An insider’s guide to a Botswana holiday

Botswana offers an exclusive and personal safari experience, free-roaming wildlife and extreme landscapes – from the Kalahari Desert to the waterways of the Okavango Delta. Mathale Mosheti, Senior Guide from Desert & Delta Safaris, tells us why this under-the-radar wildlife utopia is unlike any other safari destination. Here's our ultimate guide to Botswana.

I have been guiding at Savute Safari Lodge for over eight years and have had the privilege of showing guests the immense beauty of Botswana. For me, what makes a Botswana holiday special is the combination of our people, the endless tracts of pure wilderness and the sound environmental management policies that protect our heritage.

We are a peaceful nation and have a reputation as being warm and welcoming to everyone who visits. With over 17 per cent of our country under National Parks and Wildlife Management areas, we have some of the most beautiful, untouched wilderness areas in Africa. Since gaining independence in 1966, Botswana has adopted a high cost, low-impact tourism model that has ensured the long-term protection of our natural heritage.

This is key to the sustainability and success of our safari industry. Our parks and conservation areas do not have the same high volumes of traffic as in other popular safari destinations. This, together with the natural movement of wildlife, ensures that guests experience the natural beauty of Africa as it should be.

Botswana offers visitors an exclusive African safari like no other. With no fences and large tracts of protected land, the wildlife is free roaming, existing in its natural habitat where it displays true behaviour.

When exploring Botswana on a full safari circuit, you have the opportunity to experience the different regions of the country. One itinerary may cover the dry areas of the Makgadigkadi Pans National Park or Central Kalahari before moving up to the fascinating world of the Okavango Delta and on to the game rich regions of Savute and the Chobe River.

No two destinations are the same, with each region offering something magical.

Moremi Game Reserve

Covering one third of the Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve is one of the finest wildlife reserves in Africa. A combination of wetlands and Kalahari Desert create a diverse habitat where you can see herds of buffalo, wildebeest, elephants and zebras teem into Moremi in search of food and water. This is a bird-watching paradise, with over 400 known species. You can also spot lions, cheetahs and wild dogs hunting in the open grasslands.

Okavango Delta

The largest inland delta in the world, with a river that never finds the sea, the Okavango Delta swells to three times its normal size when in flood from March to September. Explore incredible waterways by motorboat or traditional mokoro canoe, spotting the grey, wrinkled foreheads of hippos in the water as your gondolier navigates through the Okovango Delta. Wildlife viewing from both land and water is what makes Botswana so unique, especially when you see herds of elephants wading through deep water.

Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

Makgadikgadi Pans National Park is the setting of one of the world’s largest zebra migrations and home to the stark, flat terrain of the Makgadikgadi Pans, once believed to be the bed of a massive inland lake.

Chobe National Park

The Chobe National Park features the largest concentration of African elephants in the world. Here you’ll find mighty wetlands and the Chobe River; dense forest, incredible wildlife and Victoria Falls on the border of Botswana and Zambia.