Botswana Travel Destinations and Vacations
Botswana is a land of untamed wilderness, remarkable wildlife, and world-class safari experiences—from the lush waterways of the Okavango Delta to the vast salt flats of the Makgadikgadi.
Need Advice?Top Travel Destinations in Botswana
Botswana is a wild land of contrasts, with a rich diversity of safari areas scattered throughout one of Africa's most sparsely populated countries.
Chobe in northeastern Botswana is one of the African continent's most unspoiled conservation areas.
A world of water, wildlife, and islands awaits those who travel to the most revered safari destination in Botswana.
Makgadikgadi isn’t for everyone, but its surreal landscape offers safaris that thrill die-hard enthusiasts.
Botswana Vacation Options & Travel Tips
Unforgettable encounters in authentic wilderness areas characterize the safari vacations you can enjoy in Botswana. The game viewing is sure to be top-notch.
Tours, Safaris & Honeymoons
Browse our thoughtfully crafted safari tours.
Tailor-Made Vacation Packages
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Travel Tips & Advice
Important information about visiting Southern Africa.
Other Recommended Travel Destinations in Botswana
Though not as well known nor as popular as the destinations listed above, each of Botswana's other destinations offers genuinely unique and exciting safari endeavors.
Central Kalahari
The Central Kalahari is one of the largest game reserves in the world. It stretches across 52,800 km² and covers roughly an eleventh of Botswana's landmass—supporting a treasure trove of wildlife. The region consists of mopane woodland, open grassy plains, and red desert sands.
Moremi Game Reserve
The Moremi Game Reserve protects a verdant stretch of the Okavango Delta. At about 5,000 km², it harbors remarkable diversity, including almost 500 species of birds, and is home to one of the Delta's largest and most famous islands—Chief's Island.
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park encompasses a sandy slice of the border between South Africa and Botswana—an area comprising more than 3.6 million hectares. It is home to the legendary black-maned Kalahari lion and desert-adapted plains game like gemsbok (oryx) and springbok.
Nxai Pan
Nxai Pan is a large salt pan that lies about 50 km northwest of the Makgadikgadi Pans. Thousands of years ago, they formed part of the same lake system. Though significantly smaller, Nxai boasts a more permanent wildlife population than Makgadikgadi, including large predators, elephants, and giraffes.
Explore the Central Kalahari
The red sands of the Kalahari hark back to a time when humans and the animal kingdom lived in a constant cycle of birth, life, and death alongside each other. Here, the wilderness is wild, the night sky is full of stars, and humanity’s grasp has yet to tighten completely.
The San of Botswana call this place home—and have done so for tens of thousands of years. Today, their culture survives around the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, alongside untamed, pristine wilderness.
Foods To Try in Botswana
When visiting a country or area, it is always a good idea to try some local delicacies.
Steak
Botswana is cattle country, famous for its high-quality beef. Expect one of the most succulent steaks imaginable on your safari lodge's menu.
Seswaa
The country's national dish, seswaa, is typically made from beef or goat. The meat is stewed in a traditional pot with only salt and water, then served with polenta or pap and morogo—the leafy green often called “African spinach.”
Watermelon
Watermelons originated in Southern Africa and grow wild in the Kalahari. In season, you are sure to find this delicious fruit on the breakfast table, as a refreshing snack, or as an addition to a summery salad.
Mopane Worms
Adventurous spirits may try mopane worms—large, edible caterpillars cooked in hot ashes, boiled or dried, and fried. This delicacy is an accessible and vital protein to millions of Southern Africans.
Safari Activities
Bush Walks
Bush walks are conducted in several reserves in Botswana, including Chobe, the Okavango Delta, Khutse, and the Central Kalahari. The Okavango Delta offers some of Africa's most unique walking safaris; guests often take a morning boat ride to an uninhabited island and then explore on foot with a ranger and tracker. These walks can offer views of elephants crossing channels, large buffalo herds, and, with luck, aquatic antelope like lechwe and sitatunga.
