Home to some of Africa’s most exceptional private reserves, Botswana is renowned for the sheer beauty of the Okavango Delta, the Makgadikgadi Pans, and its unrivalled exclusivity. Widely considered one of the finest safari destinations on the continent.
Best month to go
When to Visit Botswana
Desert, Delta, stacks of game… it’s important to get your timing right in Botswana.
June to August is the best time for Delta experiences, when the floodwaters arrive at the camps. The rates are highest at this time of year.
September and October are the best months for wildlife sightings, as animals gather around shrinking water sources.
November to March is the green season, with lower rates and lush landscapes, but high rainfall and potentially challenging game viewing.
With exceptional game-viewing opportunities, the largest population of elephants in the world, and the most varied safari activities on the continent, there is a lot going for this genuine gem of a safari destination. Safaris here can come with a hefty price tag, but Botswana can also offer better value too, especially if you travel outside the peak season.
Kirsten JonkerTraining Director
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Real expertise doesn’t come from a few trips to Africa. All our specialists have either been guides, run the camps, or grown up and lived in Africa. That’s over 600 years of genuine safari experience.
An area of pristine natural beauty, the Okavango Delta is one of Africa’s most famous wildlife areas. The diverse activities in the Delta are a major reason to visit, with exciting land and water-based safaris.
The Okavango’s floodwaters originate in the Angolan highlands, usually reaching the north-west in April and transforming the dry landscape into a wetland full of big game. Aside from traditional game drives, you can explore the wilderness from the water, which is a definite highlight of an Okavango Delta safari. Boat excursions and traditional mokoro rides take in the Delta’s maze of channels, where you encounter everything from hippos and crocodiles to tiny reed frogs and vibrant birdlife. The Delta is also home to some of Africa’s most luxurious safari camps, ensuring the experience is as exclusive as it is wildlife-rich. As far as safaris go, we believe this is one of the most unique experiences on the continent.
Botswana is home to unique and varied landscapes, including the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans and the Central Kalahari. These areas contrast with the Okavango Delta, creating a well-rounded trip where activities perfectly suit the setting.
In the northeastern Kalahari, these pans are the remains of an ancient super-lake. Today, they form one of the largest salt flats on Earth and are the ancestral home of the San Bushmen. This is a year-round destination where you can gain deep insight into San culture and an incredibly unique and ancient landscape. In addition to game drives and walking excursions, quad biking, horse riding, and fly camping are offered at certain camps. There’s also a habituated meerkat experience. Africa’s second-largest migration takes place here each year when thousands of zebra journey to Nxai Pan and the Makgadikgadi National Park, coinciding with the arrival of rain.
Botswana is arguably Africa’s most exclusive honeymoon destination. For luxury camps, spectacular scenery, and truly impressive wildlife, a honeymoon safari here is hard to beat.
Botswana is, for many, the ultimate safari experience. Here, the country’s low-density approach to tourism ensures you’ll enjoy a quiet, crowdless experience. Expect spacious suites with panoramic views, expert guiding, and total flexibility. Special honeymoon-enhancing touches are arranged with ease, from bubble baths and sunset cruises to lantern-lit dinners, with every last detail taken care of. You might also opt for a doors-off helicopter flight, landing for champagne on a remote Delta island, or privately guided game drives. In the desert, the romance continues with sheer solitude and space, enhanced by old-world vintage-style camps, scenic sunsets, and starlit sleepouts in the middle of nowhere.
With its private concessions, secluded luxury lodges, and high-end low-impact approach to tourism, Botswana is one of the most exclusive safari destinations in Africa.
Vast swaths of unfenced bush host some of the world’s most luxurious camps, including the sensational Wilderness Mombo and Vumbura Plains. These properties are usually extremely intimate, featuring generously sized suites and a wide range of activities led by excellent guides. One of the most exciting aspects of a Botswana safari is the perspective from above. Travelling by light aircraft is a necessity, so you’ll have staggering views of the Okavango Delta’s waterways throughout your journey and the feeling of true exclusivity. This groundbreaking, low-volume model ensures the landscape remains exceptionally well preserved. With huge wildlife concentrations and very few others to share them with, Botswana offers an uninterrupted connection with nature that is rare to find.
A horseback safari is an unforgettable way to explore Botswana’s pristine wilderness areas. Join an expert guide in destinations such as the Okavango Delta and the Makgadikgadi Pans to experience the scenery and wildlife.
Whether you’re an experienced rider or a beginner, horse riding is a thoroughly rewarding way to enjoy a safari. You’ll be able to canter alongside plains game such as zebra and giraffe, accompanied by expert guides who bring the surroundings to life. Look out for elephant herds gathering near water sources, or perhaps something more unusual, like a hyena on the prowl. The beauty of riding is that wildlife rarely sees horse and rider as a threat, allowing for wonderfully close encounters. The Makgadikgadi Pans is another superb region for riding, whether a relaxed trot or a multi-day safari centred entirely around being on the saddle.
