4.9 /5
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Based on over 1000 Verified Reviews.

Highlights

  • Classic ‘desert and delta’ mix – great biodiversity and landscapes
  • Heavyweight game viewing: elephants, buffalo, big cats, hippos and hyenas
  • Great chances to see rarities like leopard, wild dog, roan antelope
  • Comfortable en suite accommodation throughout
  • Family-friendly camps and activities – suitable for older children
  • Game drives, boat trips, quad-biking, guided walks and community visits
  • Secret Kalahari zebra migration (November to February)
  • Excellent bird watching all year round

Overview

Spanning Botswana’s two great biomes – desert and delta – this fly-in safari delivers an amazing diversity of wildlife, birds and natural landscapes. Opening with a flight straight into the heart of the Kalahari, the experience begins on the golden grasslands of the Makgadikgadi Pans and a tented camp set under thorn trees. Kalahari wildlife is surprisingly prolific: large herds of antelope and giraffe are preyed on by big cats and wild dogs – and in the green summer season, migrating zebra and wildebeest arrive.

The desert adventure continues at the next accommodation, set on the Boteti River and enjoying a rare (for Botswana) elevated view. It’s an important area for wildlife all year round and the game viewing is excellent, but here you can also explore the river by boat and interact with traditional Kalahari communities. And then a complete contrast: a flight to the fringes of the world’s largest freshwater delta – the Okavango Delta – and an especially wildlife-rich pocket: the Khwai River. Permanent water, open grasslands and shady woodland combine to support a huge array of animals – this area is renowned for rare animal sightings.

Available all year and yielding different experiences by season, this is a great opportunity to see the best of Botswana’s legendary wildlife in a compact, affordable safari itinerary. You stay at comfortable tented accommodations all the way, complete with en suite bathrooms and sit down to three-course dinners. Safari activities focus on morning and afternoon game drives, and as your accommodation sits in privately-run concessions, there’s the chance to enjoy night drives and guided walks too.

Summary

  • Tour Duration: 8 Days

  • Start: Kalahari
  • End: Moremi

Accommodations Visited

This trip combines three of Botswana’s iconic destinations into a seamless itinerary that offers a diverse game-viewing experience, at an affordable price, to ensure you get the best value for money while on safari.
Mary Keet

Mary Keet

Africa Safari Expert

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Itinerary

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Days 1-4: Experience the Makgadikgadi

Kalahari, Botswana
Detailed breakdown

Days 1-4: Experience the Makgadikgadi | 3 Nights

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Kalahari, Botswana

The tour begins with your arrival at Maun Airport in Botswana and a short flight south into the vast Kalahari. Set in a million-acre private conservation reserve adjoining the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, your first accommodation is Camp Kalahari. From here you have the advantage of accessing the park on game drives as well as offering activities on the concession – horseback safaris, walks with San Bushmen guides (indigenous hunter-gatherer groups and the first nations of southern Africa) and even quad-biking on the pans. There is also the chance to walk with the Kalahari’s popular meerkats and watch them forage and interact. Back at camp you have a pool to enjoy on hot days and dinner under the stars to look forward to after sundowner drinks and safari stories. Solar power means electric light in your suite and you can recharge batteries in the game drive vehicles.

The common areas include a central library and a living and dining area, festooned with an eclectic mix of original African furniture and colonial antiques. Meals are refreshingly simple and wonderfully tasty, and served, family-style, at the long table. There’s also a thatched swimming pool, providing the perfect place for a refreshing dip on a hot afternoon – just watch out for the ellies who might pop in for a quick drink too.

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Days 4-6: Moremi Magic | 2 Nights

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Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana

Your safari continues today as you are transferred to a hidden gem of a camp, Meno a Kwena, perched on a rocky clifftop above the Boteti River in Botswana. 

With a glittering roster of activities available, including day trips to the Makgadikgadi Pans, guided walks with the San Bushmen, and wildlife-watching boat trips, there’s plenty to get your teeth into. But sometimes, the best game viewing is where you least expect it, and at Meno, it’s right in front of you. From your tent's lofty position, it looks down on a menagerie of animals at the water below, from herds of majestic elephant to dazzles of nomadic zebra – all you need to do is sit back, and take it all in.

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Days 6-8: Khwai Private Game Reserve | 2 Nights

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Okavango Delta, Botswana

Today you will drive across the desert landscapes back to Maun before hopping on a small plane to the Khwai Private Reserve to your new lodging in the Khwai Private Reserve.

Hyena Pan Tented Camp is located in the interior of the 200,000 hectare Khwai Private Reserve, Hyena Pan offers brilliant value for money and an all-round fantastic safari in a private concession. The camp is intimate, comfortable and welcoming. From its lofty position amongst a grove of cathedral mopane trees, the eight tents at Hyena Pan look over a watery lagoon of the same name. In the morning, you’ll open your tent flaps straight on to the trumpeting elephant in the lily-filled waters below, spend your siesta watching herds splash and snort, and fall asleep to antelope grazing just outside your canvas walls. This isn’t a place for those looking for opulence and extravagance; it’s a private piece of big-game Africa, where the wildlife encounters are authentic, intimate and always wild.

After a hard day’s game viewing, settle down in the open air boma to watch the fire crackle and listen to the sounds of the night…

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Day 8: The Journey Ends

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On day 8, it's time to bid Botswana farewell as a short flight from Hyena Pan takes you back to Maun Airport. On the way home, reminisce on your adventures as you leave Africa behind until you next meet again.

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Inclusions

  • All light aircraft and road transfers between camps
  • All light aircraft and road transfers to and from Maun
  • Daily activities
  • Expert guiding
  • Guest laundry
  • Park fees & VAT
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Exclusions

  • International flights
  • Airport taxes
  • All meals and drinks not specified
  • Tips and gratuities
  • Items of a personal nature