Family Safari Holidays in Botswana

Botswana is a spectacular safari destination for families with slightly older children, catering perfectly to those seeking jaw-dropping wildlife encounters, seriously impressive accommodations, inspiring activities, and the option for private vehicles and charter flights throughout. Typically, the minimum age at lodges is 6 years, though keep in mind that certain activities are restricted to 12 and above.

Botswana is known for its vast private reserves, where guests can indulge in a riveting selection of activities, including day and night game drives, boating, catch-and-release fishing, and traditional mokoro canoe rides to explore the Okavango Delta’s iconic water channels. Meerkat encounters, quad biking, and horse riding can also feature as part of a Kalahari Desert add-on.

Botswana delivers a truly dynamic game-viewing experience with remarkable wildlife density and endless expanses of pristine, unfenced space. The Okavango Delta guarantees year-round predator–prey sightings, with abundant leopard, lion, cheetah, hyena, and wild dog populations. Majestic elephant mega-herds are found in Chobe National Park and the private Linyanti reserves. Meanwhile, the Kalahari Desert’s black-maned lions testify to the big cats’ aptitude for survival in the harshest environments.

Botswana features some of Africa’s most exquisite luxury accommodations, including a handful of family villas with private plunge pools and their own butlers, chefs, guides, and game-drive vehicles. Several small safari camps work perfectly for exclusive takeovers, offering the ultimate privacy and schedule flexibility since activities aren’t shared.

The Okavango Delta is one of Africa’s most remarkable and well-preserved wildernesses. The largest inland delta in the world, its annual floods attract a plethora of wildlife, which relatively few experience, given Botswana’s unique high-value, low-volume tourism model. Its watery network of reed-fringed channels, grassy floodplains, and palm islands showcases some of the greatest wildlife scenes on Earth.

Once an enormous super-lake covering much of Botswana, it’s hard to imagine that life exists in the Kalahari’s arid, lunar-like Makgadikgadi Pans. Yet this awe-inspiring, little-visited part of Botswana supports a wealth of desert-adapted wildlife and offers fabulous family-friendly activities to entertain all ages, including seasonal quad biking, horse riding, sleep-outs, meerkat encounters, and biking.

Broadly speaking, the best time to visit Botswana is between May and August, when the Okavango Delta floods reach their peak and water levels are highest. September and October still produce impressive wildlife sightings. However, temperatures begin to soar in October, making travel increasingly uncomfortable. Botswana’s green season is between November and April, a good time to visit the Kalahari Desert for its spectacular zebra and wildebeest migration.

Botswana’s elephant mega-herds are a sight to behold, with extraordinary populations in Chobe National Park and the private reserves of the Linyanti. The dry months of June through November are ideal for theatrical sightings, when the herds congregate at water sources to drink, bathe, and parade across the rivers.

Visitors to the Makgadikgadi Pans can choose to meet the inquisitive, habituated meerkat families that populate burrows within its arid terrain. Botswana is one of the best places in Africa to encounter meerkats, and observing the busy little clans as they go about their day is totally captivating.

Quad biking on the salt-crusted Makgadikgadi Pans, usually offered between April and October (depending on the pans’ dryness), is a dynamic way for visitors to explore the stark desert landscape. Speeding through this desolate, ancient terrain with the wind whistling through you is utterly exhilarating.

A journey back in time unfolds as you take to the ancient desert accompanied by Zu/’hoasi Bushmen, the earliest inhabitants of these time-forgotten lands. Uncover some of their incredible survival skills on an educational bush walk. You’ll learn some fascinating tracking tips and gain insight into local delicacies, including berries, bulbs, and even scorpions.

Some of Botswana’s lodges offer programmes specifically tailored to younger guests. These programmes teach them all sorts of wilderness survival techniques, including how to recognise animal calls, track wildlife, make bows and arrows, and light a fire in the bush. Older children might also try their hand at fishing or learning how to pole a mokoro boat.

Boat cruises take pride of place in Chobe National Park, where guests have front-row seats to the permanently flowing Chobe river and its sensational wildlife, including the epic mega-herds for which the region is famed. Water levels permitting, motor boating is also offered at specific Okavango Delta locations to explore the deeper water channels.

Subject to weather conditions, Makgadikgadi Salt Pans sleep-outs can be arranged at certain lodges from July through October, offering guests the chance to spend a night under the desert’s spectacular, zero-light pollution star-filled sky. You might like to add a scenic helicopter transfer and view this incredible landscape from the air.

Victoria Falls is easily accessible from northern Botswana and offers a wide range of superb activities for kids, such as whitewater rafting and bungee jumping.

Botswana delivers some of Africa’s most exciting and exclusive game viewing, with seemingly endless space for wildlife to roam undisturbed. All Big Five species are present in abundance – lion, rhino, leopard, elephant, and buffalo. Healthy wild dog populations exist amongst hyena, jackal, cheetah, and bat-eared fox, while the Kalahari Desert is home to the majestic black-maned lion. Typically between November and April, extraordinary numbers of zebra and wildebeest traverse the Makgadikgadi Pans, making this Africa’s second-largest migration – a truly magnificent sight to behold!

A number of these reserves have specific family rooms in their camps. Family options we highly recommend include Chitabe Lediba, Little Vumbura, and Jao Camp. Machaba Camp and Gomoti Plains are also fantastic family options, accepting children of all ages. &Beyond’s Sandibe and Nxabega also offer great activities for kids. Kwando has family rooms at Splash Camp, Mma Dinare, 4 Rivers, Lagoon, and Lebala. There are also some excellent cultural activities in Botswana, with children able to track wildlife with the San Bushmen or simply visit local villages throughout the country. Camp Kalahari and San Camp are especially good for this.

Wilderness Chitabe Lediba promises excellent year-round land-based game viewing, including thoroughly exhilarating night drives! There’s an educational kids’ programme with specially trained ‘bush buddy’ staff members, and two of the guest tents are family units.

Wilderness Little Vumbura is a terrific little camp on its own private island within the Okavango Delta’s wildlife-rich Vumbura Concession. With just six tents, an exclusive-use booking allows for all ages (otherwise, the minimum age is 6).

Wilderness Jao is one of the most luxurious camps in the Okavango Delta. It features two exquisite family villas with private plunge pools, butlers, chefs, guides, and vehicles. Seasonal boating and a starbed sleep-out experience are among the highlights.

Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge is a brilliant lodge with a fantastic location for land-based game-viewing activities. It has a two-bedroom family suite and a great kids’ programme that includes tracking, arts and crafts, and making bows and arrows.

Overlooking the Gomoti river, this laid-back camp is great for families looking for a blend of relaxation and plentiful game viewing. It offers a two-bedroom family suite, as well as exciting day and night game drives, nature walks, mokoro excursions, and a children’s bush activity programme is available.

Year-round game viewing and authentic safari activities abound at Splash Camp! It has two family units and also offers Splash Enclave – an exclusive-use space for groups of 6–10 guests with no age restriction, ideal for families with younger children.

An authentic bush camp, Machaba Camp gives families the chance to enjoy a classic safari experience complete with game drives, walking safaris, mokoros, and boating safaris. Machaba accepts children of all ages and there are two safari-style canvas family tents available.

Equipped with two family tents and some of the friendliest staff in Africa, Camp Kalahari is a fantastic spot for families looking to explore the Makgadikgadi Pans. There are activities for all ages, from game drives and horseback safaris to quad biking across the salt-encrusted pans and meeting habituated meerkat families.