Plan your safari
Two springbok sparring on the dry plains of the Kalahari

Kalahari & Makgadikgadi Pans

The Kalahari: black-maned lions, meerkats and salt pans that run to the horizon.

Plan your safari Highlights

By contrast, the Kalahari is Botswana’s other face: a fossil desert of golden grass and endless sky, home to black-maned lions, cheetah on the open pans and some of the most charismatic small wildlife in Africa, habituated meerkats among them.

Also, to the northeast lie the Makgadikgadi Pans, the salt-crusted bed of an ancient superlake. In the dry season you ride quad bikes across a surface that curves with the earth; after good rains, however, the pans flood, drawing flamingos and Botswana’s zebra migration. In addition, time with San bushman guides adds a human depth no game drive can.

Highlights of Kalahari & Makgadikgadi

Black-maned lions

The Kalahari’s famous desert-adapted prides, ranging huge territories.

Meerkats at dawn

Habituated colonies that warm up on (and sometimes climb) their visitors.

The salt pans

Quad biking and sleep-outs on the bed of an ancient superlake.

San bushman culture

Walk with Ju/’hoansi guides and read the desert the way its first people do.

Best time to visit the Kalahari

May–Oct

Dry season, with crisp nights, quad biking on the pans and classic desert light.

Dec–Mar

Green season: the zebra migration, flamingos after rain and dramatic skies.

Quieter seasons, considered

Meanwhile, in the green months rates ease at many of these camps, the plains empty of vehicles and the light turns dramatic. What each season gives, and what it trades, is set out in our Safari Planning Guide.

Planning & cost

How long

Usually two to three nights within a Botswana safari Every journey fully tailor-made.

How we travel

Instead, we design every journey privately, with private guides and vehicles arranged where specified, the finest lodges, and a specialist on call throughout. At fly-in camps, game drives may be shared unless a private vehicle is reserved.

Practical details,
in one place

Money, health, connectivity and packing work the same way on every safari we plan, so they live in one place rather than on every page.

Kalahari & Makgadikgadi FAQs

Above all, black-maned lion, cheetah, brown hyena, meerkats and desert specialists like oryx and springbok. It is a different cast from the Delta, which is exactly why the two combine so well.

In the green season, roughly December to March, when rain fills the pans and Africa’s second-largest zebra migration arrives to graze, with flamingos on the flooded salt.

Most journeys give it two to three nights after the Delta: light aircraft connect Maun to the pans camps in under an hour, and the contrast from water world to desert also makes the whole trip feel twice as large.

Getting to Botswana: flights, visas and health

Correct when we wrote it. Before you travel, we check every requirement for your exact route and tell you what to apply for and when.

AirportsMaun (MUB) for the Okavango Delta and Kasane (BBK) for the Chobe, both reached via Johannesburg. Camps are reached by light aircraft from there.
Getting thereFly to Johannesburg, nonstop from Atlanta (Delta) or Newark (United), then take a two-hour regional flight. Total journey 22–26 hours from most US cities.
Visa: US citizensNo visa required for US passport holders on tourist stays of up to 90 days. Confirm the current entry rules on travel.state.gov.
HealthYellow fever certificate required if arriving from a risk country. The Okavango and Chobe are malarial; the Kalahari is low risk. Country guidance: CDC Travelers’ Health.
PassportSix months’ validity beyond your return date, with at least two blank pages. Travel insurance including medical evacuation is required on every journey we plan.
Full flight guidePlan your safari

Plan your Kalahari safari.

A Kalahari safari is quieter than most, and that is precisely its appeal.

So tell us how you like to travel and start with a complimentary consultation.

Plan your safari

For official background on the Okavango Delta, see the UNESCO World Heritage listing for the Okavango Delta.