Botswana: A Brief Summary

Botswana is a country in south Africa with about 2 million inhabitants. Most of the country is covered by the Kalahari desert, but Chobe National Park, Moremi National Park in the Okavango Delta and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve are especially popular among tourists and safari fans.

Tourism in Botswana is oriented more to a high price and low number of tourists rather than mass tourism. This is mostly because of conservation strategy and making themselves different then their neighboring countries such as Namibia and South Africa.

Kalahari Bushmen

This does not mean there are no budget tourist offers, but rather that budget plans are sold out for some times ahead.

It is highly recommended that you manage your trip to Botswana via agencies, but getting there on your own should not pose any problem. Visitors from US and most of the EU countries do not need visas. Air connections to Johannesburg, Nairobi, Cape Town and Harare are very good and most of the lines are landing on the main airport Sir Seretse Khama in a capital city – Gaborone.

Communicating with people, if you speak English, should not pose a problem, since almost everyone in Botswana speak it (exclusions are rural areas and older people).

Main reasons of visiting Botswana, for most of the tourists, is a wildlife.  25% of the Botswana area are reserved for parks of nature. In these parks you can find all classical African animal icons… Lions, cheetahs, crocodiles, hippos, antelopes, elephants and many more…

Anyway if you are planning to take some of the many offers for safaris in Botswana here are some must see spots…

Okavango Delta – is a place where Okavango River widens so much, that it makes biggest inland river delta on the world. Since this delta is in the middle of the Kalahari desert, swamps and channels are filled with wild animals.

Okavango Delta

Chobe National Park – is located near the Okavango Delta. It has a large population of elephants, which are easy to spot. Beside elephants, here you can easily spot lions and zebras.

Chobe National Park, Serondela

Makgadikadi Pans National Park – this place is for you if are more on the bird side. Large numbers of different bird species are nesting here during the whole year.

Khama Rhino Sanctuary – this is the place for rhino’s. If you want to see them, you should not skip it.

Mokolodi Nature Reserve – this place is excellent if are visiting Gaborone on one day. It is close to Gaborone and you can see, rhinos, cheetahs, giraffes and many other animal species.

Resting Giraffe in Mokolodi Nature Reserve

There no any real natural threats so with some common sense you should be safe and without troubles. Keep in mind that Botswana HIV infection rate is 24%, so according to that, take needed precautions. In some areas of Botswana you can pick up malaria, so you should take relevant medications. Tap water is drinkable but visitors should be drinking bottled water for just in case.

Currency in use is Pula. 1 USD = 7.5 Pula’s, and you can exchange it in local banks.


Hellas is actually the owner of Destinations Point. He is the guy fascinated by nature and human achievements. He is science fiction geek and survival enthusiast, who spend his free time in fishing and bike adventures through Bosnia. Hellas works for Memebridge.com on various daily web tasks. Follow me on Google+.

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