8 Day Good Value Botswana Safari

Itinerary information

The tour begins with your arrival at Maun Airport in Botswana, where a driver will welcome you and transfer you to your first safari destination. Sit back and enjoy the rural Botswana scenes on the road and possibly spot an elephant or giraffe along the way. Set in a private community-owned conservation reserve adjoining the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, your first accommodation is Meno a Kwena.

From here you have the advantage of accessing the park on game drives and activities on the concession – cycling, walks with San Bushmen guides (indigenous hunter-gatherer groups and the first nations of southern Africa) and wildlife-watching boat trips. Back at camp, you have a floating hide to enjoy sundowners or a spot of catch and release fishing, a pool to enjoy on hot days, and a scrumptious dinner and safari stories to look forward to in the evenings.

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 dining table. There are also two beautiful lookout lounges from where you can relax and take in the exceptional views of the river as elephants come and go for a drink or a swim.

Itinerary information

A drive through rural Botswana landscapes brings you back to Maun, where a small plane awaits to whisk you over scenic wetlands to the Khwai Private Reserve and your new lodging in the Khwai Private Reserve. Hyena Pan Tented Camp is in the interior of the 200,000 hectare Khwai Private Reserve and offers incredible value for money and an all-round fantastic safari in a private concession. The experiential 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 during wet season, you’ll open your tent flaps straight on to grazing 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. Fresh water is available just in front of camp all year round, bringing herds of elephant to the camp’s doorstep no matter the season. 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. Where you will experience elephants like never before from Hyena Pan’s unique waterhole elephant hide. After a successful day’s game viewing, settle down in the open air boma to watch the fire crackle and listen to the sounds of the African bush by night.

Itinerary information

Your morning game drive takes you through wetlands, mopane woods and freshwater channels to your next and final stop, Little Sable. Nestled serenely next to a permanent water channel in the Khwai Private Reserve bordering the famous Moremi Game Reserve, Little Sable certainly has the right location, giving you access to a magical landscape of stunning scenery and teeming wildlife.

Because of Little Sable’s private setting, your guide can drive off-road for close-up sightings and conduct night drives. This makes for exciting tracking and wildlife sightings. Guided walks and canoe trips (when water levels allow) add to the ways you can experience the landscape. On mekoro and boat trips, look out for aquatic birds like jacana, tiny painted reed frogs, elephants or hippo wading in the water and gorgeous water lilies.

Itinerary information

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