Botswana Travel Guide

Botswana provided the trip of my lifetime, and I've been around the world twice.

My trip was an amazing adventure. Perfect weather, fine accommodations, good food and wildlife viewing that exceeded my wildest expectations. I would give you my evaluation of all the camps I visited.

Nxai Pan and Lebala were amazing in every way, the game drives, the food, the accommodations were all excellent, but the staffs at both camps were what truly stands out as outstanding. In particular the guides (Chester at Nxai Pan and Rodgers at Lebala) and trackers (Shoes at Nxai Pan and Seemo at Lebala) did an amazing job every day of finding animals and getting us up close. Should I decide to return to Botswana a stay at these 2 camps will be a requirement for the trip.

Kwara. There is nothing specifically negative about my stay in Kwara, it just wasn't quite up to the standards of the Nxai Pan and Lebala overall satisfaction with the staff and accommodations. The game drives were fine.

Bakwena. My least favorite of the camps, while I would give our guide Roni an A for his efforts, the rest of this camp,(accommodations, food , and camp staff) would at best receive a C. I would definitely rule this camp out on any future trip.

Botswana is definitely at the top of my must visit again list!!

Beautiful scenery, great wildlife viewing, and really caring & personalized attention from the crew.

Our trip was spectacular, thanks to our amazing guides and caring bush camp team. We saw amazing wildlife, made new friends, and learned a lot about the Bush in Botswana!

Well organized and efficient trip

We had a very good trip in the end of november to Okavanago delta thanks to Kenosi. He was very patient with us when we prepared for the trip and changed our plans a couple of times because of flights to Botswana, and at the end of the day we enjoyed a very nice safari. Unfortunately we have not seen wild dogs, but apart from that we were lucky enough to see lots of other animals and in general the trip exceeded our expectations. If we go to Botswana ever again, we will try to use the same agency again.

Unmissable

I travelled alone and staid at two lodges: Camp Moremi and Camp Xakanaxa both part of Desert and Delta company. Both are fantastic with brilliant and expert staff. The first is luxurious the second more rustic, both unmissable!
Excursion staff was truly knowledgable, and I have a fond memory of Pound at Xakanaxa (hello there!); the manager, the kitchen and the rest of the back of the house staff was truly professional and made my stay unforgettable. All the guests I have met in both camp have said the same, so this is not an exaggerated review, rather one grounded in facts. Food was simple and superb, so were the numerous drinks and snacks we had in the rooms, during high tea and the excursions.
I was quite lucky to see a lot of animals, including the one harder to sport like leopards to lions, to hyaena and wild dogs.
I will go back, with no doubt! Many many thanks to both Camp Moremi and Camp Xakanaxa for the unforgettable trip!

For safari (guided or self drive) it is really perfect! It is a very safe destination to travel. The focus lies on wildlife, wildlife, wildlife!

Great day out, good value. Loved the close up view of the wildlife.

Had a wonderful day out from Victoria Falls. All very professional. Easy transfer over the border with the right visa. The boat trip gave the better view of the wildlife. Very good value with a great lunch and comfortable taxi transfers. Would recommend the trip to anyone wanting to see great African wildlife and scenery.

Amazing experience for my ten year old boy.

We did not know what to expect as this was our first time in Africa. We were met by our guide and began the drive out of Maun to our camp site, roughly three hours away. About ten minutes later, my son quipped "I think I just saw an elephant". Sure enough, we has passed an elephant grazing not two meters by the side of the road. We decided to count the number of elephants we saw but stopped after reaching over 150 on the second day!

The scenery is rather harsh, especially in October, but we saw hippos, zebras, giraffes, lions, hyenas, wild dogs, leopards,
and many different types of herbivores. About the only thing we did not see were cheetahs and water buffaloes.

The tents and camp beds were comfortable and we had our own private toilet and bucket shower attached to our tent. The tent was tidied every morning while we were out on a game drive, and again after our siesta while we were on our afternoon game drive.

