Visitors can enjoy luxury lodge, hotel and camping accommodation, or even self-drive adventures in the national camping sites. They can sample the magical water world of the Okavango delta, the wilderness of the Kalahari, or Chobe where the game roams freely. Here are the main tourist attractions, which provide part of the unique experience.
Okavango Delta The Okavango Delta is the largest inland river delta in the world. It is the most glittering jewel in Botswana's tourist crown. It is a magical world of water and plain, of forest and savannah where the scenery is at its most majestic and the animals and birds most prolific. Most camps and lodges offer trips by mokoro canoes where visitors can experience the limpid waters and the lush scenery at eye level, under Africa's cobalt skies. The traveller can glide silently through the still waters by day and listen to the game as it stumbles into the campsites and remote lodges at night. The Okavango includes the Moremi Wildlife Reserve where elephant, giraffe, impala, cheetah, lion, crocodile, warthog and many other mammals abound. Visitors can watch a profusion of birds and many smaller animals scuttling through the reeds and papyrus.
Kalahari Desert The Kalahari is a huge wilderness which dominates central and southern Botswana. It covers more than three quarters of the country's total land area. Not a true desert, it is a semi-arid region of scrub, savannah and forests that support a remarkable number of creatures and vegetation that have adapted to the unusual conditions. It is a great wilderness where the intrepid traveller can find isolation and marvel at the grand scale of Africa. It offers dazzling white saltpans under the baobab trees, stretches of savannah where the game is plentiful and the indelible imprint of the original San inhabitants some of whom still live in the desert today. It includes four main game reserves including the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the Kgalagadi Trans-Frontier National Park, the Khutse Game Reserve and the Makgadikgadi saltpans.
Makgadikgadi Saltpans The Makgadikgadi saltpans are the remnants of a great super lake that once covered the region. The pans cover an area of over 10,000 square kilometres where glittering white salt bakes in the sun. Around them is vast grassland covered with palm trees. The pans flood after the rains early in the year. Immediately the desert blooms, attracting thousands of water birds to the shallow pools. The flamingos and pelicans flock to the salty waters and the animals of the plains to the fresh grasses. The Nxai pans, covering a huge area, are part of the great lake that once covered central Botswana. They are now mostly fossil pans, where bones and tools from prehistoric times can be found, covered with good grasslands rather than salt. In the wet season after December the game is plentiful.
Chobe Chobe in the north east is renowned for its game viewing and is a popular safari destination. It stretches from Kasane, near Kazungula where the boundaries of four African countries meet, to the Moremi game reserve in the southwest. Chobe has the densest concentrations of elephants and predators anywhere in Africa and the animal migrations provide a fascinating spectacle. There are four distinct ecological zones in Chobe — the famous Savuti marsh, the Linyanti swamps, the Serondela plains and forests and the riverine grasslands. The annual zebra migration between the Savuti and Chobe rivers attracts the lions, cheetah and wild dogs. Visitors can watch the game and abundant bird life from the comfort of a cruise from Kasane along the Chobe River.
Tuli block The Tuli block on the extreme eastern tip of Botswana mostly comprises private concessions. The concession holders offer visitors their intimate and specialised knowledge of the animals, birds and dramatic scenery in their conservation areas. Tuli has a fascinating frontier history and is renowned for its curious geographical features — Solomon's wall and the Tswapong and Lepokole hills where the ancestors of the San people left more traces of their beautiful rock paintings.
Gaborone Gaborone is the capital city and the hub of all Botswana communications including flights and road links to the main tourist destinations. It boasts modern hotels, good restaurants, casinos and golf courses. It has a fascinating history and yet still offers much for the tourist to see and do. The Gaborone Game Reserve, though small, is one of the most popular in the country and the Mokolodi Game Reserve offers the visitor the chance to walk and talk with the animals — following the elephants on foot or petting the tame cheetahs.
Maun Maun is the frontier town that provides the gateway to the Okavango Delta and the Moremi Game Reserve. Maun means "the place of the short reeds". It was established as the capital of the Batswana people as long ago as 1915 when it became the local centre for administration, cattle ranching and game hunting. It soon acquired a reputation as a rough frontier town, Africa's "Wild West" where men worked and played hard and killed the game indiscriminately. Even today, in these times of ecological conservation, it retains its frontier image. Before heading out on safari travellers can stock up with provisions and equipment from Maun's many stores. Accommodation is available in the original Riley's Hotel and in other camps and lodges.
Chobe in the north east is renowned for its game viewing and is a popular safari destination. It stretches from Kasane, near Kazungula where the boundaries of four African countries meet, to the Moremi game reserve in the southwest. Chobe has the densest concentrations of elephants and predators anywhere in Africa and the animal migrations provide a fascinating spectacle. There are four distinct ecological zones in Chobe — the famous Savuti marsh, the Linyanti swamps, the Serondela plains and forests and the riverine grasslands. The annual zebra migration between the Savuti and Chobe rivers attracts the lions, cheetah and wild dogs. Visitors can watch the game and abundant bird life from the comfort of a cruise from Kasane along the Chobe River.
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