Botswana is a natural wonderland, an expansive playground for some of the most magnificent animals in the world, including the “Big Five”: lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and buffalo who can wander practically uninhibited by fences. In fact, thirty-eight percent of Botswana’s total land area is devoted to national parks whose natural wonders are world famous and full of adventures from safaris, mokoro rides, quad biking, fishing, 4×4 off-road, and many cultural opportunities.

A land of dramatic landscapes and climates, it includes the wetlands of the Okavango Delta. Shaped like a fan and swollen with floodwaters from the summer rains, the Delta is formed by the Okavango River, the third largest in Southern Africa. In contrast, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve beckons with its dry beauty where golden grass and vast empty pans draw out the endless blue of the African sky in stark contrast. The second largest game reserve in the world, it enjoys a remote and uncrowded loveliness. Even more impressive, Makgadikgadi is one of the largest salt pans in the world. Largely uninhabited, the land lays dry and empty for most of the year only to transform with the summer rains into a flamingo’s paradise.