Best Botswana Camping Safaris 2025
Published on: November 24, 2022 | Last Updated: April 26, 2025
For many Africa safari aficionados a camping safari in Botswana remains the ultimate wildlife safari experience and consistently delivers outstanding wildlife encounters. In July 2022 our group of 6 travelled from Maun to Kasane on our small group Botswana camping safari through Moremi, Khwai and Savuti and were lucky enough to see Lions, Leopards, Cheetah, African Wild Dogs, Honey Badgers, African Wild Cat and Serval. We also saw multiple antelope species, huge herds of Cape Buffalo and enjoyed amazing birding at some of the best private campsites in Botswana.
Botswana Camping Safari or Botswana safari lodges by plane?
This is an important question to answer from the start as the difference in the safari experience and cost is substantial when you compare an authentic Botswana camping safari, with a much more expensive fly-in safari, where Botswana safari lodges are linked up by short bush flights between camps. For many safari old timers there is nothing to beat the magic of camping in the African bush and hearing the sounds of the wildlife as you slowly drift to sleep. The roar of the lions or howls of the resident Hyena’s add to the authentic feel of the experience and many of the campsite are located in stunning areas to see wildlife moving as you eat your lunch or dinner.
There are different styles of Botswana camping safaris but they mainly divide up into the budget particpation safaris where you may help with meal preparation and cleaning up – generally simple dome tents are set up for you, and then there is the ‘full service’ camping, where you basically do nothing but enjoy the wildlife while been looked after by a super team of guides, cooks and camp assistants. This is definitely the way most of our clients like to experience Botswana’s wildlife and it’s quite remarkable the quality of food and service our camping teams can provide in the bush.
A bespoke Botswana fly-in safari allows you to choose your favourite Bostwana safari lodges and link them up with short bush flights with companies like Mack Air, who have a substantial fleet of planes based in Maun airport. This is a thrilling experience form the get go as the flights themselves take place at low altitude and therefore you can see wildlife even before you land at the lodges airstrip. This can be large herds of elephants, buffalo or even a pride of lions if you are very lucky. Of course, this type of safaris comes with a higher price tag but with some superb companies like Natural Selection, Kwando Safaris and African Bush Camps, all of which own multiple Botswana camps, you can bring together a stunning two week fly-in Bostwana safari that will live long in the memory.
Best Botswana national parks to visit?
We have been organising Botswana safaris for more than 10 years and if your main focus is a big cat safari and the chance to see African wild dogs, then you will see that the best Botswana national parks for a bespoke safari, are Moremi, Khwai and Savuti – some times written as Savute. Moremi is adjacent to the world famous Okavango Delta and is known for its lions and leopards, whereas Khwai is famous for African wild dogs and nocturnal leopard sightings; as you are allowed to take game drives here at night. Savuti featured in a famous David Attenborough documentary which filmed huge prides of lions hunting elephants at night and how they used their incredible pride strength to bring down alomost aduly elephants. Our last visit to Savuti provided not only beautiful sightings of African wild dog cubs outside their den, but we were also lucky enough to see the start and conclusion of a hunt by the same pack of wild dogs – simply thrilling box office action.
Camping in Moremi game reserve.
Maun is very much the gateway to a Botswana wildlife safaris and many different tour companies are based here to meet and greet their clients, whether they are camping specialists or experts at horse safaris. Many of the bush plane operators are also based in this cool town and I was amazed at how many people arrived and then simply flew into Moremi, Khwai or Savuti; but that is to miss out on the overall Botswana safari experience. When you drive from Maun to Moremi, the sealed road only lasts around 20km and then you are onto a wide unsealed road, which elephant, giraffe and zebra frequently cross. This area is dominated by Acacia trees and there is always the chance of seeing many different species of birds and antelope as you travel towards the south entrance of Moremi game reserve. We certainly don’t recommend a day trip here – that’s basically 7 hours on the road and only a few hours actually in the reserve itself; but as a start to a two week Botswana camping safari, this certainly builds up the excitement and you would miss a lot by just flying.
Only local tour companies can book the private Moremi campsites and believe me there are some really beautiful ones with lake views and huge trees providing both shade for the campsite and also a safe place for Baboon troops to sleep. There is a lot of animal movement around these camps and sometimes even through the camp as we witnessed in the early hours when a group of Hyena walked through looking for any scraps left by the dying embers of our fire. These camps need to be booked at least a year in advance so if you want the best possible camping experience in Moremi game reserve don’t leave it too late to book your Botswana camping safari.
Wild Camping in Botswana: What to expect?
