Desert miracle 

The rainwater from Angola arrives into the heart of the Kalahari Desert a the start of the long dry season, creating miraculous floodplains packed with wildlife. 

           Private areas 

Over 95% of the best safari areas in Botswana are contained within vast private concessions, with extremely low visitor densities. 

          Superb camps  

These concessions are home to a remarkable collection of superb lodges and camps, most of which offer an impressive range of safari experiences. 

          Safari freedom  

In the private concessions, operators are able to maximise the safari experience by driving off-road and offering walking safari. 

           Easy access 

Johannesburg is one of the best connected cities in Africa. From there it’s a short hop up to Maun in Botswana. 

          Strong combos 

It's very easy to add extensions like Victoria Falls, Cape Town and the Cape Winelands, or even the tropical beaches of Mozambique. 

            3 to 5 nights 

For shorter trips, it is more than possible to fly into Johannesburg and connect out to the Okavango Delta for as few as 3 to 5 nights, something that we often do for guests who are visiting the region on business.

           6 to 12 nights  

Most of our guests tend to deploy 6 to 12 nights on safari in Botswana. At the shorter end, we are talking about a combination of two camps, usually in Okavango Delta and Linyanti Waterfront. At the longer end, we tend to combine three or four camps, usually adding a contrasting desert area like Makgadikgadi or Central Kalahari. 

             13 to 28 nights 

For longer trips most people will start to combine with other countries. The most common extension is Cape Town, the Cape Winelands and the Whale Coast, which are all great value. Botswana can easily be preceded by Victoria Falls and combined with further safari in Zambia, Zimbabwe or the Kruger area of South Africa.

The cost of safari in Botswana

Safari in Botswana ranges from relatively pricey to eye-watering expensive. During the Jul-Oct dry season it is the most expensive in Africa, whilst the Nov-Mar period can be genuinely great value. You can expect to spend £450 to £3500 per person per night

We are more than happy to work across this range of prices. The only important thing is that we help you find the very best safari to suit your budget.

The three dominant price factors are the time of year that you travel, the length of time that you spend on safari and the specific lodges that you choose to include in your trip.

If you have a higher budget, we will help you determine which camps do actually deliver elevated levels of service and experience. We will also highlight other subtle ways in which your trip can be elevated to another level, including the use of whole camp bookings, private guides and vehicles, helicopter explorations of remote areas etc.

If you have a medium budget, the best ways to keep a lid on costs are to travel out of the Jul-Oct dry season and to carefully choose lower-priced lodges.  You can also reduce the number of core safari nights and deploy time in more cost-effective beach, town and rural locations. We will help you understand where to trim and where to splash in order to achieve the best overall experience.

If you have a lower budget, then talk to us about last minute booking options, which can deliver some extraordinary discounts. Failing that, we can always look at other fundamentally less pricey safari countries.

Victoria Falls

A few days at the Victoria Falls can work really well at the front end of a Botswana safari, there’s some lovely lodges, the falls are impressive and there’s loads of other interesting activities in the area.

The Cape

Cape Town, the Cape Winelands and the Whale Coast all contain fabulous lodges and offer great value for money. Direct flights from Maun make this a very easy combo.

Mozambique

If you are looking for tropical beaches, then there is nowhere better than Mozambique, with a wide range of medium and high priced lodges. The only downside is that you will probably need an overnight in Johannesburg on the way.

The best safari lodges in Botswana

Botswana has around 120 safari lodges, of which around two thirds are in the Okavango Delta.

We are able to include any of these properties in your trip. We ones most like to recommend fall into two categories …

Firstly, there are the truly high-end lodges, which are in the very best locations and offer the highest levels of guiding, hospitality and consistency, suitable for demanding guests.

Secondly, there are the relatively good value camps, which are also in excellent locations and also take their guiding very seriously, but which typically offer lower levels of luxury and have the potential to be slightly less consistent in their delivery, suitable for more easy-going guests.

The properties that we generally prefer to avoid in Botswana are those which are either heavily over-priced, which are not in great locations or which offer safari activities which are far too flaccid. We also prefer not to include any of the lodges which are located in the busy public access areas.

You can always expect absolute honesty from us when describing the various lodges and camps. Our primary motivation is simply to figure out which ones will suit you the best.

Luxury trips

Our luxury trips to Botswana combine lodges which are in prime locations, where high levels of comfort and service are guaranteed. This does not necessarily mean infinity pools and spa facilities, but it does always mean that you will be hosted and guided by the very best people in the country. That is how to truly guarantee the quality of a safari.

Adventure trips

In our adventure trips to Botswana, we use a much wider range of lodges, still in fabulous locations and offering authentic safari experiences, but often at considerably lower cost. More strenuous activities, like walking safari, are likely to feature more prominently. These cool, sometimes edgy lodges tend to be best suited to guests who are a little more outdoorsy and forgiving.

When to go on safari in Botswana

The safari areas of Botswana are very seasonal. Extremely detailed knowledge of the ecosystems and wildlife movements around every single camp is needed to properly plan a great safari.  When thinking about seasonality it is important to consider the four aspects of weather, wildlife movements, visitor traffic and prices. 

Apr-Jun : Flood arrival season

The Apr-Jun period marks the transition from the hot wet summer to the cool dry winter and is generally considered to be a great time to visit.
 
During May-Jun temperatures can drop towards freezing during the night, but this has little adverse effect on safari, the days remain gorgeous and sunny. The low temperatures ensure that there are very few flying insects.
 
The long grasses of the preceding Green Season start to die back through April, making the tracking and viewing of wildlife easier. The inward migration of animals to the arriving floodwaters starts and wildlife densities increase in many areas through the period. By the end of May, the bush has usually transformed from green into its more characteristic yellow colour scheme, but there are still plenty of young animals around.
 
