Botswana travel guide
Botswana is one of Africa’s last great wildernesses. The preservation of
ancient migration routes – free from fences and farmland – have created a
significant wildlife haven, and created space for one of Africa’s greatest wildlife
spectacles: over 130,000 elephants, more than anywhere else in the world.
The sheer quantity of wildlife here increases the chance of spotting once-in-a-lifetime scenes, including lions paddling across rivers or hunting thundering herds of Cape buffalo. Bring your zoom lens – and a sense of adventure.
Nourished by the immense lifeline that is the Okavango Delta, elephant herds can number into the hundreds, roaming across the desert, swimming through rivers, swarming over roads.![]()
But it’s worth tearing yourself away to spend some of your Botswana vacation discovering its culture. The San are the Kalahari’s original inhabitants – and bushwalks reveal how this forbidding land has served as their pharmacy and pantry for millennia, but also how – while Botswana’s wildlife flourishes – its first people’s traditional, sustainable lifestyle may be withering. Find out more in our Botswana travel guide.
is/Isn't
Botswana is...
a wildlife wonderland.
Botswana isn't...
a bargain, but higher budgets mean fewer tourists and better conservation.
What we rate & what we don't
Underrated
Wilderness camping
You don’t need to splash out on a top lodge to capture the essence of Botswana. Spending the night in a tent in the remote wilderness, listening to the wildlife, is an extraordinarily special Botswana vacation experience. Budget camps can be just 1km from the luxury lodges – so you can enjoy the same wildlife and landscapes for a fraction of the price.
Wheelchair accessible safaris
Whether you rely on a wheelchair at all times, or have mobility issues, you can still take a safari in Botswana if you're flexible. Rangers can lift you in and out of vehicles, and there's a growing number of wheelchair accessible accommodations available.
Lesser-known parks
Botswana has well-established vacation routes, yet areas that are excluded from that, such as the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Nxai Pan and Kgalagadi, are rarely travelled but equally as stunning. They offer genuine wilderness experiences, with the chance to find yourself 50km away from any other humans.
Sacred Tsodilo Hills
This rocky outcrop has always been a spiritual place for the San, and its aura can still be felt by modern visitors. The rock, jutting dramatically out of the sands of the Kalahari, contains around 4,000 figurative and geometric paintings, but its remote location to the west of the Okavango Delta means few intrepid travelers ever enjoy this ancient art gallery.
Rated
Okavango Delta by canoe
Get a hippo’s-eye-view of the Okavango Delta. Glide through the channels in a traditional mokoro dugout canoe with a local guide, sitting just inches above the surface, and metres from Botswana’s greatest wildlife scenes – including swimming elephants, basking crocodiles and hippos. The boats are poled silently through the reeds, creating minimal disturbance and allowing the sounds of nature to take over.
Bush walks with the San
Walking with the Kalahari’s original inhabitants during your Botswana vacation will change your perception of this seemingly inhospitable landscape. They can drink water from tubers, light a fire in minutes, and call on centuries-old knowledge to track prey for days through the desert.
World's largest elephants
Botswana’s vast transfrontier parks and lack of fences mean that epic elephant migration routes remain open. This is the best place in Africa to see huge herds of Kalahari elephants – the largest in the world – migrating, drinking, eating and even swimming during their 200-mile journey across northern Botswana.
Moremi Game Reserve
The only national protected area within the Delta, Moremi was created by local Batawana people to protect its wildlife for the future. Moremi’s floodplains, islands, grasslands and forests support an extraordinary variety of wildlife, including buffalo-hunting lions, elusive leopards, and many resident and migratory birds. Tightly controlled tourism means you are far more likely to encounter animals than other tourists.
Overrated
Super luxury lodges
A stay in a super luxury lodge will make you feel like royalty while on vacation in Botswana. However, being surrounded by gold taps, Persian rugs and popping champagne corks will distance you from your real surroundings - the African wilderness. Impressive as these desert 'palaces' may be, it’s a real shame to miss out on connecting with Botswana’s nature – and its people.
