Botswana Tours for Experienced Travelers

Excellent safaris,many close up encounters with game. Great camps and accommodation. Well prepared food in the wild by great cooks,and camps superbly set up. One or two encounters with elephants and hippopotamus slightly worrying. Our driver,guide was great,though the length of hours he had to drive were too long on some occasions,though he never complained. He was extremely knowledgeable about the game and the policy of the game reserves. Excellent holiday but you do need to be able to rough it.

A superb trip, one of the best I’ve been on. Our leader Bibi was excellent; his experience, knowledge and understanding of the wildlife resulted in us having unforgettable experiences. His ability to manage each day was efficient and communication was clear. He always listened to our requests and made sure all of our needs were met. The ‘boys’ at camp ran it really well: providing great food, were friendly, caring, with great attention to detail. Would recommend adding the Victoria Falls Wildlife trust visit to the itinerary, as this was excellent and a very worthwhile cause. Just a note: there is not time to do any walks at Thamo Telele as well as the Giraffe experience (which is now apparently included in the package, not an option, as I thought).

The wildlife was superb. Our brilliant guide/driver Sam shared his expert knowledge of where to get the best sightings and very close-up views of the animals and birds and their young. We all wanted to stay gazing in awe. The lodges and houseboat accomodation was excellent. The camping was as basic as described in the notes. The two long driving days were 'trying' mainly due to the state of the roads. Sam coped admirably.

What an amazing trip! Our guide, Bibi, was incredible at finding the animals, getting us on the best angle to take pictures of them and answer all of our questions. He went above and beyond to make sure we were all comfortable! The trip has a lot of hours on the car and he made sure to take breaks so that we could all stretch and keep our energy :) Truly an unforgettable experience! Thank you Bibi for making this such an incredible trip for us!

Amazing tour. I can’t believe all the animals we saw… and how close our guide was able to get. KK, our leader, just made the tour with his skills and the care with which he did his job. Lots of great food, and great accommodation, even the bush camping! The team is great and I’ll definitely travel with Explore again.

I have wanted to go to Africa since i was a child and this trip was amazing. As a photographer many of my dreams were realized in seeing so many animals but I wanted more. Everyday was filled with animals I had only dreamed of seeing. But to capture their behavior and seeing them love was - a dream come true. Our guide Joe was truly the best with his 20 plus years of experience. We couldn't have had a better more experienced leader on this trip. He knew how to give us the best view for photos without infringing on the animals and keeping in mind there were sometimes other trucks posturing for a view or photos. The accommodations were planned perfectly giving us the super nice Batonka Lodge to begin and ease us into the rough camping, then back for a luxury night in Maun for a real shower, bathroom, pool and dining. Then out again to the houseboat for views on the river. I would have loved a few more days in the rough camp with all the animals rather than the long trip through Namibia heading back to Victoria Falls. As like I said, I wanted more, more, more of the animals. Batonka Lodge staff was amazing and I was very happy to become acquainted with some the staff the took perfect care of all of us. My only disappointment was that I was advised not to bring specialized photo equipment. I was the only person on the tour that was shooting an SLR and long lens. I would have brought an even longer lens for the trip if I had known it was okay and I will know for the next experience. I was the only American on the trip surround by 11 Brits who were all great. I had an amazing time and I'm still wading through my many 1000s of images. I plan on entering the Explore photo contest in hopes of winning a return trip.