Check the weather city by city, starting with Gaborone.
Botswana is the pinnacle of high-end safari travel: the UNESCO-listed Okavango Delta is a one-of-a-kind floating oasis where you travel by mokoro between elephant-filled islands. Chobe is home to Africa's largest concentration of elephants, while the Kalahari reveals its black-maned lions of the sands.
The Okavango Delta is one of the world's largest inland deltas: a 15,000 km² oasis in the heart of the Kalahari Desert, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Mokoros (local dugout canoes) glide silently between papyrus and water lilies, among hippos, elephants and leopards.
Highlights : Mokoro safari between elephant islands, Floating camp — night in the delta, Leopards and African wild dogs, Microlight flight over the delta at sunrise.
Chobe is home to the largest concentration of elephants on the continent: up to 130,000 pachyderms in the park. A boat safari on the Chobe River, where elephants swim across right before your eyes, is an incomparable experience.
Highlights : Boat safari on the Chobe River — swimming elephants, Herds of buffalo and lions (Savuti), Painted dogs (African wild dogs) — endangered species, Kasane — gateway town and sunset over the Zambezi.
The Central Kalahari (Central Kalahari Game Reserve, CKGR) is one of the world's largest reserves: home to black-maned lions, meerkats that can be observed every morning from just a few metres away, and San (Bushmen) communities with millennia-old hunting techniques.
Highlights : Meerkats at sunrise (just 1 metre away), Star-filled nights — one of the purest skies in the world.
The Makgadikgadi Pans are one of the world's largest salt deserts: in the dry season, an endless white expanse with salt-pan meerkats; in the rainy season (Nov–Mar), millions of zebras and wildebeest migrate here. Chapman's baobabs and honeymoon-worthy nights under the stars complete the picture.
Highlights : Zebra migration (Nov–Mar), Salt-pan meerkats — private viewing hide, Chapman's baobabs (3,000 years old), Canoeing across the flooded salt pans.
Botswana follows a 'high-end, low-volume' tourism policy: lodges are deliberately expensive to protect ecosystems. It is one of the most exclusive safari destinations in the world, but also one of the most pristine.