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Botswana is a travel destination like no other country in Southern Africa. Its vast untouched wildernesses, like Chobe and the Okavango Delta, are amongst the world's most remote and unspoiled conservation areas. Vacations to the country focus on safaris based at remote and often luxurious safari camps. This adventure relishes wildlife viewing and the grand natural splendor of Botswana.
Need Advice?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.
Makgadikgai is not a destination for everyone, but this bizarre landscape offers unique safaris that appeal to die-hard safari enthusiasts.
Those who travel to Botswana will be captivated by its wilderness's beauty and its people's hospitality.
Botswana has more than 17% of the land dedicated to protected wildlife areas, including national parks and game reserves. The most notable conservation areas are Chobe National Park, the Okavango Delta, the Makgadikgadi Pan, Savute Marsh, Kgalagadi, and the Central Kalahari – the second-largest game reserve in the world. It is nothing short of a paradise for nature lovers.
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.
The Central Kalahari is one of the largest game reserves in the world. It Stretches across 52,800 km². This safari destination covers an eleventh of Botswana's land mass - supporting a treasure trove of wildlife. The region consists of mopane woodland, open grassy plains, and red desert sands.
The Moremi Game Reserve is a protected stretch of the verdurous Okavango Delta. Some 5 000 square kilometers in extent, the reserve harbors remarkable diversity, including almost 500 species of birds. It is home to one of the Okavango Delta's most famous and largest islands - 'Chief's Island.'
Kgalagadi Trans-Frontier 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 is a large salt pan that lies 50km 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.
Unforgettable wild encounters in authentic wilderness areas characterize the safari vacations you can enjoy in Botswana. The game viewing is sure to be top-notch.
A private overland safari tour that ventures to off-the-beaten-track areas of Botswana accompanied by an experienced African Sky Guide.
Safari in Botswana in the lap of ultimate luxury before venturing to experience the mighty Victoria Falls from the Zambian side of the Zambezi River.
Safari experiences in Botswana's two top wilderness areas, namely the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park, are followed by a visit to Victoria Falls.
Traveling to Botswana will bring you to a seasoned safari destination, which means it hosts many established safari camps and lodges with decades of experience. The government harbors stringent conservation regulations, ensuring that these properties are often considerably more eco-friendly than those in other African countries. Wherever you may roam in Botswana, you will find a heavy emphasis on preserving its natural resources. Wildlife tourism is the lifeblood of this country.
Botswana boasts a unique variety of wilderness areas unlike elsewhere in Southern Africa. From the emerald waterways of the Okavango Delta to the otherworldly landscape of the Makgadikgadi Pans, the contrast is almost dizzying yet indelibly captivating. Travelers to Botswana may experience anything from the lush green paradise of the Delta to the sprawling desert sands of the Kalahari.
Botswana's wide variety of wilderness areas provides various vacation activities. Unlike Namibia and South Africa's safari areas, Botswana can offer a range of water-based safari ventures, from gliding along the veins of the Okavango Delta in a traditional mokoro canoe to motorized cruises on the Chobe River and the Linyanti marshes.
The safari camps of Botswana are in remote locations. Architects are creative in ensuring eco-sustainability and unbridled comfort. The camps they create are innovative, inviting, and enveloped in pristine wilderness. These lodges are less hedonistically luxurious than some of the lodges in South Africa. Incomparable settings augment the safari camps of Botswana.
In terms of unique experiences, Botswana's wonderfully primeval and all about enjoying nature. Here the din of civilization is drowned out by deafening silence or the beautiful cacophony of the wilderness.
Safari enthusiasts worldwide agree that few other countries can rival Botswana's authentic safaris.
We recommend African Sky for organizing everything with perfection. We appreciated their excellent advice when deciding on our travel itinerary. It will always be an unforgettable experience. Thank you very much. A special thank you to Hennie, who took excellent care of us. It was the perfect holiday.
Marc & Sylvia Deschamps, SwitzerlandThe accommodation offered in Botswana consists primarily of luxury tented camps and lodges, where the client-to-staff ratio is very high (Normally, around three staff members for each client the camp or lodge can accommodate). These camps lie in remote areas - the only way fresh supplies can reach these camps daily is via light charter flight. Though very costly, the experience is truly unforgettable. More reasonably priced alternatives are available in the towns of Maun and Kasane. These two towns provide bases for clients to explore the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park.
