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Kruger Walking Safari
Botswana Trip Report
The Botswana safari experience is unlike any other in terms of exclusivity and luxury. Accommodation is world-class and stylishly chic, the wildlife and guiding is outstanding and standards of service are superb across the board. As a result, Botswana is a safari haven and the most expensive of all the African safari countries.
Okavango Delta – Big five galore in a magical private reserve. Discover wild dog, unique wildlife adapted to the watery landscapes, exceptional birdlife, boating, game drives, night drives, walking, horse riding… Diverse, teeming with life and with activities for days, an Okavango Delta safari is rightly heralded as offering the best (and most beautiful!) wildlife viewing experience in the whole of Africa.
Linyanti – A private and dry park but with a beautiful river, Linyanti offers exclusivity, unbelievable wildlife (fantastic big cats, wild dog, elephants) and with beautiful sunset boat rides. Action packed game drives are the main attraction here.
Chobe National Park – A public park meaning it is a little busier than Linyanti and the Delta, but with fantastic wildlife for less.
Makgadikgadi Pans – The wild card; people come here more for the unique & beautiful landscapes and the meerkats rather than for a classic African wildlife safari. For the adventurous it is a great option with horse riding and quad biking trips through this dramatic and wild land.
Camps and lodges vary enormously in style and feel, as well as by location and the range of activities offered. We can help you put together the perfect combination of camps for you, according to your travel dates, budget, required activities and general preferences.
Here is a taste of our favourite camps in Botswana;
Little Vumbura in the Okavango Delta - Offering some of the best water and land-based game viewing in Africa. It is expensive, but for an amazing authentic and unique safari, not to mention the seclusion and privacy it offers, you can't get much better.
Another Delta hideaway is Little Mombo... With only four rooms, and bundles of staff you will be reasonably well attended to during your stay here! Nestled on Chief's Island in the private centre of the Moremi Game Reserve with some of the world's best wildlife viewing opportunities (including amazing rhino), Little Mombo is one of the very best safari lodges in Africa.
Voted the best safari experience in the whole of Africa, Zarafa will give you a safari of a lifetime - it is pure luxury in some of the purest wilderness on the planet.
Overlooking a waterhole, at Savute Safari Lodge you can enjoy a gin and tonic by the pool whilst watching all the thirsty animals congregate at your feet. Nowhere else on the continent can enjoy this kind of wildlife from the comfort of room.
Botswana offers a wide range of safari activities including your normal jeep game drives, night game drives in the private concessions, walking safaris and boating safaris in mokoros (dugout canoes), fishing, quad biking, horse riding (and the list goes on!) . Each of the concessions have different landscapes and the game viewing experience varies quite a lot. With Botswana, it is best to mix a range of different camps that can offer a variety of activities so you can experience this extraordinary country from all possible perspectives. It is best to call us with your specialist interest and we can point you in the right direction, as there are an awful lot of options out there!
Beach extensions from Botswana require a connection in Johannesburg; from here there are various options including Zanzibar (just off the Tanzania coast), Mozambique, Seychelles and Mauritius. Let us know what you are after and we will talk through all the options with you with 20 years of experience visiting and revisiting Botswana, our experts really do know the best hotels and areas for your unique requirements.
Saying this, if beach time is integral to your trip, the very best place to do this is East Africa. Connecting your safari to beach time in Southern Africa is costly and involves “dead nights” where you waste precious time and money better spent on quality accommodation! Instead, we would recommend looking at combining your Botswana safari with the majestic Victoria Falls, and/or the bright lights of Cape Town; both easy and inexpensive to get to!
The Okavango Delta: If you have ever wondered what animals dream about, we’re pretty sure they dream about being in the Delta. This is Eden, a lush green paradise where elephants rumble about taking their pick of bulging fruits, hippos man the waterways and predators stretch out a paw for a meal.
Exclusivity: The name of the game for those on safari in Botswana, by decree of the government. We’re not just repeating the same old mantra when we say you’ll only see the occasional other traveller, this is the real deal. For a luxury holiday in every sense of the term, there is absolutely nowhere better in the world.
Year-round wildlife: Botswana is a year-round destination because it is fascinating all year round! The landscapes change dramatically throughout the year. Many areas go from flood to drought and back again, and there is always something exhilarating to experience. You can never be sure of what you’re going to step in to when you arrive for your Botswana safari. There is nowhere like it in Southern Africa for a year round safari adventure.
The Migration: No, not the wildebeest of the Serengeti and the Masai Mara; we’re talking about the other, lesser-known but nevertheless huge migration of 25,000 zebra which move around Botswana’s borders in search of water.
Elephants: Botswana has the largest elephant population in Africa, with the Chobe River supporting up to 50,000 during the dry season. If elephants are your priority, Botswana is the safari destination for you.
It is true that a Botswana safari has the potential to be the most expensive holiday you can go on… As an example for the best value combination though, a three night stay in Splash Camp (Okavango Delta), and three nights in Lebala (Linyanti) would cost roughly $4,000 per person (low season prices!). The most costly and luxurious trips can be however expensive you like… For the best value private concession experiences in high season, you are looking at spending a minimum of $1,500 per person per night.
Introducing Odyssey Explorer
Welcome to our new itinerary-building app! Odyssey Explorer allows you to browse a range of popular itinerary templates and tailor them to suit your budget and tastes. Once you are happy with your route template, Odyssey Explorer gives you the freedom to select and change your accommodation in each destination. It is an excellent tool for you to get an instant price for your dream trip before you work with a Tanzania expert to fine-tune it and make it into a reality.
Any time is a good time to visit Botswana... as previously mentioned, it changes dramatically throughout the year.
The best time to visit: From mid-May to mid-November with probably July, August and September being the prime months to go as the Okavango Delta is experiencing its annual flood.
Good time to go: From October onwards it begins to get extremely hot, but with the heat comes some fascinating game viewing.
A mixed time to go: The rainy season is from the middle of December to the middle of March, however, compared to other Africa countries the rains are not too severe. During this time, visit the Kalahari Desert and the Makgadikgadi’s to witness Botswana’s own mini migration of zebra and plains animals.
Call and ask one of our Botswana experts about when the different game viewing areas are at their best.
Everything was amazing. We had such an incredible trip, it surpassed all expectations. Everything with Kwando safaris was perfect. The lodging, the food, and especially the game. All our flights were on time and transportation between camps and at the beginning/end of the safari all went very smoothly.
A very happy new year to you. Just wanted to let you know that we had a great time over new year! It was wonderful being back in Zimbabwe and then Botswana was utterly magical .. Vumbura Plains is best camp we’ve ever stayed at! Saw tons of game, including lion, leopard, cheetah and a wild dog kill! Spectacular.
We have been home now for a couple of days. I just wanted to let you know that the safari in Botswana went very smoothly and we all had the best time. Connections all worked like clockwork, were really fun and stress free and everyone was happy with their respective choices. Thanks so much for putting together such a superb holiday for us all.
I wanted to thank you for organising another superb safari to Botswana – I loved every minute of it! Will I go back? Absolutely! I’d like to see the country slightly earlier next time – with a bit more greenery and water, but still with good game viewing.
I just wanted to let you know that we had a fabulous safari to Botswana from start to finish and we enjoyed every single moment. Thank you, Scott, for making all of the arrangements for us. I would go again tomorrow, given the chance, and you can’t get better than that! Having our own vehicle was definitely a good choice for us and I appreciate your help with that too. Fingers crossed that we get to go again.
