Botswana Luxury Adventure Safari

Arrive in Maun, Botswana, on your international flight, where you will take a small charter to the Magkadigkadi, an arid salt pan in Eastern Botswana. The landscape is home to desert-adapted lions, antelope and charismatic meerkats, as well as Jack's Camp, one of Africa's most iconic places to stay. The Beduin-styled luxury safari tents are lavishly decorated, and the property also includes a tented pool, library, and tea room. Spend days horseback riding or on game drives and sleep out on the pan under the Milky Way into the night. For a more personal experience, take on a bush walk with the San people, Botswana's original inhabitants. If you visit during the rainy season between January and March, you will see the desert explode into green and welcome the second-largest zebra migration on Earth.

From Magkadigkadi, return to Maun for a connecting flight to the Okavango Delta, the wettest place in Botswana. This vast inland river Delta flows from Angola in the north and is watery in some areas year-round. More distant reserves only receive water during the flood season from June through August, but I can get you to the right place if you are set on a canoe safari.

I love Duba Explorers Camp, a conservation-oriented safari camp in the heart of the Delta in the 81,000-acre Duba Plains Reserve. Explorer Camps are technically more adventurous camps, but they are anything but spartan. The camp even has a plunge pool in a repurposed World War Two-era truck. Here, you can go on shallow water game drives or canoe safaris that feature all of Africa's iconic animals, including elephants, hippos, antelope, and leopards. The region is renowned for its lions, which are known to hunt buffalo in the daylight. Only one other small camp is inside the reserve, ensuring you enjoy private access to this vast and captivating landscape.

Combine a helicopter safari and camp transfer into one activity for a unique perspective on the Okavango. From Duba Explorers, it is a short flight to the 350,000-acre Selinda Private Game Reserve near the Namibian border and Chobe National Park.

Selinda Camp is one of the world's best places to see wildlife. The luxury safari camp comprises only four tented suites with copper soaking tubs, private plunge pools, and even the use of Swarovski binoculars and a Canon 5D camera. You'll have lots to photograph. The area boasts the largest elephant herds on Earth in the dry season from July through October, and the predator viewing is impressive. There is a resident lion pride and a large pack of wild dogs. As you enjoy a sunset cocktail on your last night, you'll know this trip will be hard to top.

Take a scheduled charter flight to Maun or Kasane for your trip home or an extension elsewhere in Africa. Connecting Cape Town or Victoria Falls to this itinerary is convenient and recommended if you have time.