View Safari Camps
Tented Camps are the hallmark of most safari destinations in Botswana. These camps range from comfortable with all modern amenities to ultra-luxurious camps fit for a king.
You can find brick-and-mortar lodges that offer varying degrees of luxury in the northern part of the Chobe National Park. These lodges offer a traditional safari stay.
These wilderness oases grace private islands in the Okavango Delta. All safaris conducted from these camps are either water-based or walking safaris.
While traveling in Botswana, your transportation will typically take the form of modified open-air 4x4 vehicles. These vehicles are used on game drives and for transfers from the airport to the lodge. It is usually the case when, for example, enjoying a safari in the Chobe National Park.
Charter flights in light aircraft will be required if your safari takes you further afield to indelibly wild areas like the Okavango Delta, Savute, or Linyanti. Keep in mind that this generally augments the price of any safari in Botswana and that particular luggage restrictions apply when taking charter flights.
When visiting a country or area, it is always a good idea to try some local delicacies.
After arriving in Johannesburg, guests fly to either Maun or Kasane in Botswana. Known as Botswana's tourism capital, Maun is the entry point for most African safaris in the area - mainly due to Maun's proximity to the prolific Okavango Delta. Kasane is in the northeastern corner of Botswana, close to the Kazungula border post, where four countries meet – Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. This location makes the town the ideal access point for safaris to Chobe National Park, the Okavango Delta, Namibia's Caprivi Strip, and even Victoria Falls.
Botswana's climate is similar to that of its southern African neighbors, although its rainfall is less substantial than countries further east. The rains in Botswana typically arrive in December and continue into March, when average minimum temperatures rise to the low twenties. Some days will be bright and sunny, some will experience afternoon thunderstorms, and some may be mercifully overcast - known as the 'emerald season. April and May in Botswana are pleasant, with clear skies and a verdant landscape. Evening temperatures diminish during these months, particularly in the Kalahari. Places in and around the Okavango Delta tend to have less extreme, more moderate temperatures than the arid reaches of the Kalahari.
The nighttime temperatures in drier areas can be nearly freezing from June to August. Still, it warms up rapidly throughout the day when the sky is typically clear and blue - considered 'peak season for most safari areas, as the land is dry in most areas. The result is that wildlife concentrates around the few available water sources.
Wildlife concentrations continue into September and October, when temperatures climb again, drying the landscapes and concentrating the game even more. It is the best time for game viewing, keeping in mind that October can feel very hot, with maximum temperatures sometimes approaching 40°C. November is difficult to predict, as it can sometimes be a continuation of October's heat, while other times, it is cooled by the first rains.
While the Southern half of Botswana – home to safari areas like Kgalagadi and the Central Kalahari – is considered a low-risk malaria area, the popular wildernesses of northern Botswana are high-risk malaria areas. Consult your physician on anti-malarial medication. We do not recommend traveling to Botswana with small children. Most lodges will provide mosquito repellent, but it is always convenient to have some of your own.
No vaccinations are required. It is still strongly recommended that you are up to date with routine vaccinations like measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, varicella (chickenpox), polio, and your yearly flu shot. There is no risk of yellow fever in Botswana. The government of Botswana requires proof of yellow fever vaccination only if you are arriving from a country with the risk of yellow fever.
Surrounded as they are by spectacular wilderness, petty crime at Botswana's remote lodges is hardly an issue. Nevertheless, be discreet with valuables. Should you be traveling with items of considerable value, confine them to your in-room safe or ask reception to look after them for your stay.
As most camps are unfenced and susceptible to 'wild' visitors, follow any instructions recommended by lodge staff (i.e., not wandering alone at night between buildings) and heed your ranger's advice during safari activities.
The Okavango River originates in the Angolan Highlands, where it drains south-easterly. It is the fourth longest river system in Southern Africa and runs for a distance of 1 600km (or approximately 900 miles). This river does not drain towards the sea but instead empties its waters into a swamp in the vast Kalahari Desert, where it creates a unique inland delta that supports an abundance of wildlife.
Mokolodi Nature Reserve covers an area of 3 700Ha in southeastern Botswana. The reserve was established in 1994 to protect species endemic to the area. Some are rare, like the white rhino and cheetah. Mokolodi is easily accessible, as it is a mere half-hour's drive from Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. Visitors to the area are accommodated in a few chalets or in the unique McCall Smith Camp that resembles a traditional Tswana dwelling.
