Travel and Leisure Worlds Best Awards for number 1 tour operator in the world 2024 and number 2 tour operator in the world 2025
We're one of the World's Best Tour Operators!
Named three years running in Travel+Leisure World's Best, including No.1 in 2024
Destinations

Where to go in Okavango Delta

The Okavango Delta is a fluke of nature. In fact, it shouldn’t really exist. Spilling out over the Kalahari Desert, the wetland was formed about 50,000 years ago, when a sudden tectonic shift in northern Botswana interrupted the Okavango River’s flow towards the ocean. Now, where once there was a parched desert, a myriad of floodplains, channels and palm-strewn islands exist, supporting some of the largest and most diverse populations of birds and animals in Africa. These islands are essentially great big time capsules, and exploring them on an Okavango Delta safari is like exploring natural history – a place unchanged for thousands of years and the very definition of "wilderness".
Kevin

Kevin Zimmermann

Botswana Travel Specialist

Read about Kevin

Central Okavango

Where uber-stylish lodges offer a range of iconic experiences and exceptional wildlife is the cherry on top

The Okavango in a nutshell, the central Delta offers an all-singing, all-dancing safari experience you probably thought only existed in travel documentaries. A network of vast, private concessions peppered with papyrus-fringed waterways, vast floodplains, waterholes and beautiful forests, vehicle numbers are incredibly low – and animal numbers, incredibly high. We’ll let you do the maths, but it’s safe to say that wildlife sightings are frequent and fantastic whether you’re seeking out big cats, looking to tick off a lifer from your bird list, or simply having fun counting the elephants that lumber across the floodplains. To really make the most of the terrain and its inhabitants, most lodges offer a combination of land and water excursions allowing for game drives, walks, mokoro safaris and boating trips, and, with no restrictions on timings, night drives. Then there are the lodges and tented camps dotted sparingly around the concessions. These are some of the continent’s smartest safari camps, where exceptional style and luxury is as much of a given as a light footprint and top-notch sustainability credentials. Welcome to the Delta!

Central Okavango

Khwai

An affordable Delta option with wildlife as diverse as the landscape and a smattering of unique lodges
Just to the north of Moremi, in a palm-filled corner of the north-eastern Delta, lies the Khwai Private Reserve. On the ground, the elite (and excellent) selection safari lodges work in partnership with the local Khwai community and the Khwai Development Trust, and all three promote conservation and eco-tourism. Landscape-wise, swathes of mopane trees characterise the north whilst the south morphs into an iconic Delta scene of open grasslands, waterholes, shiny floodplains and winding waterways that weave across the greenery. Whilst the channels and lagoons are usually full enough for a mokoro safari in the peak season (June to October), it’s the Khwai River – and accompanying game drives – that really steal the show. The lifeblood of the reserve, the river flows along the southern boundary drawing hooves and paws from far and wide, and displaying some serious David Attenborough-worthy action on its banks. And by that we mean, African painted dog chasing impala, lion and leopard skulking in the shade, buffalo, zebra, elephant, sable and roan antelope. Need we say more?
Khwai

Moremi

Enter the heart of the animal kingdom in Moremi, a glittering landscape where safari dreams come true.
Smack bang in the heart of the iconic Okavango is Moremi Game Reserve. Proclaimed in 1963, a project spearheaded by the local Bat’wana people, it incorporates 5,000 square-kilometres of prime Delta real estate: floodplains, pans and lagoons, sprawling grasslands and thick forests of acacia trees, and tiny palm islands encircled by myriad waterways that shimmer in the sunlight. Over the years, the area has been well-protected and the wildlife is an ever-present reminder of how a wilderness area could (and should) be. With no walking safaris or night drives available (aside from at the lodges along the Khwai River), game drives are the name of the game, and they’ll reveal ever-present herds of impala and tsessebe, as well as buffalo, zebra and elephant. On the watery banks of the river live sitatunga and lechwe, whilst fish flitter below the surface and over 400 species of birds above it. Then there are the big cats. Lion and leopard are both frequent sightings, and no area is better for it than Moremi’s two landmasses: the ultra-exclusive Chief’s Island and the Mopane Tongue, a peninsula that merges into a glorious wetland network. But really, there are no ‘stars’ here – this is Moremi, one of the finest wilderness areas in the world.
Moremi

Maun

Eclectic, fun and very practical, Maun is the gateway to the Delta and a weary traveller’s dream.
Africa’s original ‘safari town’, mention the name Maun to just about anyone in Botswana and they’ll certainly have a few stories to tell… Legendary it may be, but the town’s position in the south-eastern corner of the Okavango Delta is incredibly practical and almost everyone who visits Botswana will more than likely pass through. Tiny planes flutter in and out of the airport every hour, depositing visitors in the remotest corners of the Delta or returning them to civilisation, and dusty 4x4s eject a steady stream of tired-out travellers . On the ground, there’s not much you can’t buy, fix, see or sell when it comes to safari, whether that’s stocking up on your khakis or patching up a spare wheel – and there’s an eclectic selection of hotels and restaurants to explore too. Activities-wise, heli flights over the Delta are easily organised from the operators in town, as well as mokoro trips and a small selection of wildlife-watching opportunities on the Thamalakane River.
Maun

Mababe

Embark on a one-of-a-kind safari where few others ever venture and the wildlife is legendary.

Soaring overhead in a helicopter, you’ll see the remnants of a vast lake that once occupied the landscape, fed by multiple river systems, until tectonic shifts had other ideas. This is the Mababe Depression, a unique and remote corner of northern Botswana that changes profoundly with the seasons; summer rains replenish its wetlands and leave behind a blanket of green, while the dry season brings dusty savannah and shrinking pans. Mababe is a critical funnel for wildlife moving through Botswana’s diverse habitats, from thousand-strong herds of buffalo to great elephant families that travel ancient pathways through the Depression. It also plays host to incredible numbers of predators, including prides of lions (some of the largest in Botswana) who rule the banks of the Khwai River, packs of African wild dogs and cheetahs on the hunt. This extraordinary enclave is quite unlike anything you’ve ever seen and you’ll take it all in without another soul in sight.

Mababe
Where To Go

Still not sure where to go?

Try our trip wizard to find your dream trip

Pin Icon

Namibrand, Namibia