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This new, thoroughly updated sixth edition of Bradt's Botswana Safari Guide remains the only full-blown, standalone guide to one of Africa's most popular and rewarding safari destinations. This is the sole guide to focus on Botswana's key safari locations: the Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park and the Northern Kalahari.
Botswana's wilderness is pristine, a virtue underpinned by governmental commitment to sustainable tourism. The Okavango Delta's permanent waters attract year-round wildlife, now including all the 'big five': rhinos have been successfully re-introduced. Outside the Delta, this English-speaking country offers tremendous variety in landscapes, from the arid Kalahari to lush forests. Riverine areas harbour spectacular herds of elephants and buffalo, and mighty predator populations. Dusty savannahs attract hardier game such as oryx and springbok. On Makgadikgadi's great salt pans, zebra gather in huge congregations after rain. Birdwatching is brilliant throughout. Then there's Botswana's rich history, from the ancient rock paintings at the Tsodilo Hills, to Stone Age arrowheads on the Makgadikgadi Pans.
Bradt's Botswana Safari Guide offers detailed descriptions of many lodges, from traditional tented camps to those offering five-star luxury and top-class cuisine, plus details on what animals occur where, enabling you to select the optimum approach. With this book's comprehensive GPS coordinates and detailed maps, independent travellers can drive themselves around. But perhaps you prefer bespoke mobile safaris with a private guide? Either way, take a night drive to see creatures of the dark: genets and hunting leopards. For a different feel, explore rivers on gentle motorboat cruises, including on multi-day trips, or get closer to the water in a traditional mokoro (dug-out canoe), with a poler escorting you along shallow waterways. Or seek out a specialist walking camp for the excitement of bush walks when meerkats might even pose atop your head for a great lookout. And why not use this book's advice to book-end trips by visiting Livingstone (Zambia) and the Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe)?
Written and updated by Chris and Susie McIntyre, experts on all things Africa, Bradt's Botswana Safari Guide is the definitive companion to discovering this thrilling destination.
Chris McIntyre went to Africa in 1987, after reading Physics at Queen's College, Oxford. He taught with VSO in Zimbabwe for almost three years and travelled extensively, before writing his first guidebook (the Bradt guide to Namibia and Botswana) in 1990. He has since written all of the Bradt guides to Namibia and Botswana and co-authors (with his wife, Susie) Bradt guides to Zanzibar and Zambia, and (with Philip Briggs) Bradt guides to Tanzania. Alongside keeping these guidebooks up to date, Chris is managing director of Expert Africa. This specialist tour operator organises high-quality trips for individual travellers throughout Africa, including safaris and the Wild about Africa trip programme, which is led by top professional guides. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, McIntyre now lives in Surrey with his wife Susie and two children.
Susie McIntyre had an adventurous childhood in Zambia and Saudi Arabia and has spent the last two decades promoting responsible global travel as a PR, marketing consultant, author and journalist. She is passionate about southern Africa: its people, wildlife and diversity. From Indian Ocean diving to cutting-edge conservation, and community development to family travel and off-grid adventures, Susie is dedicated to thorough, on-the-ground research and works tirelessly to ensure the complexities of the region are accurately represented. As a travel writer, Susie has co-authored Bradt's Zanzibar, Zambia and Botswana Safari Guide. Susie lives in the English countryside with her husband and fellow African expert, Chris McIntyre, and their equally adventurous children. Together they all spend a significant amount of time travelling and researching in Africa to get their fix of the continent and ensure they are totally abreast with developments.
"There can be few people better qualified to write a travel guide on Botswana than Chris McIntyre [...] Like all good guide books, this is packed with all kinds of practical and wide-ranging advice – from driving near elephants to maps with GPS references and how to shake hands Botswana style [...] What's more, even the nuts-and-bolts sections are well-written and make enjoyable reading. In particular, the region-by-region chapters on the country's reserves, camps and lodges had me longing to jump on the first plane to Maun. Each area is painstakingly described – clearly the result of meticulous first-hand research [...] If you can take only one book to Botswana, make sure it's this one."
– BBC Wildlife
"The definitive guide for wildlife enthusiasts."
– Wanderlust
"A good overview of the parks"
– Wanderlust
"[...] excellent companion for your Okavango trip."
– Travel Africa