Many camps are priced around 30% lower than peak season and most camps tend not to be too full.

Jul-Sep : Dry season

The Jul-Sep period is the main dry season in Botswana and is generally considered to be the prime season to visit.

Through this period, night-time temperatures climb from genuinely cold to very comfortable, with the days remaining lovely and sunny throughout, perfect weather for safari.

By this time, huge numbers of animals have migrated in from the dry hinterlands and are clustered around the flooded areas of Okavango Delta and Linyanti Waterfront. Wildlife viewing should be rich and varied, although you do still have to work for your sightings, even here in Botswana.

This is also the high season in terms of prices and visitor numbers, although the latter is little problem out in the private concessions.

Oct-Dec : Hot rainy season

The Oct-Dec period is the most challenging time to be on safari in Botswana.
 
The temperatures climb in advance of the rains, making for potentially uncomfortable nights in the many camps without air-conditioning. Once the rains properly break, temperatures should ease, but the timing of this event is unpredictable and can take place any time through this period. Even during rainy periods, the sunshine hours usually remain high.
 
Before the rains, during the height of the dry season, wildlife is gathered around the few remaining waterholes and sightings can be truly epic. Once the rains break, the wildlife starts to disperse away from the permanent sources of water in the Okavango Delta and Linyanti Waterfront, making wildlife viewing gradually less intense, but still relatively rich.
 
Out in the Makgadikgadi and Central Kalahari areas, the migration spectacles of the upcoming green season are starting to gather pace.
 
October tends to be priced as high season, but heading into November many camps are heavily discounted, jumping back up for the brief Dec-Jan vacation season.

Jan-Mar : Green season

The period Jan-Mar represents the main green season, which is an interesting and cost effective time to visit.

Into January, the very high temperatures of the preceding period should be starting to ease. It is this period that threatens the greatest chance of more prolonged cloud and rain, although being the Kalahari Desert, the prevailing conditions remain relatively dry and sunny.

The bush looks beautiful at this time, unusually verdant, with lots of wildflowers and baby animals. Although many of the migratory animals will have dispersed away from the main permanent water sources in Okavango Delta and Linyanti Waterfront, those wetland areas still host a good deal of resident wildlife sightings should remain sufficiently good to satisfy most people.

In Makgadikgadi and Central Kalahari this green season experiences a major inward migration, with huge herds of wildebeest and zebras gathering to have their young, along with the attendant predators. However the famous salt pans can become inaccessible.

Many camps are heavily discounted during this period. Late March clearly represents the best value, being the closest to the upcoming flood arrival, but needs to be booked literally years in advance. The camps tend to be wonderfully quiet, except for the last 2-3 weeks.

Expert

Our safari experts are uncommonly knowledgeable and experienced

765,000

The number of superb safaris we have  so far created

Seamless

Arranging your trip should be almost as much fun as actually going on safari  

Value

Your trip should cost you no more than if you booked all the components directly

Tailored

Your trip will be perfectly tuned to meet your requirements

What our guests say

“We’ve used many different travel organizers and agents, but one truly stands like a giraffe, head and shoulders above all others.”

Linda Goddard  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

“ATR are the experts in their field and I wouldn’t trust anyone else.”

Tara Stewart  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

“ATR are honest in their appraisal of individual lodges. You can trust their judgement.”

Graeme Gales  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

4.9   ★ ★ ★ ★ ★  

70 Google Reviews

1999

The year that we started to build great safaris

Okavango Delta

Set in the heart of the Kalahari Desert in northern Botswana, the Okavango Delta is a stunningly beautiful and vibrant wetland, with intensely rich and varied wildlife, offering a very wide range of wet and dry safari activities. Guest accommodation is in around 50 mostly very high quality and famously pricey lodges.

Virtually all safaris to Botswana include at least a few nights in this area. Some trips focus entirely on the delta.

Linyanti Waterfront

Set in the north of Botswana, the Linyanti Waterfront is one of the finest safari areas in Africa, renowned for huge herds of elephants, intense predator action and wild-dog denning. Guest accommodation is in a diverse range of around a dozen high quality camps and lodges.

If you are combining two or more camps in Botswana, then one of them should probably be here, especially during the Jun-Oct dry season.

Makgadikgadi

Set in the north of Botswana, Makgadikgadi is a vast and hypnotic open grassland, centred on a network of epic salt pans and dotted with isolated islands of palm and baobab trees. Guest accommodation is in a really interesting range of a dozen camps, offering a wide range of unusual safari activities, including habituated meerkats, Bushmen interaction, palaeontology and quad-biking.

If you intend to combine three or more camps in Botswana, then you should definitely consider including this amazing place.

           Price fluctuations 

During the Jun-Oct dry season, Botswana is the highest cost safari environment in Africa, but during the Nov-Mar green season it can be surprisingly affordable, with some camps discounted 60-70%. 

           Safari seriousness 

Around three quarters of Botswana camps offer rather lame safari activities. If you want an intense experience, we will help you to  choose the camps that take their safari guiding seriously.

           Traffic hotspots 

Over 95% of the best safari areas lie within superb private concessions. We will make sure you avoid the public access areas, which are often hideously overrun by overland and budget traffic. 

           Suicide season 

The weather in Botswana is usually fabulous, but the Oct-Nov late dry season can be uncomfortably hot and humid, with most camps not having air-con. These conditions can extend into Dec-Jan. 

           Walking safari 

A few camps in Botswana offer significant walking safari, but if this is a major focus for you, then we more often turn to specialist operations in Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 

          Rhinos  

Although there is a major reintroduction program underway, you are unlikely to encounter rhinos in Botswana, but we can include them by combining with locations in Victoria Falls, Namibia or South Africa.