Botswana Travel Forum

Hi,
We are renting a 4wd camper in Johanesburg & driving to Kruger. We are also thinking of visiting Botswana & Namibia but have not made any bookings. We will be self sufficient & will only require basic campsites. We did try to book National Parks in Botswana some time ago but there were no spots available.
Is it worth visiting Botswana in July/Aug without any bookings? would we still be able to access National Parks on a daily basis & try to find camp sites outside the parks. Or is it simply not worth visiting Botswana without bookings.
Thanks
Mark

Hi,
Difficult questions! We have been to Botswana twice and booking are difficult. It seems that even if there are not camping available, there are always space when you arrive. The previous time we also tried to book in advance but with no luck, but when we visited Moremi for just the day the both south and north gate still had some space available.
It also depends where you want to go? If i were you i would travel via Maun Botswana to Namibia -- a great trip with lots of things along the way. I am not going to mention them here but you can email me then i can maybe help. Botswana is most definetely worth visiting!
You can also contact VT member Parks living in Botswana if you need advice.

BR
Samuel

yap you can visit these places without necessarily booking, Though there quite a number of tourists from August you can always get acess.

welcome to Bots!

Hi
we were told we wouldn't be allowed in the parks without bookings, and they were pretty keen on tracking our paperwork in and out of the gates. However, we got a company called Safari Drive to do our bookings for us, and it all worked out brilliantly, no hiccups. We hired a 4x4 Landrover Defender (camping equipped) and were also self-sufficient, self-drive camping around Botswana. The National Park campsites are so very, very lovely, I really strongly recommend you try and book and get in them. There should be spots available, when we were there in June they were mostly empty. You will not be able to access parks and then leave to find camping outside of parks as there are no campsites outside of the parks except in Kasane because they are trying to restrict the impact of tourism on the environment. Speak to Safari Drive and see if you can get some joy on getting bookings sorted. July/ August is peak season so the campsites are more likely to be fully booked then, can you travel at another time? June is great, albeit chilly at night.
WD