For the demanding safari enthusiast, few places in Africa are more rewarding than the bush, waterways and salt pans of Botswana’s Okavango Delta and Makgadikgadi Pan. Staying at Botswana’s most sumptuously romantic tented camps and lodges, and exploring by land, water and air, you’ll track top predators such as black-maned lion and wild dog, drift serenely by boat through hippo-filled lagoons, and follow Africa’s greatest elephant mega-herds before stepping into the infinity of the Makgadikgadi. If you’re searching for the classic romance of Africa, Botswana does it best. A myriad intense wildlife encounters and powerful landscapes await your discovery.
Keen birders should consider travelling between December and March, while quad bike adventures on the salt pans only operate from July to October.
Price depends on the experiences and accommodation included, and your time of travel. It is based on two adults travelling for 10 nights and does not include international flights.
1 night at Gray’s Eden, 2 nights at DumaTau Camp, 2 nights at Vumbura Plains Camp, 2 nights Xigera Safari Lodge, 3 nights at San Camp
What makes your Botswana wildlife safari so special?
- Privately guided by some of Africa’s finest naturalist guides, you’ll experience a spectacular diversity of habitats and the wildlife that inhabits them.
- Intimate encounters with top predators, swimming elephants and a host of supporting cast members from meerkats and aardvarks to slumbering leopard and shy sitatunga.
- Experience everything from the serenity of gliding through a reed-fringed delta waterway to the adrenaline of exploring the bush on foot or tracking elephant herds from the air.
- Experience Botswana’s most romantic and uncompromisingly luxurious tented camps and safari lodges, selected for their locations in intensely productive wildlife-viewing areas.
The Journey
Elephant paradise
Linyanti Reserve
Arrive in Maun, Botswana’s gateway to the Okavango, where you’ll enjoy a night at the fabulous Gray’s Eden before flying by privately chartered plane to the magical Linyanti Reserve at the northern edge of the Okavango. Here, far from civilisation, you’ll discover a pristine wilderness of wide grasslands, floodplains and mopane woodlands that together form one of Botswana’s most diverse sanctuaries for wildlife. Based at fabulous DumaTau Camp, you’ll head out on morning and afternoon game drives, or follow river courses, to explore a place that is home to the world’s largest elephant megaherds. Watch in wonder as they follow their ancient migration pathways, spray each another playfully in the Linyanti’s waters and munch on waterlilies. This productive area also attracts a high density of predators, including a healthy population of endangered African wild dog.
Predator central
Moremi Reserve
A short hop by light plane brings you to Vumbura Plains in a private wilderness area bordering the Moremi Reserve. Fabulous year round, with game viewing possible by 4×4, boat and mokoro, you’ll move seamlessly between thrilling land and water experiences, navigating floodplains studded with palms and small islands. Watch a pride of lions in pursuit of prey, or African wild dogs, or a hunting leopard. Catch glimpses of stately sable or, if you are lucky, a timid sitatunga–virtually invisible among the papyrus reeds of its watery habitat. Return to nights cocooned beneath the stars that are filled with laughter, stories and music by the campfire.
Deep into the Delta
Moremi Reserve
Moremi Central is the beating heart of the Okavango Delta, a prime safari area of haunting landscapes and very strong wildlife viewing no matter the season, with an exceptional reputation for predator sightings, especially lions, leopards and hyenas. At off-the-grid luxury eco camp Xigera, you’ll have year-round access to the Delta’s pristine waterways and superb private guides fully attuned to the nuances of the landscapes, animals and seasons. Spend your days here exploring your wild surroundings on foot, in a canoe or a glass-bottomed mokoro as you paddle silently through the delta. After a day of wild encounters, sink into the restorative sanctuary of Xigera’s spa before enjoying a candle-lit dinner in the heart of the wilderness. To top it off, spend an unforgettable night in an open-air bed in Xigera’s extraordinary baobab treehouse, and wake to watch game wandering below.
