Must-see attractions in Botswana

  • Chapman’s Baobab

    Botswana

    About 11km south of Green's Baobab is the turn-off to the far more impressive Chapman’s Baobab, which, until it crashed to the ground suddenly on 7…

  • Kuru Art Project

    Botswana

    This fabulous art project provides opportunities for local artists (14 at last count) to create and sell paintings and other artwork; it’s worth spending…

  • Central Kalahari Game Reserve

    Botswana

    The dry heart of the dry south of a dry continent, the CKGR is an awesome place. If remoteness, desert silences and the sound of lions roaring in the…

  • Aerial view to bush of delta Okavango with elephant.
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    Moremi Game Reserve

    Okavango Delta

    Moremi Game Reserve, which covers one-third of the Okavango Delta, is home to some of the densest concentrations of wildlife in Africa. Best of all, it’s…

  • Wet Lion cub (Panthera Leo) in Okavango swamp, Chiefs Island, Moremi National Park, Botswana
Chiefs Island, Lion, Moremi Wildlife Reserve

    Chief's Island

    Okavango Delta

    The largest island in the Okavango Delta, Chief’s Island (70km long and 15km wide) is so named because it was once the sole hunting preserve of the local…

  • Chobe National Park

    Botswana

    Chobe National Park is one of Africa's great wildlife destinations. Famed for its massive elephants and enormous elephant population, Chobe, which…

  • lioness in front of a 4x4 safari car crossing a dirt road in Kalahari desert, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Botswana, Africa

    Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

    Botswana

    In 2000 the former Mabuasehube-Gemsbok National Park was combined with South Africa’s former Kalahari Gemsbok National Park to create the new Kgalagadi…

  • portrait of a lioness standing in the dry grassland of Khutse Game Reserve, Botswana, Africa; Shutterstock ID 220553704; your: Bridget Brown; gl: 65050; netsuite: Online Editorial; full: POI Image Update

    Khutse Game Reserve

    Botswana

    This 2500-sq-km reserve, which is an extension of the southern boundary of the CKGR, is a popular weekend excursion for Gaborone residents, but it’s still…

  • Nxai Pans National Park

    Botswana

    This 2578-sq-km park is one of the most accessible places to experience the salt pans that are a Kalahari speciality, although it's more about smaller…

  • White Rhinoceros or Square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum), Khama Rhino Sanctuary Park, Serowe, Botswana, Africa

    Khama Rhino Sanctuary

    Botswana

    With the rhinos all but disappeared from Botswana, Serowe's residents banded together in the early 1990s to establish the 43-sq-km Khama Rhino Sanctuary…

  • Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

    Botswana

    This 3900-sq-km park, the southern section of the Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans National Park, extends from the Boteti River in the west to the Ntwetwe Pan…

  • Rock art, zebra on a small outcrop, now used as the logo of Botswana's National Museums and Monuments, Tsodilo Hills, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ngamiland, Botswana, Africa

    Zebra Painting

    Botswana

    One of the most fascinating paintings is the zebra painting on a small outcrop north of Female Hill. This stylised equine figure is now used as the logo…

  • Leopard Rock

    Chobe National Park

    The rocky monoliths that rise up from the Savuti sand provide more than welcome aesthetic relief amid the flat-as-flat plains. The outcrops’ caves, rocky…

  • Baines’ Baobabs

    Botswana

    In the south of the park are the famous Baines’ Baobabs, which were immortalised in paintings by the artist and adventurer Thomas Baines in 1862. Baines,…

  • Mboma Island

    Okavango Delta

    The grassy savannah of this 100-sq-km island, a long extension of the Moremi Tongue, contrasts sharply with the surrounding landscapes and provides some…

  • Tree of True Knowledge

    Botswana

    This odd-looking tree, near a small pool at the start of the Rhino Trail on Female Hill, was described to Laurens van der Post as the Tree of True…

  • Horned Serpent Natural Cistern

    Botswana

    Cliff Trail passes an amazing natural cistern (in a rock grotto near the northwestern corner of Female Hill), which has held water year-round for as long…

  • Xakanaxa Lediba

    Okavango Delta

    With one of Africa’s largest heronries, Xakanaxa Lediba is renowned as a birdwatchers’ paradise. In addition to herons, potential sightings here include…

  • Paradise Pools

    Okavango Delta

    One of the prettiest corners of Moremi, the area known as Paradise Pools is as lovely as the name suggests. In the dry season, trails lead past forests of…