Disrespectful San tours
Good cultural tourism during your Botswana vacation encourages interaction and the preservation of traditions, and brings employment to marginalised communities. However, sometimes the San are forced to behave in ways they are not comfortable with, either to reinforce exotic, 'primitive' stereotypes for tourists, or simply through being treated disrespectfully, with tourists entering their homes without permission. Pick your tour carefully.
Overcrowded Kasane
Botswana’s strict access controls do not apply outside of its conservation areas, meaning that towns bordering the national parks, such as Kasane on the eastern edge of Chobe, are packed with hotels and you will find yourself on a conveyor belt of safari vehicles if you travel here on your vacation to Botswana.
Imported "local" crafts
Maun’s downtown craft center has some gorgeous souvenirs, but many are imported from across Africa. Take the time to visit one of the out of town workshops where you can see your textiles, baskets and ceramics being made, and support local craftspeople at the same time.
Botswana camping safaris
Botswana's premier game parks, Okavango Moremi Savuti Chobe
From
US $2110
14 days
ex flights
Namibia and Botswana camping safari
Camping safari to Namib desert, Caprivi, Etosha & Okavango
From
US $2815 to US $2825
21 days
ex flights
Zimbabwe & Botswana game tracker safari
A lodge safari through Kruger, Zimbabwe & Botswana
From
US $2975
16 days
ex flights
Botswana small group lodge safari
Botswana affordable lodge safari including Okavango
From
US $3415
14 days
ex flights
Botswana value safari and Victoria Falls
An unforgettable wildlife and scenery experience
From
US $5451 to US $9316
11 days
ex flights
Botswana fly-in safari vacation
Experience Botswana on a 6 night fly-in Safari adventure
From
£3995
7 days
ex flights
Travel Team
If you'd like to chat about Botswana or need help finding a vacation to suit you we're very happy to help.
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Food, shopping & people
Eating & drinking
Botswana’s speciality is beef . Try it salted and slow cooked in a three-legged pot, as a dish known as seswaa.Don’t get seswaa confused with serobe - this meat dish includes intestines, organs and even trotters!
Vegetarians will enjoy sampling the exotic water lilies of the Okavango Delta, harvested by local women.
Traditional khadi beer is brewed using native plants - it tastes similar to apple cider, but be prepared for a pounding hangover.
Botswana’s currency is the Pula - which translates as ‘rain’; proof of the value placed on water in this desert country.![]()
People & language
Up to 80 percent of Botswana’s population is Tswana, but half of Africa’s San people also live here. Other groups include Bantu-speaking tribes and those of European descent.
Say “No problems!” to a Tswana: "Go siame!"
Greet the !Kung-Ekoka San (with a click): "!Gao"
Ask how is a Kalanga: "Mashwa tjini?"
Gifts & shopping
Treat yourself to a necklace made of ostrich shell beads - a traditional adornment of the San.Woven baskets and bowls are Botswana speciality. Try and buy from local markets or directly from communities to ensure your souvenir has not been imported and is supporting local artisans.
All those elephants mean a lot of waste… and the resourceful Batswana turn the dung into (non-smelly!) paper. Buy a journal or notecards, and support local craftspeople and elephant conservation during your Botswana vacation.
The people of Botswana are collectively called Batswana. One person from Botswana is a Motswana.![]()
How much does it cost?
Litre of petrol: 70p
Half a litre of St Louis beer: 70p
Plate of seswaa: £1.10
Homemade ginger beer: 40p
Steak in a restaurant: £3.80
More Botswana articles
The best time to visit is during the dry season. It’s hot, but you’ll see more animals while on safari.
Our map page reveals the country's highlights, with details of classic itineraries.
There are myriad things to do, from mokoro canoe rides to wildlife tracking walks in the Kalahari.
Carrying water and silt from the Angolan highlands, the Okavango Delta supports wildlife on an epic scale.
Come to Moremi for some of the finest wildlife viewing in southern Africa.
Discover the diverse and fascinating wildlife roaming through one of Africa’s last wildernesses while on safari.
See an array of wildlife hunting, feeding and raising young in some of Africa’s most spectacular environments.
Read advice on family activities and what to do when traveling with kids in Botswana.
We really rate travel advice from our friends in Botswana and think you should too; read pearls of wisdom from the experts.
Learn about responsible tourism issues, from hunting bans to meeting the San peoples.
