Botswana: Okavango Delta, Chobe & Victoria Falls

Okavango Delta, Chobe & Victoria Falls

Okavango Delta • Chobe • Victoria Falls
Duration: 10 Days

Overview

A first safari in Botswana that shows the Okavango Delta two ways, then heads north to the Chobe River and finishes at Victoria Falls. You start with three nights at a water camp, where the days are spent in a mokoro or a boat, then three nights at a land camp built around game drives, then two nights on the Chobe riverfront for its elephants. The last night is above Victoria Falls on the Zambian side.

Between camps you fly in small light aircraft, usually single-engine planes that hop from one bush airstrip to the next. Space on board is tight, so luggage is typically limited to 20 kg per person, including hand luggage and camera gear, packed in soft bags with no hard frame. The Delta also changes through the year. Rain that falls in Angola from about November to March reaches the Delta months later, and the floodwater usually peaks around July, in the middle of Botswana's dry season. While the water is high, mokoro and boat trips are at their best. As it drops later in the year, camps shift toward game drives and walks, and from November the local rains turn the country green. We pick camps and activities to suit the month you travel.

Trip Highlights

Gliding through the Delta's channels by mokoro, with a poler standing at the back

Game drives on Chief's Island, one of the best places in the Delta for lion, leopard and wild dog

Elephant and buffalo coming down to drink on the Chobe River, seen from a silent electric boat

Light-aircraft flights low over the floodplains between camps

A guided walk at Victoria Falls and a sunset on the upper Zambezi

Ideal For

First-time visitors to Botswana • Couples and honeymooners • Families with older children • Travelers who want water and land safaris in one trip

Preferred Properties

Okavango Delta (water): Jao Camp; or Xigera Safari Lodge

Okavango Delta (land): Wilderness Mombo; or &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge

Chobe: Chobe Game Lodge

Victoria Falls: Thorntree River Lodge

Day-By-Day Itinerary

Days 1–3: Maun & the Western Delta

Fly into Maun, usually via Johannesburg, where you are met at the airport and walked to your light-aircraft flight into the Delta. Land at the Jao airstrip and drive a short way to camp in time for an afternoon on the water. Spend the next two days by mokoro and motorboat through the channels and lagoons, with seasonal catch-and-release fishing, walks on the islands and a boat-and-drive outing to Hunda Island for more game. When the water is lower, the balance shifts toward game drives and night drives.
Overnights: Jao Camp

Days 4–6: Moremi & Chief's Island

A short flight takes you across the Delta to Chief's Island in Moremi Game Reserve. In peak flood the airstrip can go under water, and the last leg is then by helicopter. This is the land half of the trip: morning and afternoon game drives over floodplains where red lechwe, buffalo and elephant gather and lion, leopard, spotted hyena and wild dog hunt. Boating and mokoro trips run here too when the water allows. Midday is for the pool or your deck. If you stay at Sandibe instead, you are in a private concession on the edge of Moremi, where drives continue after dark and bush walks are possible.
Overnights: Wilderness Mombo, or &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge

Days 7–8: Chobe River

Fly north to Kasane and drive about 30 minutes into Chobe National Park to the lodge on the riverbank. Game drives leave as the park gates open and come back at closing, and the boat cruises run on silent electric boats, so you can sit close to elephants and hippos at the water's edge. Chobe is a busier park than the private Delta concessions, and the river is the reason to come.
Overnights: Chobe Game Lodge

Day 9: Victoria Falls

Drive to Victoria Falls, about two and a half hours, crossing into Zambia over the Kazungula Bridge. Settle in on the Zambezi, about 12 km upstream of the Falls, then take a guided walk along the Falls in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park. How much spray and water you see depends heavily on the month. End the day with a sunset boat trip on the upper river.
Overnights: Thorntree River Lodge

Day 10: Depart

Transfer to Livingstone airport and fly home, usually connecting through Johannesburg. If your flight is late in the day, there is time for a morning on the river or a second look at the Falls.