Botswana Family Safari Packages

Botswana family safari packages typically range from 7 to 12+ days, focusing on child-friendly lodges in Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta, with prices varying from affordable mobile camping (£2,750+ pp) to luxury, fly-in lodge itineraries (£7,500+ pp). Top options include guided, small-group adventures that mix game drives with boat cruises and educational activities.

Why choose Botswana for your Family Safari Holiday?

Botswana is an premier family safari destination offering exclusive, safe, and educational wildlife experiences in a low-impact, uncrowded environment. Known for high-end, family-friendly lodges with private vehicles, it offers diverse activities—from mokoro (canoe) trips in the Okavango Delta to elephant viewing in Chobe—ideal for all ages.

1. Alternative activities

Visitors to Botswana can enjoy a wide variety of exciting activities in the country’s expansive private reserves, such as boating, fishing (both catch-and-release and night drives), and traditional mokoro canoe excursions through the famous water canals of the Okavango Delta. A Kalahari Desert expansion pack can include meerkat encounters, quad biking, and horseback riding, among other things.

2. Big Game Viewing

With its incredible animal density and seemingly infinite stretches of unspoiled, unfenced area, Botswana provides an incredibly engaging game-viewing experience. There are plenty of predators and prey in the Okavango Delta all year round. You can see lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, and wild dogs. The private Linyanti reserves and Chobe National Park are home to magnificent mega-herds of elephants. The black-maned lions of the Kalahari Desert, meantime, are living proof that large cats can thrive in the most inhospitable of settings.

3. Multi-generational Private Villas

Botswana is home to some of the most luxurious hotels in Africa. There are a few villas that are perfect for families; each one has its own plunge pool, chef, butler, guide, and game-drive vehicle. For those seeking complete seclusion and the freedom to plan their own itinerary without interference from other guests, a number of charming safari camps are ideal for private takeovers.

Where to go on your family safari in Botswana?

For a family safari in Botswana, the best areas to visit include the Okavango Delta for water-based safaris (mokoro trips), Chobe National Park for massive elephant herds and boat cruises, and the Makgadikgadi Pans for unique desert adventures like meeting meerkats. Family-friendly, malaria-safe areas often feature specialized lodges with guided activities suitable for various age groups.

1. Okavango Delta Safaris

Among the most spectacular and pristine wilderness areas in all of Africa, the Okavango Delta stands out. Being the biggest inland delta on Earth, Botswana’s yearly floods bring in an abundance of animals that few get to see because of the country’s unconventional high-value, low-volume tourist strategy. Its aqueous maze of channels bordered by reeds, grassy floodplains, and palm islands displays some of the most breathtaking wildlife panoramas found anywhere on the planet.

2. Chobe National Park Safaris

Famous for its herds of majestic elephants that ford the Chobe River, Chobe National Park is home to a plethora of big game animals that congregate around the park’s perennial water sources. A wide choice of hotels are available to suit different budgets. Many of these establishments also provide activities for children, such monitoring animals, identifying trees, making pizza, stargazing, and going on safari treks.

3. Linyanti Safaris

Magnificent private reserves teeming with biodiverse and scenically different ecosystems may be found in the Linyanti, Kwando, and Selinda region, which is wedged between Chobe and the Okavango Delta. Here you can find African wild dogs, lions, leopards, and buffalo in large numbers. Highlights include boats and night game drives, and there are very few guests, so it’s a really exclusive way to watch the games.

4. Makgadikgadi Salt Pans Safaris

The dry, lunar-like Makgadikgadi Pans in the Kalahari Desert make it hard to believe that life once thrived there. The super-lake in question formerly covered a large portion of Botswana. Amazing as it may seem, this underappreciated region of Botswana is home to a diverse array of desert-adapted animals, and it also has fantastic family-friendly activities like bicycling, sleep-outs, meerkat encounters, and seasonal quad biking.

What is the best time to visit Botswana?

The Okavango Delta floods are at their worst in the months of May through August, making that time of year ideal for a Botswana vacation. Amazing animal sightings can still be had in the months of September and October. On the other hand, travel becomes more unpleasant as temperatures start to spike in October. Spectacular zebra and wildebeest migrations take place in the Kalahari Desert during Botswana’s green season, which runs from November to April.

Recommended Family Activities in Botswana

Family activities in Botswana offer an immersive wilderness experience, featuring canoe (mokoro) trips in the Okavango Delta, boat cruises on the Chobe River, and wildlife viewing in family-friendly reserves like Mokolodi. Children can enjoy guided nature walks, cultural tours, and specialized “Young Explorers” programs that teach bush survival skills.

