safari can only be confirmed 30 days before Travel date. These are luxury, permanent lodges with an en-suite facility, charter flight transfer to and from camps. Guests will visit Kalahari, Linyanti, and Okavango. Your stay is fully inclusive of all meals and beverages, and 2 game activities per day.

Tour Features

Luxury tour.

This luxury tour uses lodges and tented camps.

Private tour

This tour will be organized exclusively for you. However, wildlife viewing activities are run by the lodges/camps and will be shared with others.

Can start any day

If availability permits, this tour can start on any day.

Cannot be customized

The accommodations and destinations of this tour cannot be changed.

Not for solo travelers

Solo travelers cannot book this private tour.

Minimum age of 6 years

The minimum age for this tour is 6 years.

Activities & Transportation

Accommodation & meals.

• Additional accommodation before and at the end of the tour can be arranged for an extra cost
• Day Accommodation Meals

• 7 End of tour (No accommodation) – Breakfast Included Breakfast Included

Interested in This Tour?

Request a Quote

• We advise requesting quotes from 3 operators ( Learn why )
• Requests are sent directly to the tour operator
• If preferred, you can contact the tour operator directly

Best price guarantee

• This tour is offered by Savanna Safaris and Tours , not SafariBookings.
• This operator reserves the right to change rates advertised on SafariBookings.
• Rates include a fixed budget for flights during this tour. If flights cost more, your quote will reflect this.
• The exact order, contents and rates of this tour are subject to availability.
• If an accommodation is fully booked, the operator will suggest a comparable alternative.
• What is included in this tour

Get a Free Quote

• More About This Operator

Customer Reviews

Perfect Experience

We had a very pleasant stay on Botswana thanks to Emmlyn. We booked a fly in safari journey with different camps in Botswana. The whole journey was a dream and was very good organized. This was especially important during these difficult...

Full Review

• Travel Planning Guide

The Best Budget Safaris in Botswana

Are you planning a safari, but don't know where to start? Embark on an unforgettable safari adventure with one of these top tours. With our comprehensive analysis of a wide array of safari tours from highly-rated companies based on price, guest ratings, service, destinations, and activities, we've found the best safaris in Botswana that deliver the ultimate wilderness and wildlife experiences. Get ready to witness nature's wonders up close and create memories that will last a lifetime. Find your perfect safari from the list below for your next trip to Botswana.

• Delta & Falls Eastbound: Baobab Trees & River Views 9 Days, $1399.00
• Delta & Falls Westbound: Natural Wonders & Wildlife 8 Days, $1349.00
• 12-day Etosha & Okavango Delta Express (Camping) 12 Days, $1905.00

What are budget and low-cost safaris like in Botswana?

Here are the important factors:

• 8 trip options analyzed
• $140 average price per day (USD)
• 3 to 12 days in length
• 4.58 of 5 average rating
• 20 people or less on average

You'll be surprised at the array of budget safaris in Botswana, as there is something for everyone. It's no wonder that visitors can't get enough of these tours, boasting an impressive average guest rating of 4.58 out of 5 stars. Picture yourself joining a group of like-minded adventurers, with an average maximum size of 20 people, ensuring a fantastic blend of social and personalized experiences. The average tour length spans 9 days, with tours ranging from 3 to 12 days long. With our thorough analysis of 8 budget safaris, we've found the best. So rest assured that Botswana has something to captivate every kind of traveler.

(All tour prices are in US Dollars before taxes, and come from a base price that is reported by TourRadar. Peak season prices can vary significantly, particularly in destinations where seasonal travel fluctuates dramatically.)

So, let's get to it and see...

The 8 Best Budget Safaris in Botswana

Delta & falls eastbound: baobab trees & river views.

• On Sale: 25% Off See Prices
• Great Value: the daily price is lower than average for budget safaris.
• High Quality: guest ratings are higher than average.

This 9-day journey, visiting Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, is ideal for guests age 18 to 39. And priced at only $117 per day, it's a great value, too. This extraordinary adventure also revolves around overlanding, wildlife, and safaris. This trip takes you on an adventure to 7 destinations, including Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Maun, Okavango Delta, and Gweta. Begin your trip in Windhoek and complete it with a memorable finale in Victoria Falls. It's offered by G Adventures , a very popular company with rave reviews and knowledgeable guides. Act fast to take advantage of the current sale.

• Overland Truck

Delta & Falls Westbound: Natural Wonders & Wildlife

Priced at just $126 per day, this terrific 8-day safari, visiting Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia, is ideal for guests age 18 to 39. With 7 destinations to explore, you'll get the chance to see Gweta, Maun, Okavango Delta, and Ghanzi, and more. Your journey starts off in Victoria Falls and finishes in Windhoek. Organized by the reputable G Adventures , this is one of the best tours on this list. Don't miss out on this limited-time sale.