Khama Rhino Sanctuary, which covers an area of 8 585 hectares of Kalahari sandveld, is a community-based conservation effort dedicated to protecting black and white rhinos. Visitors can also spot thirty other mammal species and two hundred and fifty bird species. Guest accommodation comprises eight basic but comfortable chalets, while camping options are also available.
Kubu Island is a unique granite outcrop on the edge of the vast Makgadikgadi Pan, where ancient baobab trees took root thousands of years ago. Kubu Island is one of the most amazing natural sights on the planet. The entire island is considered sacred by the local population, and it is thus also a national monument protected by the government of Botswana.
The Caracal Biodiversity Center in Kasane, Botswana's most northerly town, is focused on conservation and education projects. Those passing through town will find a short visit rewarding, as many small mammal species, snakes, and other reptiles can be viewed while receiving an informative briefing on their habits and behaviors.
Nata Bird Sanctuary is situated on the far northeastern corner of the great Makgadikgadi Pans. It forms part of the Makgadikgadi Important Bird Area and may be considered one of Botswana's most fantastic birding attractions. Following good rains, the area attracts hundreds of thousands of lesser flamingos and a variety of other water birds. November is usually the best month to experience this grand natural spectacle.
Named for the artist and explorer Thomas Baines, this cluster of baobab trees is in the Nxai Pan National Park in an untamed corner of Botswana. Those adventurous enough to venture slightly off the worn path when visiting Botswana will be rewarded by the sight of these magnificent trees that are thousands of years old.
The beautiful Moremi Gorge is located in the Tswapong Hills in southeastern Botswana near Palapye. The gorge is an impressive natural sight where the endangered Cape Vulture breeds on rocky outcrops surrounding the three ancient waterfalls. The area has been designated a national monument by the government of Botswana.
Tsodo Hills is located in the northwestern part of Botswana. These hills rise spectacularly and abruptly from the relatively flat sands of the Kalahari. For the San and the Hashuduku, it is a spiritual place where the spirits of their ancestors dwell. Many rituals were held here in ancient times. Exploring the three central hills offers a journey into the distant past through ancient rock art. Archaeologists believe that the area has been inhabited for almost 100 000 years, making Tsodo Hills one of the world's oldest historical sites.
Bordered to the north by the Central Kalahari, Khutse Game Reserve is a drive of about three hours from Botswana's capital city of Gaborone. The reserve was officially declared in 1971. It offers visitors a few pans where wildlife often congregates after the rains. The most common species spotted in Khutse include springbok, gemsbok, giraffe, blue wildebeest, kudu, hartebeest, steenbok and duiker. Predators found in the region are lion, cheetah, leopard, and several small cat species.
The Nogatsaa & Tchinga areas are located in the northern Chobe National Park, about 80km south of Kasane. Nogatsaa, characterized by many clay bottom pans, holds water well outside the rainy season and attracts several species to the area. These pans are surrounded by mixed vegetation, ranging from open grassland to mopane forest. It is an ideal destination for adventurous traveling by 4X4 from Kasane to the Savute area.
Bush walks are conducted in several reserves in Botswana. These include Chobe, the Okavango Delta, Khutse and Central Kalahari. However, the Okavango Delta offers some of Africa's most unique walking safaris, as guests often take a morning boat ride to an uninhabited island. From here, the morning is devoted to exploring this part of paradise on foot, accompanied by a ranger and tracker. These walks often offer the opportunity of viewing elephants crossing channels between islands, large buffalo herds, and a variety of game animals like lechwe and sitatunga if you are fortunate.
The Okavango Delta is synonymous with "mokoro" trips, a unique way of getting around the shallow waterways of the Delta in a dugout canoe propelled by a single pole bearer. All visitors to this region are encouraged to try at least one exploration of the Delta in a traditional canoe. It offers a silent and peaceful way of spotting various species around the reed-lined channels. It will surely be an adrenalin rush if hippos or crocodiles swim around.
The more common way of viewing the game found in the Okavango Delta is on 4x4 vehicle game drives. These excursions are conducted during the early morning and late afternoon from lodges that are not isolated on the small islands of the Okavango but have access to larger land areas. Specially adapted Toyota Land Cruiser vehicles are typically utilized, with local rangers and trackers providing a unique insight into the behavior of the various species.
