Botswana Travel Guide

Unmissable

I travelled alone and staid at two lodges: Camp Moremi and Camp Xakanaxa both part of Desert and Delta company. Both are fantastic with brilliant and expert staff. The first is luxurious the second more rustic, both unmissable!
Excursion staff was truly knowledgable, and I have a fond memory of Pound at Xakanaxa (hello there!); the manager, the kitchen and the rest of the back of the house staff was truly professional and made my stay unforgettable. All the guests I have met in both camp have said the same, so this is not an exaggerated review, rather one grounded in facts. Food was simple and superb, so were the numerous drinks and snacks we had in the rooms, during high tea and the excursions.
I was quite lucky to see a lot of animals, including the one harder to sport like leopards to lions, to hyaena and wild dogs.
I will go back, with no doubt! Many many thanks to both Camp Moremi and Camp Xakanaxa for the unforgettable trip!

For safari (guided or self drive) it is really perfect! It is a very safe destination to travel. The focus lies on wildlife, wildlife, wildlife!

One lodge was more than expected but the other was less.

I have seen much more wildlife in the Serengeti and Masaai Mara and even Kruger. I was extremely surprised at that because I thought Botswana was going to have many more animals. My one lodge Mapula was terrific. Great food, staff, amazing tracker/guide, beautiful room. It was 41 degrees on one day and 39-40 on the others and the was little to help the heat. The fans in the room were over the seating area only. That could be improved, but otherwise lovely place.

The second place (crocodile teeth? in the local language) was much lower level. On our orientation in this semiarid place we were told that there were a number of big scorpions seen in the camp and that we were to be careful because they were extremely poisonous. I understand we are in Africa, but I would have thought there would be more responsibility on the camp staff to be watchful to rid the camp proper of scorpions. The tracker/guides were not great; the least knowledgeable and least excited guides/trackers of any safari I have been on. (An I have been on a good number throughout Africa). The food was not very tasty at all, edible but nothing exciting. We had to travel 2 hours from the airport and 2 + hours each way to get to the animals. That was a lot of driving. Also, we had lunch in a place that turned out to have ants in the sand and many of us had many ant bites with very itchy feet that swelled from the number of bites. I expected much more from Botswana given the hype and the cost in comparison to other great safari experiences.

Great day out, good value. Loved the close up view of the wildlife.

Had a wonderful day out from Victoria Falls. All very professional. Easy transfer over the border with the right visa. The boat trip gave the better view of the wildlife. Very good value with a great lunch and comfortable taxi transfers. Would recommend the trip to anyone wanting to see great African wildlife and scenery.

Amazing experience for my ten year old boy.

We did not know what to expect as this was our first time in Africa. We were met by our guide and began the drive out of Maun to our camp site, roughly three hours away. About ten minutes later, my son quipped "I think I just saw an elephant". Sure enough, we has passed an elephant grazing not two meters by the side of the road. We decided to count the number of elephants we saw but stopped after reaching over 150 on the second day!

The scenery is rather harsh, especially in October, but we saw hippos, zebras, giraffes, lions, hyenas, wild dogs, leopards,
and many different types of herbivores. About the only thing we did not see were cheetahs and water buffaloes.

The tents and camp beds were comfortable and we had our own private toilet and bucket shower attached to our tent. The tent was tidied every morning while we were out on a game drive, and again after our siesta while we were on our afternoon game drive.

Our guide and cook were excellent. Both were clearly passionate about their jobs and we were made to feel like family. We are vegetarians, but each meal was carefully planned, with adequate protein. Our cook used quite a lot of mock meat, which I know is not cheap. In fact, it is just as expensive as meat. We had freshly made bread each morning. At the beginning, there was no hot chocolate but it magically appeared after a couple of days because our guide made sure to pick it up while going back to Maun for another reason.

The highlight for us was to watch as a pride of lions set up a trap for an approaching herd of gnus. The lions blithely walked around our four-wheel drive as they fanned out to steer the herd into the path of the awaiting killers. We did not actually see the kill, but we were able to return quite quickly to see the lions devouring it. As my son said "That was awesome".

My son is 10 years old but at no time did he feel scared or nervous. Our guide made it easy for both of us to take some remarkable photos. I bought a 50-230 zoom lens just for this trip and such a zoom makes the difference as I could take "portraits" of the animals we saw.

A big thank you to Kingfisher Safaris for a memorable trip, which they facilitated even though we missed our original flights due to visa problems and had to delay everything by one week. My impression is that they deal only in quality and recommend them without reservation.

Blown away by Botswana

Booked a 10 day mobile Safari from Maun to Kasane.
First night was spent in Maun before a 3 day 2 night camping trip on the Okavango Delta. Fantastic experience to be poled through the reeds. Great walking safaris enjoyed. We then had one night back in Maun before embarking on the next leg - Moremi, Kwai, Savuti and Chobe NP
We were on a private trip - just my husband and I with a guide, camp chef and camp hand. Basic facilities added to the magical experience of being one with nature. The highlight had to be sitting with the Marsh Pride of Lions in Savuti at sunset - with no other game viewers present. Other top sights were the leopards in Kwai and the herds of buffalo and elephants at Chobe.
My top tip would be to take a buff to cover your face from the dust when travelling plus loads of moisturiser and lip balm!
We were amazed at the food our Chef rustled up on the open fire and enjoyed fantastic evenings at the campfire listening to music and learning more about Botswana.
Our trip was a budget experience - no air conditioning, no en suite etc as we were in tents on camp beds with bush toilet and shower! It was very hot and in the afternoons especially all you could do was sit in the shade but it was an amazing time - one that would be difficult to beat.

