A sister property to Lebala, Splash Camp is set in the Okavango Delta. The two camps are a very natural combination.
Splash Camp provides the same kind of hard-hitting predator-focused safari. Six nights split across the two properties should more-or-less guarantee great sightings.
Lebala Camp is one of our top five favourite safari camps in Africa.
This camp relentlessly delivers high quality predator action year after year. The reasons for this are threefold ...
Firstly, the camp owners are are arguably the only operators in the country who really take their safari guiding seriously, as most clearly demonstrated by their continued use of spotters on the front of their vehicles, an essential practise that has been conveniently forgotten at most lodges.
Secondly, the landscape here lends itself perfectly to expert guiding. The network of sandy tracks makes it possible for guides to identify the area in which predators are hanging out.
Once off-road, the inner network of elephant tracks allows for further tracking. It is truly remarkable to watch the guides find lions or leopards concealed within thick bush a long way off the nearest track.
Thirdly, the camp has really good attitude. If you find lions and buffaloes around sunset, instead of cutting the sighting short and heading back to base for dinner, the guides can radio the camp, cancel dinner and get sandwiches brought out to you. You can stay out all night if you want. The payback is off-the-scale, delivering genuinely life-punctuating experiences.
Lebala Camp itself is a relatively simple affair, but perfectly comfortable. The staff are often not quite as polished as they might be, but at the same time they are more natural and create more of a family atmosphere, which we love.
We regularly include Lebala Camp, the relatively lower price point and the serious safari attitude hit the sweetspot for a high proportion of our guests. Obviously, the big hunting sequences are not guaranteed, but there's nowhere in Africa where the chances are this good.
If you find the very prices here in Botswana a little difficult to swallow, then talk to us about the Nov-Mar low season, when rates are reduced by up to 75% at this family of camps.
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Lebala Camp is located in the vast Kwando Concession.The camp is centred on a collection of simple thatched buildings around a central campfire.Guest accommodation is in eight large Tented Rooms with indoor bathrooms and outdoor showers.Activities include vehicle safari, walking safari and night vehicle safari.The primary activity is vehicle safari ...... supplemented with some unusually strong night vehicle safari.The best time of year is the May-Sep dry season, although there are reasons to visit during other months.
If you are looking for a more genuinely upmarket property, then Duba Plains Camp is a contender.
Whilst at many super-luxury properties the safari activities can be a bit lame, here at Duba it remains possible to turn up the heat on the experience.
Rra Dinare Camp
Another related property, Rra Dinare makes for a nice combination with Kwara because the two can be connected by motorboat, which is a lovely way to explore the Okavango.
Unusually, it is also possible to end by driving back to Maun, making it possible to pop in at the baby elephant sanctuary.
Some guests may find that the relentless focus on predator hunting action is a little over-powering. There are loads of other camps delivering a gentler experience.
Modest accommodation
By the extremely elevated standards of the Botswana, Lebala Camp is relatively modest and nowhere near as polished as some properties.
Seasonality
Unlike the best parts of the Okavango Delta, the Linyanti Waterfront area is more seasonal, with the best wildlife viewing during May-Oct.
Lebala Camp can be combined with any of the other lodges in Botswana and further afield ...
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.
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.
The Linyanti Waterfront has around 14 safari lodges, almost all of which are wonderfully remote and high quality.
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. Classic examples include Zarafa Camp and Duma Tau Camp.
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 most prominent are Lagoon Camp and Lebala Camp.
The properties that we generally prefer to avoid in Linyanti are the camps which are either heavily over-priced or which offer safari activities which are too flaccid (which is surprisingly widespread). 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 to figure out which ones will suit you the best.
When to go to Linyanti Waterfront
The safari areas of Linyanti Waterfront 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 five 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, temperatures climb from genuinely cold at night 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 along the rivers and around the flooded areas of Linyanti Waterfront, notably including huge numbers of elephants. 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 camps without air-conditioning (almost all of them). 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 Linyanti Waterfront, making wildlife viewing gradually less intense, but still worthwhile.
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 unusual but interesting 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 most significant 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 Linyanti Waterfront, those wetland areas still host a good deal of resident wildlife and sightings should remain sufficiently good to satisfy most people.
Many camps are heavily discounted during this period. Late March clearly represents the best value, being the closest to the upcoming Flood Season, but needs to be booked literally years in advance. The camps tend to be wonderfully quiet, except for the last 2-3 weeks.
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 southeast of Okavango, Makgadikgadi is a desert area of enormous salt pans, with quadbike expeditions, habituated meerkats, Bushman interaction and palaeontology and green season migration herds.
