About the size of France with roughly two million people, Botswana is a diverse country with many natural resources. When it comes to picking the best Botswana safari camps, there are a lot of choices. Botswana is known for its luxury boutique camps and lodges and If you ever wanted to feel that you were transported directly from your living space into the safari, then you’ve picked the right place to visit. Here are our favorite five tented luxury camps (in no particular order):
1. AndBeyond (camps):
Provides several options of tented luxury camping with carefully crafted and curated partnerships:
Gomoti Plains Camp
Gomoti Plains Camp is situated on the edge of the Gomoti River system and floodplains in the centre of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Gomoti Plains is made up of eight classic safari tents and two family tents. All raised on wooden decks, the tents boast great views of the floodplains beyond, and each room has a shaded veranda.
Mombo Camp
This camp offers its guests awe-inspiring views of the Okavango Delta. Beautifully-furnished tents boast spacious ensuite bathrooms with indoor and outdoor showers, comfortable beds, overhead fans and private verandas. Each tent is connected to the guest areas by raised walkways.
Duba Expedition Camp
This unique camp has been the base of many famous wildlife documentaries by National Geographic filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert, due to its ample and frequent wildlife sightings such as lion, elephant, buffalo, hippo, along with Red lechwe, Blue blue wildebeest, Greater greater kudu and tsessebe. Duba Expedition Camp offers just six exclusive tents. Each luxurious tents has feature a small desk and private verandas, luxury four poster beds cloaked in draped lace, as well as ensuite facilities including with flush lavatories, double basins and indoor showers. This stylish camp prides itself on its extraordinary experiences, and wildlife is a regular sight, even when showering in camp.
Nxabega Okavango Tented Camp
This camp boasts breathtaking views of both mature mopane woodlands and seasonally flooded grasslands. This camp offers luxury game drives, catch and release fishing, scenic helicopter flights and safari walking tours.
Belmond Eagle Island Lodge
Belmond Eagle Island Lodge is perched on a private island encircled by the deepest stretches of the Okavango Delta. Each of the lodge’s 12 airy and spacious, deluxe tented rooms has its own plunge pool, a large outdoor deck overlooking the expansive delta, deep day beds, and personal bars. Tented rooms feature a walled outdoor shower with a window looking onto the delta and a large indoor bathtub.
2. Sanctuary Baines Camp (By Sanctuary Retreats)
Set in the picturesque surrounds of the Boro River. It has five elegant suites set on elevated platforms, offering breath-taking views of the riverand a nearby lagoon. Each suite features a comfortable four-poster bed – which can be moved outdoors for a spectacular night under the stars – an ensuite bathroom, personal bar, ceiling fans and a private veranda.
3. DumaTau by Wilderness Safaris (Conservation Led)
DumaTau, which means “roar of the lion,” is located within the Linyanti Wildlife Reserve, adjacent to Linyanti Chobe National Park and near Botswana’s border with Namibia. The camp is accessed by light aircraft, which land at an airstrip roughly 30 minutes from the camp. DumaTau perches over Osprey Lagoon. It is comprised of Eight tented suites, generously spaced apart, along the Osprey Lagoon. A series of wooden walkways—with dedicated elephant crossing zones—connects the suites to the common areas. Sliding screen doors bring the outdoors in and open to a shaded deck with loungers and a plunge pool, overlooking the lagoon. Strong Wi-Fi is present in the suites but intentionally absent in the common areas. On the opposite end of camp from DumaTau lies Little DumaTau, a camp-within-a-camp with its own four tented suites, carrying a similar aesthetic as the regular DumaTau, along with a pool and restaurant.
4. King’s Camp
Situated in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, Kings Camp faces an open savanna plain with a waterhole, which is frequented by a wide variety of wildlife both day and night. As part of the greater Kruger National Park, which covers an area of 2.2 million hectares, this Timbavati safari lodge is a wildlife haven boasting a diversity of animal life including the Big 5. The Main Camp consists of six Luxury Suites, one Luxury Family Suite and two Honeymoon Suites which all offer modern amenities and magnificent views of the African Bush. The Luxury and Honeymoon Suites each have private plunge pools and comfortable outdoor lounge areas.
5. Jack’s Camp (Private)
Located in the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, Jack’s Camp under went a full rebuild and reopened in 2021. The camp is one of just three in a one million-acre private wildlife reserve. Paying homage to the property’s enduring and much-loved 1940s campaign style, the guest tents, seven twins and two doubles, are much larger and each is 270 square metres in size. The iconic interiors are embellished with rich textiles from around the world, Natural History Museum cabinets, and an overhead bed cooling system. Ensuite bathrooms have both indoor and outdoor showers and outside, each veranda has a private plunge pool.
6. Macatoo Camp with Ker & Downey
Macatoo Camp is key to an African horseback safari in Botswana. It is a classic Hemingway-style tented camp within the grassy plains, water meadows, and seasonal lagoons of the Okavango Delta. Each of the six spacious tents offers creature comforts within the bush, including an en suite shower and flushing toilet. The raised wooden verandas include armchairs pointed toward the magical flood plains, teeming with elephant, zebra, buck, and bird life.
(some camp descriptions are from CondeNast Traveler)
featured photos are from company websites: AndBeyond, Wilderness Safaris, Kings Camp, Jacks Camp, Sanctuary Retreats and Ker & Downey)