Whether on a leisurely mokoro ride or a boat trip along one of Botswana’s many scenic waterways, wildlife-watching from the water lets you experience the country’s wild spaces from a unique perspective.
Few experiences compare to seeing the Okavango Delta from the water. The atmosphere is completely different from a game-drive vehicle as you come face to face with wading crocodiles, snorting hippos, and an array of birdlife. Gliding along the channels in a traditional dugout canoe, known locally as a mokoro, is one of the most tranquil activities imaginable. A skilled poler guides you through the reeds as you take in the quiet of the bush. Motorised boats are just as fun, allowing you to navigate deeper water and cover greater distances. Topped off with a Delta sunset and sundowners served on board, this is an essential part of the Botswana experience and one you won’t forget.
I couldn’t recommend Yellow Zebra highly enough. From airport negotiations and pick up, to impeccable itineraries, we couldn’t have been in better hands.
Lucy ClelandEditorial Director, Country & Town House
There are few properties as prestigious as Wilderness Mombo. The crowning jewel of the Okavango Delta, it is consistently regarded as one of the finest camps in Africa, with accommodations and communal spaces that take luxury to new heights. Yet it’s the…
Shinde Camp is an authentically classic wilderness camp in a private northern Okavango Delta concession, owned and run by Ker & Downey Botswana. This company is notable for its standards of excellence and for providing superb safaris while conserving the…
Located within the Vumbura Concession, on an idyllically remote private island, Wilderness Little Vumbura is a delightful little camp in an area that attracts a diverse spectacle of wildlife. Nestled within 148,000 acres of pristine wilderness, the ancient…
In the forested southern reaches of Botswana’s Okavango Delta, Wilderness Chitabe is located within its own private concession, bordered by Moremi Game Reserve to the north, just across the Gomoti Channel. Though largely dry and forested, this is prime…
We’ve always been fans of Kwara. Owned and operated by Kwando Safaris, this year-round permanent lagoon-facing camp provides a great range of activities in a wildlife-rich part of the Okavango Delta, with a strong focus on predator sightings. Bordering…
Wilderness DumaTau is a great little camp in a fantastic private reserve and one of our firm favorites in Botswana, balancing stylish yet unpretentious design with a homely, welcoming ambience. Nestled amongst jackalberry, sausage, and mangosteen trees, the…
Set in a previously unexplored part of Botswana, in pristine land that has only just opened up for conservation, Wilderness Mokete is a pioneering, luxurious tented camp – the only one in the area – with nine tented suites and all the world-class guiding,…
On the edge of the Selinda Spillway, as it flows into the Linyanti river, Selinda Camp offers impressive tented accommodation within the private 130,000-hectare Selinda Reserve. Occupying a spectacular wilderness location, the camp combines an authentic…
In the far north of Botswana’s vast, wildlife-dense Okavango Delta, Wilderness Vumbura Plains consists of two spacious camps on raised decks within the 60,000-hectare Vumbura Plains Private Wilderness Area. Surrounded by vast floodplains, pristine waterways,…
Jack’s Camp is an iconic safari camp set within the otherworldly landscape of Botswana’s Makgadikgadi Pans. Quirky, unique, and eclectically styled, this is a year-round experience with a wide range of unusual activities, not least meerkat encounters, quad…
Within a private Okavango Delta concession of palm-dotted islands, floodplains, and woodland, year-round Duba Plains Camp is a beautifully designed camp with outstanding wildlife-viewing opportunities, taking pride of place in the impressive Great Plains…
Savute Safari Lodge offers homely, elegantly designed accommodation on the banks of Chobe National Park’s remote, wildlife-rich Savuti Channel. The camp provides a great location to explore the Savuti marshlands and encounter the huge elephant herds for which…
This exclusive island retreat in the beautiful Sekwana Concession in the north of the Okavango Delta is the latest superb offering from Natural Selection, one of the premier safari companies in Botswana. This semi-private concession is home to fantastic…
Splash Camp delivers family-friendly accommodation within the Okavango Delta’s stunning 175,000-hectare Kwara Private Concession, bordering Moremi Game Reserve. There’s a private space for exclusive-use groups, ideal for those traveling with young children,…
Selinda Explorers Camp is a wonderful expedition-style camp with an enchanting location on the banks of the Selinda Spillway as it flows into the Linyanti river. Small, intimate, and exclusive, this is an ideal choice for anyone seeking a combination of…
A land-based camp bordering the iconic Moremi Game Reserve, Wilderness Qorokwe is spectacularly located between the Santantadibe and Gomoti channels in a predator stronghold where sightings of lion, cheetah, leopard, and African wild dog are frequent. With…
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