Mabuasehube Reserve in Botswana's Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park offers an unforgettable wilderness experience

One of the finest wildlife destinations in Africa, Botswana offers the ultimate safari experience, whether you’re floating through the Okavango Delta or watching elephants bathe in the river at Chobe. Wildlife watching is best in the dry-season months of June to October; bird-watching peaks in the wet season, when huge flocks of flamingos gather in the waters that fill the Makgadikgadi Pans.

The best places to visit in Botswana

Gaborone

The capital of Botswana, Gaborone is located in the far southeast of the country, near the border with South Africa. As one of the main international flight hubs in Southern Africa, it is a popular jumping-off point for safaris in the Okavango Delta and the Moremi Game Reserve. One of the best places to stay overnight is the Protea Hotel Gaborone Masa Square, in the heart of the city’s Central Business District. From here, you can visit the National Museum and Art Gallery, climb Kgale Hill for views over the city or set off on a tour of sights that are featured in Alexander McCall Smith’s popular series of novels, the No.1 Lady’s Detective Agency.

Moremi Game Reserve

Moremi Game Reserve
Moremi, made up of a gorgeous swathe of floodplains, woodland and open lagoons, is home to the highest concentration of animals in Southern Africa

A large swathe of floodplains, woodland and open lagoons, Moremi was established by the local BaTawana tribe in 1963 – the reserve is named after their chief, Moremi III, whose wife led the conservation efforts. Home to the highest concentration of animals in Southern Africa, it is one of the best places to visit on a safari to Botswana, particularly in the May–October dry season, when you can almost guarantee spotting all members of the Big 5 – lion, cheetah, elephant, buffalo and rhino (both black and white) – as well as African wild dog, rare lechwe antelope and a good number of the 500 or so species of birds.

Chobe National Park

Chobe National Park
Huge herds of elephants are easily spotted along the Chobe riverfront

In the northeast corner of Botswana, close to the borders with Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Chobe is where to go if you want to see elephants, as the huge herds that the park is known for are easily spotted along the Chobe riverfront. Many people fly into Livingstone, in Zambia, just an hour east of the park’s gateway town of Kasane, where you can stay at the Protea Hotel Livingstone, which is perfectly located halfway between the airport and the spectacular Victoria Falls.

What to eat and drink in Botswana

Kalahari truffles

A rare delicacy, desert truffles are found in the Kalahari, where they can be located by cracks in the ground that form around them after heavy rain. Their consistency is akin to crumbly cheese, and they taste like a mushroomy potato. Desert truffles are loaded with fat, protein, fibre and vitamin B and are best eaten sliced and fried in butter.

Seswaa

Seswaa
Seswaa, the delicious national dish of Botswana, features shredded beef, goat, lamb or chicken, with onions and peppers

Seswaa, the delicious national dish of Botswana, is made from beef, goat, lamb or chicken, which is boiled with onions and peppers, then shredded or pounded soft and served with spinach-like morogo and pap (a kind of cornmeal porridge). Try seswaa at The Courtyard in Botswanacraft, one of several great places to eat in Gaborone.

Dikgobe

A hearty mix of beans and sorghum, this is another one of the dishes to try if you’re looking to sample traditional Botswanan cuisine. Sometimes, samp (dried corn kernals) is used instead of sorghum, but the result is always a porridge-like consistency. Dikgobe is usually served as a side dish at lunch.

Madila

Made from soured or fermented milk, madila can be eaten like yoghurt, added to porridge or drunk – mowana madila is a drink made from mixing in the pulp from baobab fruit and some sugar or honey to make the madila a little sweeter.

Top things to do in Botswana

The Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta is a vast fan of floodplains proclaimed as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa

Proclaimed as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, the Okavango Delta is actually a desert, its vast fan of floodplains created each year when the Okavango River, flowing down from the mountains of Angola, sinks into the dry sands of the Kalahari. One of the best things to do in the Delta is to explore in a mokoro, a dugout canoe – being poled along reed-filled channels and past riverine forests is one of the most fun things to do on safari.

The vast Central Kalahari Game Reserve spreads across much of central Botswana. The wildlife is different (unusual species such as ground squirrels and African bullfrogs are also on the tick-list here) and starts converging around waterholes with the start of the dry season. This is probably the best place in the country to experience traditional San culture, and learning their tracking techniques is one of the most interesting things to do in Botswana.

The remnants of an ancient lake the size of Switzerland, the seemingly endless Makgadikgadi Pans are an Instagram favourite. One of Africa’s largest zebra populations roam its parched grasslands, while the glinting salt pans themselves provide a perfect backdrop to blazing sunsets, making Makgadikgadi an unmissable destination for photographers.

Hidden gems in Botswana

The Tsodilo Hills
The Tsodilo Hills are unlike anything else in Botswana, carrying deep spiritual significance for the Ju/’hoansi San people, who covered them with over 4500 paintings

Just 10km south of Gaborone’s central hotels, Mokolodi Nature Reserve is one of the easiest reserves to access in the country, yet it’s often overlooked by people heading to the Delta or the desert. Horse-back safaris are one of the more alternative things to do here and a great way to see the giraffe, zebra and the other fantastic wildlife that lives here.

To the far northwest, the Tsodilo Hills are unlike anything else in Botswana. These quartzite rock formations carry deep spiritual significance for the Ju/’hoansi San people, who covered them with over 4500 paintings. Taking in this ancient rock art, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, is one of the most unique things to do in Botswana.

Go deeper

Botswana’s currency is the pula, which means “rain” (or “blessings”) in the local Setswana language, a reference to its importance in such an arid land. One pula is divided into 100 thebe, which means “shield” and represents defence.





Published: July 26, 2022

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