Botswana - Southern Africa

Botswana is one of Southern Africa’s most popular Safari Destination with highlights including the Kalahari Desert and the Okavango Delta.

Botswana with its vast expanses of pristine, untamed bush-veld, overflowing with wildlife, is without doubt one of Africa's ultimate safari destinations. The Okavango Delta (& Moremi Wildlife Reserve) and Chobe National Park are the two not to be missed destinations.

Other destinations in Botswana worth visiting are the desert environments of the Makgadikgadi Pans, Nxai Pans and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve where at every turn a photographic opportunity raises its head.

A Botswana safari holiday will give you access to some of the world's greatest wildlife destinations: the incomparable Okavango Delta, a great green oasis in the heart of the Kalahari and the Chobe National Park, where the ground rumbles beneath the feet of thousands of elephants.

There's a wide choice of Botswana safari holiday accommodation to match your wildlife experience but availability is often limited so you need to book in advance.

When to Visit Botswana

There are 2 simple but distinctive seasons:

Dry Botswana winter months between May and October: Offering great game viewing as the wildlife becomes increasingly concentrated around water sources. Peak tourism season falls during these months so you will need to book early.

Rainy Botswana summer months between November and April: the green season offers fantastic bird watching, lots of new-born animals. You may be able to pick up a bargain holiday to Botswana in these quieter tourism months.

Getting to Botswana

* By air - Most flights connect to either Gaborone, Maun or Kasane via South Africa or Namibia. There are no direct international flights (by international we mean from out side of Africa).

* By road - Most cities / towns are accessible by car as the main roads into the country are tarred and are in good condition. A 4x4 is only required when driving into the National Parks, a normal car will never make it due to the deep Kalahari sands one will encounter.

Language

English is widely spoken by everybody.

Health

Malaria is found in the Northern regions including The Okavango Delta, Moremi and Chobe National Park - precautions need to be taken.

Areas like Chobe's Savuti, the Linyanti/Kwando Swamps and the unpolished Kalahari gems of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Central Kalahari Game Reserve and Nxai Pan National Park will delight the safari holiday-goer with their rugged, yet accessible, remoteness and are creaking at the seams with wildlife.

A safe, clean and sunshine-filled country, landlocked Botswana has been described as "Africa's success story" since its independence in 1966 - and is a peaceful, well-tempered country.

It is also a land of the starkest contrasts.

Modern, technology-driven urban areas are a short flight from the bows and arrows of San Bushmen hunting parties deep in the burning Kalahari; crystal-clear floodwaters attract massive concentrations of wildlife in parched, bone-dry savannas and woodlands; simple starlight reflects off the cut crystal of candle-lit dining tables.

Most of Botswana's tiny population is concentrated in the kinder, more fertile southeast, leaving enormous tracts of uninhabited central and northern wilderness for you to experience a safari holiday that will live on in your memory long after you've shaken the Kalahari sand out of your boots.