Most luxury lodges in Botswana offer a selection of spa treatments to indulge the senses and relax the mind and body. These treatments can often be enjoyed on the deck of your luxury tented suite, with magnificent views and the sounds of the African wild creating the backdrop to a perfect pampering experience.
Many of the lodges in Botswana offer both conventional and fly fishing for indigenous fish found in the area. Most notable amongst the fish species is the notorious tiger fish, legendary amongst the world's freshwater fighting fish. Other species that can be caught include bream and catfish. The best time for a fishing trip in Botswana is from late August to around the middle of November.
The Chobe River, which forms the northern border of Botswana, offers some of Africa's grandest sunset cruises. On these late afternoon boat cruises - which depart from or close to the town of Kasane - significant numbers of animals, especially elephants, can be seen coming to the water's edge for a drink. A great diversity of bird species can also be observed. Keen photographers will find that these cruises present exceptional photographic opportunities.
Botswana is a birder's paradise, with five hundred and ninety-three identified species, of which a hundred are rare or accidental. Whether they choose Chobe or the Okavango Delta as their safari destination, ornithologists will indeed find the bird spotting exceptional.
Botswana's most significant tribal group is the original Tswana tribe, which comprises almost half of the entire population, followed by the Bakalanga people, who inhabit the northeast and central districts of the country, where they have lived for nearly a thousand years.
The riverine tribes of the Bayer, Basubiya, and Hambukushu inhabit the Okavango and Chobe waterways in the Ngamiland District, subsisting on the water and its natural resources. The Bayer was the first to arrive in the 1700s, closely followed by the Basubiya, who established their base at Luchindo on the Chobe River.
The Hambukushu are master basket weavers who are more recent additions to the cultural tapestry of Botswana. They arrived in waves from Namibia and Angola over the past couple of hundred years, with the last group of 4 000 moving into the country in 1969 to escape the Angolan civil war.
The Bakgalagadi tribe is also of Sotho-Tswana origin and is closely related to the Batswana people, sharing similar customs and beliefs. Many Bakgalagadi still practice subsistence agriculture. The San are also deep rural dwellers who shy away from contact with the larger villages.
The Tsodilo Hills, whose rocky cliffs rise about 400m (1 312 ft) above the surrounding plains, can be seen from the Okavango Delta more than 50km (31 miles) away. They are one of the world's most important rock art sites, with as many as 3 500 individual paintings charting over 25 000 years of almost continuous habitation.
Situated in the Kalahari Desert, around 50km east of the Aha Hills, Drotsky's Caves, known as the Gcwihaba Caves, form one of Botswana's most beautiful and unusual national monuments. The caves are easy to miss, nestled within the undulating dunes of the Kalahari below a nondescript low ridge of rock. What lies beneath, however, is quite spectacular.
The labyrinthine cave system spreads out below. They are generously sprinkled with the most remarkable and unusual stalagmite and stalactite formations. From frozen waterfalls and flow-stones to mammoth obelisks of naturally formed rock, sweeping hallways and chambers - some up to 10 meters high - to beautiful inlets and apertures, all awash in subtle lights and colors, Drotsky's caves demonstrate the passage of time in all its petrified glory.
Stretching through nine degrees of latitude, more than half of the country lies within the tropics, but unlike most 'tropical' countries, Botswana is drier and quite prone to drought. The boundless Kalahari Desert, the world's largest unbroken stretch of sand, covers 84% of Botswana, extending from the Orange River in South Africa to the equator in Gabon.
While Botswana is depicted as a flat, featureless semi-desert, much wonder and variation can be found. One of the greatest paradoxes this arid sandveld encompasses is the lush, verdant jewel of the Okavango Delta. It was formed as the wide, fast-flowing Okavango River spills out across a massive area of sand, where it eventually soaks away, drying up in its futile search for the sea.
Other remarkable features punctuating Botswana's terrain include the immense Makgadikgadi pans, whose salt-cracked surface marks the deathbed of the incredible Lake Makgadikgadi. Along the eastern edge of the country, the landscape has more variety with hills and koppies, while in the far west and southwest, deep in the Kalahari, the terrain is flat and arid.
