9 Day Highlights of Botswana Safari

The safari begins with the regional flight from Johannesburg to Kasane, which takes around two hours. Kasane is the gateway to Chobe National Park, where a short road transfer takes you to Chobe Game Lodge on the riverfront. There is time to settle in before the first activity begins.

Late afternoon is spent on a boat safari along the Chobe River. Elephant, buffalo, hippo and antelope are regularly seen along the banks, especially as temperatures drop toward sunset. Chobe National Park covers roughly 11,700 km², and its permanent river attracts exceptionally large numbers of elephant during the dry season.

Mornings start early in open 4x4s, following the riverfront where elephant, buffalo and plains game come down to drink. Lion, leopard and spotted hyena use the same wider area, while rarer antelope such as puku and Chobe bushbuck may also be seen. After brunch back at the lodge, there is time to rest before the afternoon shifts to the river. Watching elephants cross between the banks and islands is one of Chobe's memorable sights.

More than 450 bird species have been recorded around Chobe. Permanent water, reedbeds and riverine woodland support fish eagles, bee-eaters, kingfishers and a wide range of other waterbirds and woodland species. Sundowners on the river close out both days before returning to the lodge for dinner.

A final early game drive along the Chobe riverfront wraps up before breakfast, then it's back to Kasane Airport for the charter flight into Savute, a far more remote stretch of the same national park. The aircraft first climbs over the river system before reaching the sand ridges of Savute, which open up below, threaded by the Savute Channel, a watercourse with a well-documented history of drying up and flowing again over the decades. The scenic flight lasts roughly 50 minutes.

On landing, a short transfer takes you to Savute Safari Lodge, where you can settle in and enjoy lunch before the day's second activity: an afternoon game drive through the open plains and the Savute Marsh, where waterholes attract elephant, zebra and giraffe.

Morning and afternoon game drives through Savute's range of habitats are the highlights of this day, with downtime at the lodge between activities. The area is characterized by open marsh, surrounding mopane woodland and rocky outcrops with views across the wider channel. Elephant and sizable buffalo herds share the area with zebra, giraffe and various antelope species. Lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena and the rare African wild dog prey on them.

Savute covers roughly 5,000 km² in the southwestern corner of Chobe National Park. Because of the extreme droughts that can occur here, lion prides have adapted to hunt subadult and young adult elephants at night. During the summer rainfall season (November to March), thousands of zebra migrate from the Chobe Riverfront, through Savute to the Mababe Depression and Nxai Pan, with various predators following the herds.

A last morning game drive and breakfast are enjoyed before a short transfer to the local airstrip for a charter flight into the Okavango Delta, one of the world's great inland wetlands and, since 2014, a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering more than 2 million hectares. From the air, dry Savute turns into a mosaic of winding channels, palm islands and flooded plains.

On arrival, a transfer takes you to Xugana Island Lodge. First built in 1974, Xugana was only the second commercial tourist lodge built in the Okavango Delta. The private Shinde concession on which it sits is characterized by year-round water access on one of the Delta's magnificent permanent lagoons. There is time to settle into a suite overlooking the surrounding waterways and have lunch before the first Delta activity: a motorboat cruise or a traditional mokoro paddle through reed-lined channels.

Two daily safari activities revolve around species adapted to the Okavango's permanent waters. Herds of red lechwe splash across flooded plains while hippo and Nile crocodile occupy the deeper channels. Guided island walks often yield encounters with elephant, buffalo, giraffe, and the elusive sitatunga antelope. The birdlife along the papyrus fringe is extraordinary. Days are filled with sightings of African fish eagles, iridescent malachite kingfishers, and African jacanas stepping across lily pads. The quiet of night brings chances of spotting the prized Pel's fishing owl roosting in the ancient riverine canopy.

Evenings return to the fire, the day's sightings replayed against a stillness that Chobe and Savute, for all their wildlife, never quite offered. The pace here has nothing in common with a vehicle track: the water sets the speed, and the wildlife comes to it.

Depending on your flight schedule, one last morning safari activity rounds out your time in the Delta before breakfast at the lodge. From there, a light aircraft flight to Maun offers a last aerial pass over the channels and islands that have filled the last three days.

In Maun, an onward flight connects to Johannesburg's O.R. Tambo International Airport, where your nine-day trip that moved through three distinct landscapes comes to an end.