Family Safari in Botswana
11 nights/12 days
Sample Itinerary
Okavango Delta, Makgadikgadi Pans, Kalahari Desert
Family safaris are memorable experiences for young and old and everyone in between! One of our preferred providers offers family safaris in Botswana for children ages four and beyond. They have a commitment to safety, gracious hospitality, and an enthusiasm for sharing the wonders of our magnificent natural world. This is also the only provider to offer an authentic cultural experience with the Bushmen of the Western Kalahari.
This itinerary offers a spectacular array of experiences—from boating on the waterways of the world’s largest inland delta, to tracking elusive predators in the Moremi Game Reserve, to quad-biking on the vast saltpan, to walking with the Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert. This is an incredible opportunity to gain a holistic understanding of the magical and pristine wilderness environments of Botswana.
Brief Itinerary
| Days 1-5 | Mobile Expedition – Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve |
| Days 6-8 | Jack’s Camp, Makgadikgadi Pans & Kalahari Desert |
| Days 9-12 | Western Kalahari with the Bushmen (optional) |
Family Safari in Botswana - Price
Contact Duffle & Compass for the current price of this sample itinerary. This itinerary can be custom-tailored for groups (12 persons maximum).
Family Safari in Botswana - Detailed Itinerary
Mobile Expedition
Your safari begins with a private, mobile camp set in a remote wilderness area. Your comfortable, spacious en-suite tents are well appointed with 1920s luxury and style. Meals are prepared from the freshest ingredients and beautifully served on tables decked with crisp white damask and silver. Your experienced guide will be at your side as you watch lions hunting or silently observe elephants. You will glide through the maze of channels admiring the fantastic bird life and learn the ecology of the waters. Your camp crew will set up a fly-camp for you to sleep out under the stars one night and you’ll be lulled to sleep by the nighttime sounds of the bush.
Day 1
Your zoologist/biologist guide will meet you at the Maun airport and transfer you by road into the Moremi Game Reserve where your first camp is situated. You’ll have time to shower and unpack before sundowners and dinner.
Day 2
You’ll be up at the first light of day and have a hot English breakfast. The staff will load up the vehicle fridges with a picnic lunch and you’ll set off to explore, learn and be amazed. After a full day in the forests and floodplains, you’ll return to your camp for a sumptuous dinner and certain slumber..
Day 3
After breakfast you will be taken to a lagoon where you can board a boat and explore the waters of the Delta. You’ll navigate through a maze of channels, stopping to admire rare birds and aquatic life. Enjoy a picnic lunch on a sandy bank and cool off at a safe swimming spot. Later you’ll return to your very own private, twinkly, fairy-lit camp on an island. Your crew has set this one-night, fly camp where you can sleep in a mosquito net tent surrounded by nature at her very best.
Day 4
You’ll rise early and take a short walk around the island before boarding your boat to meander along the waterways searching for hippo and bathing elephants. Your vehicles are waiting to take you to a picnic and siesta under the arms of a giant baobab. As the day cools down, you’ll watch for hunting cats. While you were sleeping under mosquito nets last night, your camp crew moved your camp to a new habitat. You arrive for dinner and stargazing before surrendering to sleep.
Day 5
Spend your last day seeking out your favorite species in this incredible Eden. Evening brings you back to your familiar camp for stories around the campfire, delicious dinner and slumber.
Day 6
This morning you bid farewell to your camp crew and transfer to the airstrip where you will board your plane for Jack’s Camp. The flight will give you a birds-eye view of the Delta, Makgadikgadi Pans and the Kalahari Desert. You will be met at the airstrip and transferred by road to Jack’s Camp.
Jack’s Camp
This camp is an oasis of civilization in the midst of a seemingly harsh environment. Jack’s is furnished in a traditional East African 1940s style – authentic, comfortable and elegant. Each of the ten spacious tents have Persian rugs, mahogany furniture, en-suite bathroom with indoor and outdoor showers, flush toilets and hot and cold running water.
Tonight you’ll enjoy sundowners around a fire and an elegant dinner at a very long table in the tented pavilion.
Day 7
After breakfast you’ll set out to visit some of the Kalahari’s meerkats (Timon to “The Lion King” fans). Don’t forget the camera; these guys love to pose with you!
Afterwards you’ll head for the “Chapman’s Baobab” which is the third largest tree in Africa. Return to camp for lunch and browse around the museum. Later this afternoon you’ll have an opportunity to set out on the pans on a quad-bike. You can watch the sun set and the stars appear. Return to camp for dinner and review all you’ve seen in one week!
Day 8
This morning you’ll comb the edges of an extinct lake shore to find some of the many stone tools and fossils that litter the pan surface. Your guide will enlighten you about the days of early man in this area. After a hearty brunch at camp you’ll spend the afternoon tracking the elusive brown hyena. Tonight’s dinner by candlelight is your last at Jack’s.
Day 9
This morning you’ll bid farewell to all at Jack’s Camp and transfer to the airstrip where you’ll board your plane for the Western Kalahari, and the final chapter of your adventure.
Western Kalahari with the Bushmen
This is a unique opportunity to experience a dignified and sensitive Bushman safari. It is only recently that the Bushmen people themselves, in conjunction with our preferred provider, offer a fascinating insight into their unique way of life, sadly now all but extinct.
Your plane will touch down on a dusty airstrip deep in the ancestral gathering lands of the Zu/’hoasi Bushmen. After lunch you will head off to your hut for a short rest. This afternoon your guide will walk you through the bush to the village where you will be met in a traditional manner by the elders. The campsite has traditional style Bushmen grass shelters designed to provide an authentic and non-intrusive interaction and yet complete with all the accoutrements of a proper safari. If you prefer, tented accommodations can be provided.
Around the fire before dinner, listen to the history of the Bushmen people whose origins can be traced back to 30,000 years ago. Learn about the complex challenges confronting them today. Enjoy dinner under the stars. Tonight you’ll sleep peacefully under a fragrant shelter of wild grass thatch.
Day 10
This morning you’ll walk into the bush with the men, women, children and your guides. This will be an introduction to the Kalahari and the Bushmen way of life. There will be discussions about the uses of plants and wildlife by your Bushmen guides. The adolescent girls, who know more than 200 species of usable plants and herbs for both culinary and medicinal value, will enlist you in gathering. Later today the women will show you how they prepare their bush foods using only basic tools and an open fire. They will also demonstrate their jewelry making skills.
As the sun sets and the evening draws near, the women will perform traditional dances around the fire. Later you will return to camp for a rather more conventional meal and retire to bed.
Day 11
After a restful night’s sleep you will meet the men to prepare for a traditional hunt. You will venture into the bush and search out the poison grub beetle, gather suitable roots and sanseveria leaves and branches for the manufacture of rope, bows and arrows. You’ll watch the men prepare bows, arrows and quivers while young boys demonstrate various traditional games that provide training for the hand-to-eye coordination skills necessary for the hunt. You will watch as the Bushmen track, stalk and hopefully, hunt down some wild quarry using their traditional bows and arrows. Return to camp hopefully bearing the results of a day’s hunt and watch as the meat is prepared for roasting.
Day 12
Today you will bid the community farewell. You will be transferred to the airstrip to meet your plane for Maun. From there you will continue on your onward journey, knowing that this expedition will be with you forever.
Contact Duffle & Compass to begin planning your Africa adventure.
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