One very important point to make is that if you are on a self-drive Botswana safari holiday you cannot stay inside the park. Only local Botswana tour companies with qualified guides and naturalists can book these and there is a world of difference between staying outside the park at Moremi South structured campsite, compared to a private lake side camping spot inside the game reserve just for your group.
The first point to make is that although night time safaris are not permitted in Moremi when you start your game drive at 06:00 it is still dark, so in effect you have 30 to 40 minutes of a nocturnal drive, when animals like lions, leopards and striped Hyena are still on the move. In fact, we had our tents ‘open’ (fly screen still in place!) and we could see Hyena moving through our camp. This is repeated again in the evening because when the day trippers or self drive clients have to be punctual when leaving the main gates, we are only slowly moving back to our camp and one night in the fading light we could see three lions waiting in the long grass to ambush a Cape Buffalo out of a herd numbering close to two hundred. They missed out – but the wait certainly got the adrenalin coursing through our veins, and we returned the short distance to our camp for a very enjoyable evening drink and discussion.
Afternoons around the campsite were always special and sometimes action packed. Lunches could be disturbed at any point for the photographers amongst our group as a herd of buffalo decided to wade through the lake, or a beautiful African fishing eagle swooped to snatch a fish for the sunkissed waters. We also chatted to our driver/guide about the plans for the afternoon game drive and which area of the park we would visit next depending on sightings of either big cats or African wild dogs.
Evenings are the most magical time of your Botswana camping safari as you return later than all the other visitors to the park and experience that short night time safari and chance to see the predators on the move. The twinkle of the camp lights guide you home to a welcome break from sitting in the vehicle and a nice beer or G&T. We swap stories around the warmth of a beautiful camp fire before heading to the nearby camp dining tent for a delicious dinner and maybe something sweet to finish off.
As the activities of the day catch up with us we head to our own private tent with plenty of separation from our neighbour and if we are lucky we may hear the sounds of lions or hyenas as they communicate before the nightly hunt. You could not be more immersed in the Botswana wilderness and you go to sleep dreaming about the wildlife you may see tomorrow.
Best places to see African wild dogs – why you must visit Khwai and Savuti.
We have been organising private and small group Botswana camping safaris for many years and on top of many peoples wish list is the chance to see African wild dogs on safari. Yes, there are some other great locations in Botswana to see this beautiful, social pack animal, but one of the best locations to see African wild dogs is definitely Khwai. For our particular trip in July we had a very unusual situation, where a lone wild dog was being seen on a regular basis in the open area not too far from the air strip and everyone was puzzled why he was not with a pack. African wild dogs are very well known for their ability to look after all members of the pack, even those who are injured and can no longer hunt.
Despite searching this area over three full days we only had one brief sighting in the distance and since at that time we did not know about the ‘active den’ in Savuti, we genuinely thought that we had missed out on our best chance to see them. However, we were more than delighted to add two more wild cat species to our mammal list while on safari in Khwai, with an excellent sighting of Africa wild cat just a short distance from our lodge accommodation during a night drive – which is one of the big reasons people visit Khwai concession. In addition, we had a superb encounter with an elegant Serval in the grasslands close to the beautiful Khwai river; as it actively hunted in its ideal habitat.
Because African wild dogs do not have a fixed territory they are more difficult to track and locate compared to the big cats. This transient behaviour means that it is incredibly exciting when a den is located and your chances of seeing the entire African wild dogs significantly increases. However, with such knowledge comes great responsibility, as we do not want to lead other predators to the den and endanger the cubs. In Savuti we first visited an old den, which had been abandoned by the pack due to lions discovering it and killing several of the cubs. There are theories that lions can sometimes follow human movements within the wildlife sanctuaries and discover wild dog dens this way.
Secure your space on our small group Botswana camping safari for 2026?
To conclude, it you want to experience one of the best Botswana camping safaris at a reasonable price – where the entire operation is built around maximising your time on game drives and ensuring that you are comfortable and well fed despite the remote locations of the camps – then our small group Botswana camping safari is definitely for you and with a small group size of only six, you will have a window seat all to yourself and plenty of room to store your camera bags and safari equipment.
By booking your space a year in advance we ensure that we are able to book the best private campsites and obtain the services of our preferred drivers and wildlife guides.
Allans Top Tips
Allan is blessed to live in Maun, Botswana several months of the year and can give you the inside track on the best restaurants, where to get some cash, and some cool shops for those authentic Botswana bush gifts. He would recommend you add on a pre-extension to the Botswana camping safari with a two or three night fly-in safaris at Oddballs Camp in the Okavango Delta.