  • Dancing Penises

    Botswana

    Directly across from the hollow on the southeastern side of Female Hill, one of the few Tsodilo paintings containing human figures depicts a dancing crowd…

  • Whale & Penguin Painting

    Botswana

    On the southeast corner of Female Hill, and accessible along the Rhino Trail, look for the amazing whale and penguin paintings that suggest an intriguing…

  • Chestnut-banded  Plover in water - Nata Sanctuary

    Nata Bird Sanctuary

    Botswana

    This 230-sq-km community-run wildlife sanctuary was formed when local people voluntarily relocated 3500 cattle and established a network of tracks…

  • Gcwihaba (Drotsky’s) Cave

    Botswana

    In 1932 a group of San showed Gcwihaba (meaning ‘Hyena’s Hole’) to a farmer named Martinus Drotsky, who humbly decided to name the cave after himself…

  • Zebra Equus burchelli and Impala Aepyceros melampus in tall grass in Savuti Marsh during rainy season, Chobe National Park, Botswana

    Savuti Marshes

    Chobe National Park

    For decades since the early 1980s, this vast open area in southern Savuti consisted less of marshes than sweeping open plains, save for occasional…

  • Mokolodi Nature Reserve

    Botswana

    This 30-sq-km private reserve was established in 1994 and is home to giraffes, elephants, zebras, baboons, warthogs, rhinos, hippos, kudus, impalas,…

  • Old Palapye (Phalatswe)

    Botswana

    About 20km southeast of Palapye, amid low-lying scrub, thinly scattered stone walls mark the site of the former Bangwato capital. Spread over a large area…

  • Gobabis Hill

    Chobe National Park

    In the heart of Savuti, Gobabis Hill is home to several sets of 4000-year-old rock art of San origin. The best are the depictions of livestock halfway to…

  • Matsieng Rock Carvings

    Botswana

    Loaded with cultural and historical significance, the Matsieng Rock Carvings are regarded by the Batswana as one of the four ‘creation sites’. According…

  • Krokavango Crocodile Farm

    Okavango Delta

    It’s difficult to know what to make of this place, not far south of Drotsky’s Cabins (the turn-off from the main Sehithwa–Shakawe road is at GPS S 18°26…

  • Third Bridge

    Okavango Delta

    Literally the third log bridge after entering the reserve at South Gate (although First Bridge and Second Bridge were, at the time of writing, easy to…

  • Bahurutshe Cultural Lodge

    Botswana

    Situated about 5km east of the Botswelelo Centre, in Mmankgodi, and 2km off the Gaborone–Kanye road, is Bahurutshe Cultural Lodge, an innovative cultural…

  • Moremi Gorge

    Botswana

    The approach to steep-walled Moremi Gorge gives little hint of what lies ahead. Once within the site, with its sheer beauty and abundant birdlife (with…

  • Dombo Hippo Pools

    Okavango Delta

    The drive between North Gate (including Khwai) and Xakanaxa Lediba follows one of Botswana’s more scenic tracks, although the exact route changes with the…

  • Motetane Gorge

    Botswana

    The walls of the Tswapong Hills are riven with deep canyons, and the east–west Motetane Gorge is the prettiest of them. The turn-off to the gorge is well…

  • Gabatsadi Island

    Botswana

    The enormous crescent-shaped dune known as Gabatsadi Island has an expansive view from the crest that has managed to attract the likes of Prince Charles. …

  • Divuyu Village Remains

    Botswana

    An adjunct to the Rhino Trail is a short but hazardously rocky climb along what is sometimes called the Divuyu Trail, leading to the scattered remains of…

  • Rhino & Giraffe Painting

    Botswana

    On the southeast corner of Female Hill, around the corner and to the west of the whale and penguin painting, the rhino and giraffe painting portrays a…

  • Laurens van der Post's Panel

    Botswana

    An adjunct to the Rhino Trail is a short but hazardously rocky climb along what is sometimes called the Divuyu Trail, leading to Laurens van der Post’s…

  • Origin of Sex Painting

    Botswana

    The partially marked Cliff Trail goes past the unassuming site known as the ‘Origin of Sex’ painting, around the northern end of Female Hill and into a…

  • Rhinos & Buffalo Forgery

    Botswana

    In the prominent hollow in the southeastern side of Female Hill, along the Rhino Trail, is a rhino painting, which also includes a ‘forgery’ of a buffalo…

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