• Elephant mega-herds
  Witness the awe-inspiring elephant mega-herds in Botswana’s Chobe National Park and the Linyanti private reserves. During the dry months of June through November, you can easily spot herds of buffalo as they gather at water sources for drinking, bathing, and river parades.
• Meet the meerkats
  The curious and habituated meerkat families that live in the burrows of the dry landscape of the Makgadikgadi Pans are available for visitors to meet if they so desire. One of the greatest sites in Africa to see meerkats is in Botswana, and watching the energetic tiny tribes go about their daily lives is utterly fascinating.
• Quad biking
  Visitors can experience a thrilling form of off-road exploration of the desolate Makgadikgadi Pans on quad bikes, with the season typically spanning from April to October (when the pans are dry). It is thrilling to race through this ancient, barren landscape at high speed while the wind whips through your hair.
• Bushman walks
  Along with the Zu/’hoasi Bushmen, the original residents of these long-lost territories, you will embark on a trip through time as you traverse the ancient desert. On a bushwalk for education, you can learn about some of their amazing survival talents. Among the interesting tracking hints you’ll pick up are details about the local specialities, such as berries, bulbs, and scorpions.
• Kids’ programmes
  Lodges in Botswana may provide activities designed with younger visitors in mind. Among the many wilderness survival skills taught in these programmes are animal call recognition, wildlife tracking, bow and arrow making, and bushfire building. Additionally, older kids can give fishing or mokoro boating a go.
• Boat cruises
  In Chobe National Park, boat rides are the main attraction. Guests may see the incredible animals, like as the legendary mega-herds, up close and personal as they float along the permanently running Chobe river. At certain points in the Okavango Delta, visitors can rent motorboats and explore the deeper water canals, weather permitting.
• Makgadikgadi Salt Pans sleep-out
  From July through October, guests at specific lodges can arrange for Makgadikgadi Salt Pans sleep-outs, where they can spend the night under the desert’s breathtaking, starry sky, free from light pollution, weather permitting. Consider upgrading to a beautiful helicopter transfer so you can take in the breathtaking scenery from above.
• Victoria Falls
  Whitewater rafting and bungee jumping are just two of the many exciting activities available at Victoria Falls, which is conveniently located in northern Botswana.

Wildlife you can expect to see on safari in Botswana

Because of its vast, untouched habitat, Botswana offers some of the most thrilling and exclusive game viewing in all of Africa. A plethora of the Big Five: lion, rhino, leopard, elephant, and buffalo—are found here. The Kalahari Desert is inhabited by the magnificent black-maned lion, and there are healthy populations of wild dogs among hyenas, jackals, cheetahs, and bat-eared foxes. Massive herds of zebra and wildebeest make their way across the Makgadikgadi Pans every year from November to April, creating the second-biggest migration in Africa. It’s a sight to see!

Family-Friendly Safari Lodges in Botswana

There are designated family quarters in the campgrounds of several of these reservations. Little Vumbura and Chitabe Lediba are two great family options. Additionally, Machaba Camp and Gomoti Plains are great choices for families as they welcome children of all ages. Sandibe and Nxabega, both located in &Beyond, also have fantastic things to do for kids. Splash Camp, Mma Dinare, 4 Rivers, Lagoon, and Lebala all provide Kwando family rooms. Botswana also offers some great cultural experiences, such as animal tracking with the San Bushmen or touring traditional villages across the nation. For this, San Camp and Camp Kalahari are ideal.

1. Wilderness Chitabe Lediba
Wilderness Chitabe Lediba offers thrilling night drives and great land-based wildlife viewing all year round! In addition to two family tents, there is an educational children’s program with highly qualified “bush buddy” employees.

2. Wilderness Little Vumbura
Located on a secluded island in the heart of the abundantly faunal Vumbura Concession in the Okavango Delta, Wilderness Little Vumbura is an excellent little camp. Unless otherwise specified, the minimum age for an exclusive-use booking—which includes just six tents—is 6.

3. &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge
One of the best lodges in the Okavango Delta for land-based wildlife watching is &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge. In addition to a fantastic children’s program that includes archery, arts and crafts, and tracking, it features a two-bedroom family suite.

4. Mma Dinare
This easygoing camp, which overlooks the Gomoti river, is perfect for families seeking a combination of relaxation and abundant game viewing. Along with a two-bedroom family suite, guests may enjoy thrilling day and night wildlife drives, nature walks, mokoro excursions, and a children’s bush activity program.

5. Splash Camp
Splash Camp offers a wide variety of authentic safari activities and game viewing all year round! Two of the rooms are perfect for families, and there’s also Splash Enclave, a private area that can accommodate parties of 6–10 people of any age.

6. Machaba Camp
Machaba Camp is a real bush camp that offers traditional safari activities including game drives, walking safaris, mokoros, and boating safaris to families. Machaba welcomes kids of all ages and offers two canvas family tents in the spirit of a safari.

7. Camp Kalahari
The Makgadikgadi Pans are a great place for families to stay, and Camp Kalahari has two family tents and some of Africa’s nicest personnel. Game drives, horseback safaris, quad biking through salt-encrusted pans, and encounters with habituated meerkat families are just a few of the activities available.