Botswana Safari Guide
Africa's premier luxury safari destination — pristine wilderness, low-impact tourism, and the extraordinary Okavango Delta where water meets the Kalahari Desert.
Top Highlights
Best Time to Visit Botswana
The dry season from May to October is peak safari time when animals concentrate around permanent water sources. The Okavango Delta floods between June and August, creating a unique water-based safari experience just as the surrounding Kalahari dries out.
The green season from November to April brings rain, migratory birds, and the zebra migration in the Makgadikgadi. Many camps offer significantly reduced green season rates. The Kalahari transforms into a lush grassland with predator-prey dynamics shifting dramatically.
Botswana Safari Budget Guide
Budget
Botswana is Africa's most expensive safari destination by design — the government's high-value, low-impact tourism policy means few budget options exist. Luxury fly-in camps in the Okavango Delta cost $800-3,000+ per person per night all-inclusive.
Mid-Range
Mid-range mobile camping safaris start from $350-600 per person per day. Self-drive camping through Chobe and the Makgadikgadi is the most affordable option at $50-150 per person per day. Park fees range from $12-50/person/day depending on the area.
Luxury
A classic 7-10 day Botswana safari covering the Okavango Delta, Moremi, Chobe, and optionally the Makgadikgadi costs $5,000-15,000 mid-range or $10,000-30,000+ luxury per person.
Getting to Botswana
Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (GBE) in Gaborone and Maun Airport (MUB) are the main entry points. Maun is the gateway to the Okavango Delta. Kasane Airport serves the Chobe area.
Most nationalities receive 90-day visa-free entry. Bush flights from Maun to Delta camps take 20-40 minutes and are typically included in camp packages. Self-drive is possible in Chobe and the Makgadikgadi but requires a 4x4 and experience with sand driving. The Delta itself is only accessible by light aircraft or mokoro (dugout canoe).
Botswana is the connoisseur's choice for African safari — a country that has deliberately chosen quality over quantity, protecting its wilderness through a high-value, low-impact tourism model that limits visitor numbers and preserves the pristine character of its landscapes.
The centrepiece is the Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Earth's most extraordinary ecosystems. Each year, floodwaters from Angola's highlands travel 1,200 kilometres to fan out across the Kalahari Desert, creating a shimmering inland delta of crystal-clear channels, papyrus-fringed lagoons, and palm-studded islands. This is the only place in Africa where you can experience a water-based safari by mokoro (traditional dugout canoe) one moment and track lions on foot the next.
Chobe National Park in the northeast hosts the largest elephant population in Africa — an estimated 120,000 animals — along with vast buffalo herds, prides of lion, and the Chobe riverfront where animals gather in their thousands during the dry season. The Linyanti and Savuti areas offer remote wilderness experiences rivalling anywhere on the continent.
The Makgadikgadi Pans present a completely different landscape — vast, blindingly white salt flats that stretch to the horizon, home to meerkats, brown hyenas, and one of Africa's last great zebra migrations.
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