Mokoro Trips
The Okavango Delta is synonymous with “mokoro” trips—gliding along shallow waterways in a dugout canoe propelled by a single poler. It’s a silent, peaceful way to spot species along reed-lined channels. (It can also be an adrenaline rush if hippos or crocodiles are nearby.)
Game Drives
The most common way of viewing wildlife in the Okavango is on 4x4 vehicle game drives, typically in the early morning and late afternoon from lodges with access to larger land areas. Specially adapted Toyota Land Cruisers are often used, with local rangers and trackers providing insight into animal behavior.
Spa Treatments
Many luxury lodges in Botswana offer spa treatments to indulge the senses and relax body and mind—often on a private deck with magnificent views and the natural soundtrack of the African wild.
Fishing
Many lodges in Botswana offer both conventional and fly-fishing for indigenous species. The notorious tigerfish is a highlight among freshwater fighting fish; other species include bream and catfish. The best time for fishing in Botswana is from late August to mid-November.
Sunset Cruises
The Chobe River, forming Botswana’s northern border, offers some of Africa's grandest sunset cruises. Late-afternoon boats—departing from or near Kasane—often encounter large herds of elephants and a great diversity of birdlife. Photographers will find exceptional opportunities.
Bird Watching
Botswana is a birder's paradise, with 593 identified species, around 100 of which are rare or accidental. Whether you choose Chobe or the Okavango Delta, the birding is outstanding.
The People
Primary Tribal Group
Botswana's most significant tribal group is the Tswana, comprising almost half of the population, followed by the Bakalanga, who inhabit the northeast and central districts and have lived there for nearly a thousand years.
The Riverine Tribes
The riverine tribes of the Bayei, Basubiya, and Hambukushu inhabit the Okavango and Chobe waterways in Ngamiland, subsisting on the waters and their natural resources. The Bayei arrived in the 1700s, closely followed by the Basubiya, who established settlements along the Chobe River.
The Hambukushu
The Hambukushu, master basket weavers, are more recent additions to Botswana’s cultural tapestry. They arrived in waves from Namibia and Angola over the past couple of centuries, with the last large group moving in 1969 to escape the Angolan civil war.
Bakgalagadi Tribe
The Bakgalagadi are of Sotho-Tswana origin and closely related to the Batswana, sharing similar customs and beliefs. Many Bakgalagadi still practice subsistence agriculture. The San are also deep rural dwellers who often prefer minimal contact with larger settlements.
Sites of Interest
Tsodilo Hills
The Tsodilo Hills rise about 400 m (1,312 ft) above the surrounding plains and are visible from the Okavango Delta more than 50 km (31 miles) away. They are one of the world's most important rock-art sites, with as many as 3,500 individual paintings spanning over 25,000 years of near-continuous habitation.
Drotsky's Caves
Situated in the Kalahari Desert, around 50 km east of the Aha Hills, Drotsky's Caves—also known as the Gcwihaba Caves—form one of Botswana's most beautiful and unusual national monuments. Easy to miss among undulating dunes, they hide a spectacular labyrinth below.
Flow-stone draperies, frozen “waterfalls,” and mammoth natural obelisks fill sweeping hallways and chambers—some up to 10 meters high. Beautiful inlets and apertures, awash in subtle light and color, showcase the passage of time in all its petrified glory.
Geography
Kalahari Desert
Stretching through nine degrees of latitude, more than half of Botswana lies within the tropics, yet it is drier than most tropical countries and prone to drought. The boundless Kalahari—the world's largest unbroken stretch of sand—covers about 84% of Botswana, extending from the Orange River in South Africa to near the equator in Gabon.
Okavango Delta
While Botswana is often depicted as flat, featureless semidesert, its landscapes hold incredible variety. The greatest paradox is the lush jewel of the Okavango Delta, formed where the wide, fast-flowing Okavango River spreads across the sands and soaks away—vanishing in its futile search for the sea.
Makgadikgadi Pans
Other remarkable features punctuating Botswana's terrain include the immense Makgadikgadi Pans, whose salt-cracked surface marks the deathbed of the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi. Along the eastern edge of the country, hills and koppies add variety; far to the west and southwest, deep in the Kalahari, the terrain is flat and arid.
