Family watching elephants from a boat on a Botswana family safari for young explorers

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Sample itinerary · Botswana

10 days in Botswana for young explorers

Desert, delta and river in ten days — meerkats on the salt pans, mokoro mornings in the Okavango and elephants in their hundreds on the Chobe. Built around children who want to be busy, and parents who want it to feel effortless.

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10 days

9 nights

From $25,000

family of four

Ages 6+

best for 6–14

Desert · Delta · River

three landscapes

10 days

9 nights

From $25,000

family of four

Ages 6+

best for 6–14

Desert · Delta · River

three landscapes

Why I designed it this way

Three very different landscapes, in the order that works best with children

Botswana is the most rewarding safari country in Africa, and it can also be the most overwhelming to plan. My answer for families with primary-school children is rhythm: open space first, water in the middle, and the big wildlife spectacle at the end.

We start on the Makgadikgadi salt pans, where the days are active and unusual — meerkats, quad bikes, tracking on foot — and there is no pressure to sit still. Then the Okavango Delta, where a tiny four-tent camp and a dedicated children's guide turn a safari into a proper apprenticeship. We finish on the Chobe River, watching hundreds of elephants from a boat, which is the part every child talks about at home.

Nothing here is fixed. Nine nights is the sweet spot, but the same route works at seven, and it stretches beautifully to twelve with Victoria Falls added at the end.

At a glance

Duration10 days, 9 nights

RouteMakgadikgadi · Okavango · Chobe

From$25,000 per family of four

Ages6 and up

SeasonMay–October (or Dec–Mar)

PaceThree stops, three nights each

A note on price. Botswana keeps visitor numbers low on purpose, so camps are small and flying is part of the deal. What you buy is genuine wilderness with almost nobody else in it — and with children, that quiet is the whole point.

The journey

Nine nights, three camps, one very happy family

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Camp Kalahari

Makgadikgadi Salt Pans · 3 nights

Meerkats, quad bikes and the widest horizon in Africa.

We begin where the land empties out. Camp Kalahari sits under acacia and palm trees on Hyena Island, on the edge of the Makgadikgadi — ancient salt pans so flat and so silent that children stop chattering the moment they step onto them.

This is my favourite opening to a Botswana family trip, because it is nothing like the safari children imagine. There are no queues of vehicles and no big-cat checklist. Instead there is space, and the sort of curiosity that grows in it.

Where you sleep. Meru-style canvas family tents with kilim rugs, proper beds and en-suite bathrooms — relaxed rather than showy, and easy with children.

What you'll be doing

Sitting quietly with habituated meerkats as they use small shoulders as lookout posts
Quad biking out across the salt crust in the late afternoon light
Walking with Zu/'hoasi Bushmen guides, learning how to find water, food and tracks
Sleeping out under one of the clearest night skies on earth

Shinde Footsteps

Okavango Delta — private concession · 3 nights

A tiny four-tent camp built for families who want the Delta to themselves.

From the pans we fly north into water. Shinde Footsteps is a four-tent camp in a private concession of the Okavango Delta, overlooking a permanent hippo pool — small enough that families often have the whole camp, and the whole guiding team, to themselves.

It is also where the Young Explorers programme comes into its own: a specialist family guide who spends the week teaching tracks, birds, bugs, bows and bush skills, so children come home with something more useful than photographs.

Where you sleep. Two-bedroom family tents on raised timber decks, with open-air bush showers and a shaded veranda for the middle of the day.

What you'll be doing

Mokoro canoes poled through papyrus channels and lily-covered lagoons
The Young Explorers programme — tracking, casting spoor, bush craft and a certificate to prove it
Morning and evening game drives in a private vehicle, at your family's pace
Fishing, star charts and stories around the fire on Kalahari sand

Chobe Elephant Camp

Western Chobe — above the river floodplains · 3 nights

Elephants in their hundreds, and boats instead of vehicles.

We finish on the Chobe, where the elephant density is the highest on earth and the safari happens largely from the water. After the quiet of the pans and the Delta, the sheer scale of it lands beautifully with children.

Chobe Elephant Camp stands on a ridge with red Kalahari sandbag walls and long views over the floodplains, and it is comfortable, unfussy and genuinely good with families — a gentle place to land at the end of a busy trip.

Where you sleep. Farmstead-style family chalets with private verandas, and a pool that looks over the camp's own waterhole.

What you'll be doing

Riverboat safaris alongside enormous elephant herds crossing to the islands
Hippo, crocodile and extraordinary birdlife in the last hour of golden light
A visit to Mabele village, arranged quietly and respectfully
Afternoons at the pool watching whatever comes down to drink

Add three nights

Finish at Victoria Falls

Kasane is a short drive from the Falls, so this itinerary extends naturally. Two or three nights gives you the rainforest walk, a sunset cruise and, for older children, rafting or a helicopter flight over the gorge. I have written up which side to choose and when to go here:

Victoria Falls with kids: Zambia or Zimbabwe

Victoria Falls in full flow with a rainbow rising through the spray

What's included

Everything except your international flights

All accommodation on a fully inclusive basis — meals, local drinks and laundry
All light-aircraft flights and road transfers within Botswana
Private guiding and a private vehicle at Shinde Footsteps
All listed activities, park fees and conservation levies
Meerkat and Bushmen experiences, quad biking, mokoro and boat safaris
The Young Explorers children's programme
24-hour support from me for the length of your trip

Practical notes

The things families ask me first

Best months

May to October for dry-season game viewing and comfortable temperatures. December to March brings the zebra migration to the pans and dramatic skies.

Getting there

Overnight into Johannesburg or Cape Town, then a short flight to Maun. Light aircraft between camps, with luggage kept soft and light.

Children

Camp Kalahari and Chobe Elephant Camp take children from six. Shinde Footsteps is happy with younger children on a private-guiding basis — do ask.

Health

Malaria precautions are needed. I will send a plain-English briefing with what to pack and what to expect at each camp.

Next step

Shall I shape this around your family?

Tell me who's travelling and roughly when, and I'll come back with a version of this trip built around your children's ages, your dates and your budget. Every trip I plan starts with a relaxed conversation — no obligation at all.

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