Touching infinity
Ntwetwe Pan
Your journey reaches its climax in the remote Makgadikgadi Pans, a landscape so vast that you can see the earth’s curvature. Here you can disappear into a world a million miles from the computer screens and traffic-choked roads of home. Your home is San Camp, possibly Africa’s most romantic tented camp, set right at the edge of the shimmering white crust of Ntwetwe Pan. There’s certainly wildlife around. On expertly guided game drives and night drives, you’ll see meerkats popping up from their burrows to scout around; brown hyena skulking in the grass, and probably red hartebeest, zebra and springbok. Maybe even a bat-eared fox or a black-maned Kalahari lion. But a stay here offers more than just the wildlife: learn about the millennia-old culture of the San people as you join them on a bush walk; travel by quad-bike across the infinite expanse of salt to remote baobab-studded islands; lie out on the pan as the sun sets, and contemplate the Milky Way as it wheels above you.
Where you'll stay
Great journeys need great places to lay your head. These are our tried and tested suggestions.
Gray’s Eden
Maun used to be a place you’d skip through en route to the greater allure of the Okavango or Makgadikgadi beyond. With some recent and interesting new projects to visit, Maun is now definitely worth including in your Botswana itinerary. And Gray’s Eden, with its flawless service and quiet sense of repose, is a perfect sanctuary of civilization in which to regather yourself after a long flight or relax after your safari adventure before heading home.
DumaTau Camp
DumaTau is a wonderfully stylish and intimate wilderness camp in the Linyanti–a mosaic of marshes, waterways, mopane woodlands and grasslands that together hold some of Botswana’s greatest wildlife diversity. Its seven explorer-style tents come with uninterrupted views over a vast lagoon, and the game drives here are truly exceptional, with regular sightings of lion, leopard, and hyena, as well as the elephant megaherds that cross the reserve’s ancient wildlife corridors.
Vumbura Plains Camp
Seemingly floating above a sea of reeds, Vumbura Plains is one of the Okavango’s flagship camps, offering magnificent front row seats on the natural drama beyond and a wonderfully intimate and cocooning retreat after a day’s private exploration by mokoro, on foot or in an open-top vehicle. Renowned for its predator activity, its wildlife viewing is head-spinningly diverse and productive virtually year-round.
Xigera Safari Lodge
A beacon of sustainable luxury, Xigera offers perhaps the Okavango’s most pampered and personalised safari experience. Hidden amongst a stand of jackalberry and leadwood trees in the Delta’s remote Moremi Reserve, Xigera’s 12 African-art-themed suites (topped by a striking baobab-shaped treehouse rising above the floodplain) simply ooze sophistication. Head out beyond its confines on foot, in a vehicle or by helicopter and you’ll discover a rich cast of wildlife including the rare red lechwe.
San Camp
Achingly romantic, San Camp’s seven billowy tented suites–an alluring blend of antiques, Persian rugs and minimalism–offer dreamlike vistas over the Makgadikgadi’s white expanse. Step outside and you can hear the silence. There’s more wildlife around than you’d think (including meerkats, brown hyena and black-maned lion) but it’s the interactions with local San communities and racing quad-bikes across the salt that really set San Camp apart.
Customise your journey
All of our journeys are fully bespoke, and can be customised to meet your needs, interests and preferences. Here are a few ideas to inspire you.
Add a couple of additional days after your safari relaxing by the Victoria Falls and enjoying one of Africa’s great natural wonders.
Fly by helicopter from the Okavango to the remote Tsodilo Hills, a sacred San /Basarwa site in the far northwest of Botswana, and explore its remarkable rock paintings
Add an extra day in Maun and spend some time with Travel for Impact, an inspiring grassroots project that improves the lives of local tribal communities.
Spend a few days in Cape Town prior to arrival in Botswana, and drink in its magical coastal landscapes, dining scene and winelands.
Fly to Windhoek in Namibia, gateway to the miraculous Namib Desert and the amazing Himba communities of the north.
Looking for more inspiration?
We have a huge range of inspiring private experiences and accommodation options available. Get in touch with our Botswana specialists.
ENQUIRELearn more about our luxury holidays, or call our expert Africa team on +44 1367 850566 / 1-855-216-5040 (toll free) to discuss how we can turn your dreams into something truly magical.
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