Jacks Camp provides access to a wide range of unusual safari activities, including meerkats, Bushman, palaeontology, quad-biking and salt-pan sleepouts.
Pioneering camp
One of the most authentic and original locations in Africa, Jack's Camp is the real deal, an amazing stylish creation that continues to delight guests.
Green season migration
This area experiences a massive inward migration of zebras, wildebeest and other wildlife during the Nov-Mar green season, a major event which remains off the radar.
Jacks Camp is one of the most extraordinary properties in Africa, a perfect complement to the Okavango Delta in longer higher-end safaris.
The Makgadikgadi is series of vast salt flats, surrounded by endless flat grasslands. The skies are enormous. Being out in the middle of the pans at night is as close as we will get to being on the moon. It is a truly extraordinary place.
When legendary safari pioneer, Jack Bousfield, first set up camp here in the 1970s, everyone thought he was utterly mad. Surely there was nothing out here, nothing to attract guests.
In reality, the truth could not have been more different. This apparently empty semi-desert is able to deliver an epic range of safari experiences, including spending time with habituated meerkats, enjoying the company of genuine Bushman people, searching for ancient stone tools, quad-biking, contemplating the most incredible night skies and sleeping out on the pans.
Then, during the Nov-Mar green season, the area experiences a massive inward migration, hosting hundreds of thousands of visiting zebras and wildebeest. Like the Serengeti migration, but secret.
Almost more amazingly, the camp is still run by Jack's son, the uber-cool Ralph Bousfield, who continues to inject the same kind of frontier spirit into the place.
Make no mistake, this place is extremely polished. As you might expect after over half a century. The surprise is that it still feels fresh, every time.
The camp itself is a work of art. A beautiful creation, packed with flair and character. This is the real deal. Fortunately, it's a little too mad for other operators to copy faithfully, so it remains a unique experience.
We should point out that, with ten rooms, Jack's Camp is a little larger than we would like. Perhaps more of an issue is the high price tag, but that issue can be overcome by staying at one of Ralph's other properties in this area, namely San Camp, Camp Kalahari and Planet Baobab, which cover the whole price spectrum.
It's kind of compulsory that you visit the wetland areas of Botswana before you come here. You need to get that animal angst out of your system, in order that you can fully appreciate the more esoteric experiences here in Makgadikgadi.
Although we would happily recommend Jacks Camp to virtually everyone, unfortunately we are unable to include it in anywhere near as many trips as we would like. With Botswana being such a pricey safari location, most people are in and out in six nights or less. To include this area, you really need to be thinking about nine or more nights in Botswana.
Now that there are finally some mid-priced safari lodges turning up in the Okavango Delta, maybe a few more of our guests will be able to add this magical safari area into their trips. We do hope so.
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ATR Lodge Slideshow
Jacks Camp is located in the Makgadikgadi Pans area.The camp is centred on a lavish main mess tent.Guest accommodation is in ten lavish Tented Suites.Activities include quad-biking, vehicle safari, palaeontology, Bushman interaction, meerkats and night vehicle safari.Vehicle safari is one of the primary activities ...... supplemented with some decent night vehicle safari.A visit to a habituated meerkat colony is a real highlight.There is also the chance to interact with the local Bushman people.Arguably the biggest thrill comes from quad-biking out onto the vast salt pans.Horse-riding is also available, although is not included and may need to be booked in advance.This area is most interesting during the May-Oct dry season and the Nov-Apr green season.
Set in the west of the Okavango Delta, Duba Plains Camp is a similarly high quality property.
Unlike other top-end properties, the safari experience here remains a little more intense and involving. This probably makes it a more natural combination with Jacks Camp.
Splash Camp
Coming in at under half the price of these other properties, Splash Camp is much simpler, but still very comfortable.
If you are looking for a more intense safari experience, with a particular focus on predator action, then this is a great option, one that our less luxury-focused guests really appreciate.
Jacks Camp is very pricey. A night here will set you back a remarkable USD 2500-3500 per person. There are lower cost options in this area by the same owner.
Subtle activites
Before coming here, you need to head into the Okavango Delta, to get your fill of wildlife sightings. Jack's Camp delivers a range of complementary experiences.
Lack of availability
Despite the prices, Jacks continues to be over-demanded. During the Jun-Oct high season, it's best to book at least nine months in advance.
Jacks Camp can be combined with any of the other lodges in Botswana and further afield ...
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.
Located to the north of Okavango, the Linyanti Waterfront is another fabulous safari area, renowned for big herds of elephants and buffaloes, plus prodigious predator action.
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.
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 USD 600 to 4200 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.
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.
Trips to Botswana
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.
Your trip will be fully tailor-made. We will work with you until we are all happy that we have arrived at the ideal trip solution. Sometimes that’s a quick and easy process, other times it can take several iterations. It’s a mutual learning process.
Popular location combos
The Makgadikgadi area can be combined with any of the other locations in Botswana and further afield ...
When to go to Makgadikgadi
It is extremely important to note that the Makgadikgadi area has converse seasons to the main safari areas of the Okavango Delta and Linyanti Waterfront and safari needs to be planned accordingly.
Dry season : May-Nov
During the May-Nov dry season safari here is focused on the desert experiences including quad-biking onto the pans, Bushman and palaeontological walks, visits to an habituated meerkat colony and game-viewing focused on a widely dispersed population of real desert specialists, amongst which highlights include brown hyenas and huge black-mane lions.
During May-Jun temperatures can drop towards freezing during the night, but this has little adverse effect on safari, the days are gorgeous and there are virtually no insects around.
During Oct-Nov temperatures and humidities can become uncomfortably high in advance of the rains, which can be much more of an issue given that the vast majority of camps do not have air-conditioning.
Green season : Dec-Apr
During the Dec-Apr green season the desert experiences take something of a back seat in favour of more intense wildlife viewing, as summer rain showers cause very impressive clustering of migratory wildlife in the area, notably substantial herds of zebras, wildebeest and giraffes, accompanied by an unusual range of predators including cheetahs, leopards, spotted hyenas and aardwolves.
It is the Dec-Feb period which threatens the greatest chance of more prolonged cloud and rain, although being the Kalahari Desert, the prevailing conditions remain relatively dry and sunny.
The Makgadikgadi has less than a dozen lodges. We are able to include any of these properties in your trip.
The lodges in this area are divided into two very distinct groups ...
The best options are generally considered to be those on the private Ntwetwe Concession to the east (home to the famous salt pans), led by the famous Jack's Camp, plus San Camp, Camp Kalahari and Planet Baobab, all under the same ownership.
Alongside the seasonal Boteti River over to the western side of the national park lies another handful of lodges, each under separate ownership, of which Meno A Kwena Camp and Leroo La Tau are the better options.
You can always expect absolute honesty from us when describing the various lodges and camps. Our primary motivation is to figure out which ones will suit you the best.
Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta is a miraculous area in Botswana, where flood water from Angola arrives into the desert in the middle of the dry season.