Is one of the few places where camping sites are in the wild, giving the unique expereince to be alone in nature; big carnivores are frequeently seen, among those wilddogs, leopards, and in the Kalahari Brown hyena; scenic beauty can vary from open savannah, to woodland, to desert, making the most varied country in Southern Africa; bush vibe is really incomparable, birding opportunities are many as the environment change, spanning from waterbirds to raptors, to desert specilities . A must for Wildlife fanatics, you are just on the stage, you meet all main actors of the big game of life and Death, big carnivores, bigfive, giraffes, more elusive species, wild dog, a real bonanza varying every day, changing any moment

too basic for my taste.

My guide and the staff at the camp were lovely and very accommodating. The highlight of the trip was visiting the local village where many of the staff live. It was primitive (no running water or electricity to the individual huts) but the women of the community was very cordial, everything was orderly and the children were quite happy. The Delta had the most amazing array of beautiful birds i’ve ever seen. It was fun to see elephants and rhinos peacefully roaming so close to the camp.
However, the accommodations were basically fixed, elevated tents. The cold running spicket and toilet were outside of the sleeping area. It had a gravity feed shower that was impossible to work, so I bathed under a faucet. There was no electricity in the tent! A small solar lamp and lantern were the only sources of lightly night.

Beautiful country and very bad people

This is a formal complaint concerning the service provided by Waterlime Mobile Safaris during my trip "6 Days of Moremi Game Reserve" which took place between 29.August - 3 September (programme provided by the organiser of the safari).
The service performed by Waterlime Mobile Safaris employees selected by Ms Mosa: Frank and Katee was below proper standards and did not meet my expectations at all.
The most serious was that they: Katee and Frank lied to us telling that we cannot reach Xakanaka because the road was flooded by the Okavango, and without our consent they changed the programme of the 4th day of the trip and drove us to the south end of Moremi, 1.5 h from Maun.
Other offences in service include:
I. Waterlime Mobile Safaris guide/driver Frank:
1. Offered me to spend nights with me in my tent (“either me or Katee can sleep with you”) which I consider as personal offence. He never apologized for this.
2. As our guide, he never informed us about daily plans and never gave us any information about the area or animals we saw on the way and -in fact- was very bad at tracking them. I personally learnt more during 1 hour mokoro safari from a contracted guide than during the whole trip from our guide Frank
3. Instead of driving along the paths for vehicles in the National Park, Frank drove across the bush chasing animals, including a female elephant with a baby causing stress to me and the animals
4. Repeatedly refused me to use his telephone to call either Ms Mosa from Waterlime Mobile Safaris or my Botswanan friend from Maun when I needed contact, consultation and support (I offered to pay for the calls). Since our mobiles did not work at all we were totally dependent on their good will and cooperation. It did not take place.
5. Was arrogant and aggressive towards us. For example:
-When I asked if we were going to the camp because it was getting late, his reaction was: “who do you think you are to tell me what to do”
-Almost always he did not answer any questions and did what he wanted to do. Even in situations when me and my companions were asking him eg. to stop the car.
II. Waterlime Mobile Safaris guide/cook Katee:
6. During two last days of the trip, he did not provide us with proper food. On day 5 of the trip, for breakfast we got rice and a slice of beef, no lunch at all, and in the evening spaghetti with potatoes, onion and carrots. On the last day of the trip we only got black coffee for breakfast.
7. He refused to give us fresh water and insisted that we drink the plastic smelling water which was bought 6 days ago. He also refused to make fire on the last night saying that he had no more money left for buying wood. I had to give them some money to buy us water and/or wood.

When communicating with Ms Mosa from Waterlime Mobile Safaris they never spoke English so we did not know what they were telling to Ms Mosa and could not react.

My request sent to Ms Mosa from Waterlime Mobile Safaris to compensate financially such bad service was never answered.
Sincerely yours, Danuta

Fabulous!

What a beautiful, friendly, extraordinary place. We had very cold mornings but hot days. Xakanaxa Tented Camp was beautiful and very friendly with a lovely deck overlooking the river and a fire pit for evening get together to chat over the days sightings.TS was a fabulous guide - very knowledgable and keen to show us all the wildlife from elephant to beautiful birds. Having a sundowner whilst elephant were wandering past at the end of a hot dusty game drive is something very special. Khwai Tented Camp was small and intimate and as it was in the concession we were able to have night game drives and a wonderful Mokoro trip. We saw 2 leopards on the hunt and were able to follow them off-road. Chobe lodge is more like an hotel so much bigger and less intimate. The food was amazing. The wildlife is concentrated around the river and there were amazing sightings of elephant, beautiful sunsets and we had a brief sight of a pack of wild dogs. We asked to do full morning game drivers rather that split the morning into game and river safaris which gave us more time out though by about 11 am most of the game is seeking shade from the heat. So many fabulous memories of a beautiful country.