12-day Etosha & Okavango Delta Express (Camping)

Check out this incredible safari trip that has received a 4.3 out of 5 rating from previous guests, visiting Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia. You're in for an epic adventure with a strong emphasis on overlanding, wildlife, and safaris. With a duration of 12 days, this journey ensures an intimate group size of 16 people, and is good for guests age 18 to 75. Along the way, this journey encompasses 11 destinations, including Maun, Okavango Delta, Nata, and Kasane. Your journey will begin in Swakopmund and end in Livingstone. This fantastic option, organized by Acacia Adventure Holidays , presents an unbeatable value at just $143 per day.

Chobe National Park Short Break

Spanning over 3 days, this trip has a maximum size of 6 individuals. Welcoming guests age 5 and older, it is organized by Intrepid Travel , a very popular company with plenty of great reviews. Begin your trip in Kasane and complete it with a memorable finale in Chobe National Park. You'll love the emphasis on wildlife, family-friendly activities, and safaris, too. Available at an unbeatable price of only $109 per day, this option also has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars from previous guests.

Wild Dogs and Victoria Falls

Here's your chance to take off on an exceptional trip, visiting South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, that has garnered a 5 out of 5 rating. With a duration of 12 days, this jouney will have 28 participants, and it warmly welcomes guests age 18 to 80. With an emphasis on overlanding and safaris, you know you'll have an amazing adventure. Expertly organized by Absolute Africa , this amazing trip is an incredible value at just $141 per day.

Botswana and Falls Overland: Wildlife Walks & Safari Drives

This memorable safari, visiting South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, is offered by G Adventures which has received plenty of positive reviews. The trip itself has a guest rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars, and is priced affordably at $145 per day. Uncover the beauty of 9 destinations on this itinerary, with highlights such as Gweta, Chobe National Park, Kasane, and Serowe. Your journey will begin in Johannesburg and end in Victoria Falls. And since the priority is on overlanding and safaris, this tour is a great choice. The maximum group size is 22 people, welcoming guests age 18 to 39.

12-day Okavango Delta & Etosha Express (Camping)

Set off on an extraordinary journey, visiting Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia, that has been awarded a 4 out of 5 stars by previous guests. Rest assured, this trip is all about overlanding and safaris, guaranteeing an unforgettable adventure. With a duration of 12 days, this safari trip offers an intimate group setting, accommodating 16 individuals, while extending a warm welcome to guests age 18 to 75. Traverse through 11 enchanting destinations, with Spitzkoppe, Kasane, Chobe National Park, and Nata among the must-see stops along the route. Begin your trip in Livingstone and complete it with a memorable finale in Swakopmund. Brought to you by Acacia Adventure Holidays , this exceptional deal is an incredible steal at a mere $143 per day.

Botswana Safari

With this option you can experience an unparalleled safari adventure for 6 unforgettable days, visiting Zimbabwe and Botswana. It ensures an intimate group setting with 28 participants at most. This trip visits 5 destinations, including Kasane, Chobe National Park, and Maun along the way. Your journey starts off in Victoria Falls and finishes in Maun. Absolute Africa , the organizer of this journey, extends a warm invitation to guests guests age 18 to 80. This extraordinary opportunity offers exceptional value at only $197 per day.

See also The Best Family-Friendly Tours to Botswana , The Best Wildlife Tours to Botswana , The Best 10-Day Tours in Botswana , The Best 3-Day Tours in Botswana , The Best 2-Week Tours in Botswana , Tours for Outdoor and Nature Lovers in Botswana , The Best Christmas & New Years Tours in Botswana , The Best Overlanding Trips in Botswana , The Best Adventure Tours to Botswana , The Best Eco Tours in Botswana , The Best Camping Tours in Botswana , The Best Romantic Tours for Couples in Botswana , The Best Safaris in Botswana , The Best Tours Under $1000 in Botswana , The Best Luxury Tours to Botswana , The Best Budget Tours to Botswana , The Best Tours for Seniors to Botswana , or The Best G Adventures Tours to Botswana for more tour ideas. With so many options, there's a guided tour or vacation package for every type of traveler.

Also, if you're departing from a specific destination, see The Best 3-Day Tours from Maun or The Best One-Week (7-Day) Tours from Maun for more package tour options.

How much do budget safaris in Botswana cost?

Travelers to Botswana will have a large number of terrific options for budget safaris at a variety of great prices. The price of budget safaris here can vary by type, destinations, length, and travel style. Based on thorough data from 8 budget safaris, their average daily price is a very reasonable $140 per day. If you're interested in more information about tours here, see our guide to tour prices in Botswana .

And for more information on Botswana, see Botswana Travel Costs and Botswana Hotel Costs .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

By signing up for our email newsletter, you will receive occasional updates from us with sales and discounts from major travel companies , plus tips and advice from experienced budget travelers!

Budget Your Trip

Some of the links on this website are sponsored or affiliate links which help to financially support this site. By clicking the link and making a purchase, we may receive a small commission, but this does not affect the price of your purchase.

• Privacy / Terms of Use
• Activities, Day Trips, Things To Do, and Excursions