1 destination · 10 things to do

Botswana

Botswana's north is where the Kalahari meets water. The Okavango River spills out of Angola and fans across the sand into the largest inland delta on Earth, a maze of papyrus channels, palm islands and floodplains that fills in the dry winter, just when the land around it is at its driest. A few hundred kilometres east, the Chobe River marks the border with Namibia and draws some of Africa's largest herds of elephant to its banks. This guide books both halves of the trip properly: gliding through the Delta in a mokoro poled by a local guide from Maun, camping on a palm island, game drives into Moremi Game Reserve where the floodplain meets the bush, and from Kasane the river cruises and game drives that put you at eye level with elephants, hippos and buffalo on the Chobe. It also matches you to a lodge or hotel in Maun or Kasane, explains the seasons honestly, from the green wet months of November to March to the flood peak of June to August, and leaves Victoria Falls to its own guide.