Our guide and cook were excellent. Both were clearly passionate about their jobs and we were made to feel like family. We are vegetarians, but each meal was carefully planned, with adequate protein. Our cook used quite a lot of mock meat, which I know is not cheap. In fact, it is just as expensive as meat. We had freshly made bread each morning. At the beginning, there was no hot chocolate but it magically appeared after a couple of days because our guide made sure to pick it up while going back to Maun for another reason.

The highlight for us was to watch as a pride of lions set up a trap for an approaching herd of gnus. The lions blithely walked around our four-wheel drive as they fanned out to steer the herd into the path of the awaiting killers. We did not actually see the kill, but we were able to return quite quickly to see the lions devouring it. As my son said "That was awesome".

My son is 10 years old but at no time did he feel scared or nervous. Our guide made it easy for both of us to take some remarkable photos. I bought a 50-230 zoom lens just for this trip and such a zoom makes the difference as I could take "portraits" of the animals we saw.

A big thank you to Kingfisher Safaris for a memorable trip, which they facilitated even though we missed our original flights due to visa problems and had to delay everything by one week. My impression is that they deal only in quality and recommend them without reservation.

Blown away by Botswana

Booked a 10 day mobile Safari from Maun to Kasane.
First night was spent in Maun before a 3 day 2 night camping trip on the Okavango Delta. Fantastic experience to be poled through the reeds. Great walking safaris enjoyed. We then had one night back in Maun before embarking on the next leg - Moremi, Kwai, Savuti and Chobe NP
We were on a private trip - just my husband and I with a guide, camp chef and camp hand. Basic facilities added to the magical experience of being one with nature. The highlight had to be sitting with the Marsh Pride of Lions in Savuti at sunset - with no other game viewers present. Other top sights were the leopards in Kwai and the herds of buffalo and elephants at Chobe.
My top tip would be to take a buff to cover your face from the dust when travelling plus loads of moisturiser and lip balm!
We were amazed at the food our Chef rustled up on the open fire and enjoyed fantastic evenings at the campfire listening to music and learning more about Botswana.
Our trip was a budget experience - no air conditioning, no en suite etc as we were in tents on camp beds with bush toilet and shower! It was very hot and in the afternoons especially all you could do was sit in the shade but it was an amazing time - one that would be difficult to beat.

Is one of the few places where camping sites are in the wild, giving the unique expereince to be alone in nature; big carnivores are frequeently seen, among those wilddogs, leopards, and in the Kalahari Brown hyena; scenic beauty can vary from open savannah, to woodland, to desert, making the most varied country in Southern Africa; bush vibe is really incomparable, birding opportunities are many as the environment change, spanning from waterbirds to raptors, to desert specilities . A must for Wildlife fanatics, you are just on the stage, you meet all main actors of the big game of life and Death, big carnivores, bigfive, giraffes, more elusive species, wild dog, a real bonanza varying every day, changing any moment

Fabulous!

What a beautiful, friendly, extraordinary place. We had very cold mornings but hot days. Xakanaxa Tented Camp was beautiful and very friendly with a lovely deck overlooking the river and a fire pit for evening get together to chat over the days sightings.TS was a fabulous guide - very knowledgable and keen to show us all the wildlife from elephant to beautiful birds. Having a sundowner whilst elephant were wandering past at the end of a hot dusty game drive is something very special. Khwai Tented Camp was small and intimate and as it was in the concession we were able to have night game drives and a wonderful Mokoro trip. We saw 2 leopards on the hunt and were able to follow them off-road. Chobe lodge is more like an hotel so much bigger and less intimate. The food was amazing. The wildlife is concentrated around the river and there were amazing sightings of elephant, beautiful sunsets and we had a brief sight of a pack of wild dogs. We asked to do full morning game drivers rather that split the morning into game and river safaris which gave us more time out though by about 11 am most of the game is seeking shade from the heat. So many fabulous memories of a beautiful country.