Best Botswana Camping Safaris 2024

On arrival at Maun airport you will be met and transferred to Thamalakane Lodge. Located on the banks of the river and far enough out of town to enjoy the peace and tranquility of its stunning location and get your eye in for some photography.

This is when your Botswana camping safari starts for real and you will get to meet first your driver/naturalist and then the amazing camping crew that will look after you so well in both Moremi and Savuti.

You don’t have to wait too long before seeing your first wildlife out of Maun, as the Acacia forests attract several antelope species, as well as giraffes and zebra.

Definitely my favourite game reserve out of four very special locations visited for our Botswana camping safari and that was due to the huge size, stunning landscapes and the fact that many of the big cat encounters we enjoyed here were with very few other vehicles.

The best road transfers are always those which involve a safari at the same time and when we took this route in July 2022 we had an incredible day, which saw us see a male lion on kill, two female lions walking their territory, female cheetah with cubs on a kill and finished off with a male leopard – Phew!

While our camping crew dismantle the camp and head to Savuti, we ‘mix things up’ a little and head to a charming guesthouse perfectly positioned for both day time drives and night time safaris in the famous Khwai wildlife concession. Here, our focus will be leopard, lion, African wild dogs and we may get lucky with some of the smaller cat species like Serval.

Savuti has been kind to us in the last few years and has provided great lion sightings and the chance to see wild dogs. There are also grasslands which are excellent habitat for cheetah.

There are several areas of Savuti which attract top predators, such as large prides of lions, leopard, cheetah and if we are very lucky African wild dogs. We will use the fact that we are actually camping inside the reserve to our advantage for longer more productive game drives.

Depending on the location of your camp, this can be mean an early start and a long transfer as the roads are very sandy here and progress can be slow. You will say goodbye to the amazing camping team and check into Chobe safari lodge.

As the heat builds up in Botswana and less water is available for the elephants, significant numbers of them move into this area and provide an amazing spectacle for nature lovers; particularly on the afteroon/sunset boat cruise. We ensure our guests have a front row seat to this event and are not on a crowded, shared boat.

Sadly, this is your last day in Botswana and you will be transferred to Kasane airport. Although we do offer extensions to Victoria Falls, or to Zimbabwe and Namibia for more precious safari time.