ENCOUNTERSAFRICA
10-Day Delta & Desert Odyssey

Botswana - Fly-in safari

10-Day Delta & Desert Odyssey

Duration
10 days
Countries
Botswana
Suited to
2-8 guests
Pricing
From USD 41,080

The journey

Updated on 23 August 2026

This is Botswana's top shelf. Mombo has been called the best game-viewing camp in Africa for thirty years, and the claim survives scrutiny: it sits on the northern tip of Chief's Island in the Moremi Game Reserve, on floodplains that carry extraordinary densities of lion, leopard and plains game. Zarafa, a four-suite Relais and Chateaux camp on the Zibadianja Lagoon in the private Selinda Reserve, swaps the crowds for 130,000 acres shared with one other camp. Jack's Camp is the strangest and most loved of the three, a Persian-carpeted explorer's camp on the edge of the Makgadikgadi salt pans. The order matters. You open on the delta's abundance, move to the Linyanti's raw predator country, and end in the desert, where the game viewing gives way to meerkats, San tracking and the silence of the pans. Each leg is a short light-aircraft hop. Dry season, May to October, is prime for Mombo and Zarafa. The pans turn green and fill with zebra between December and March, so every season has an argument.

Your camps, day by day

Stay 1

Maun and Into Moremi

You land at Maun off the Johannesburg flight and switch to a Cessna for the 25 minute hop onto Chief's Island. Mombo's raised walkways thread through the trees above a floodplain that rarely empties: lechwe, impala, baboon, and usually something hunting them. Your first drive goes out the moment you have dropped your bags.

Stay 2

The Mombo Floodplains

A full day on ground that has produced more wildlife documentaries than anywhere else in Botswana. The morning follows the resident leopard along the treeline; the afternoon works the open plains where lion hold territory in plain sight. Dinner is on the deck, with hippo grazing on the lawn below the walkways.

Stay 3

Predators at Close Range

Mombo mornings start before light, coffee in hand as the radio crackles with what moved overnight. Wild dog den on the island in winter, cheetah use the open ground, and the lion prides here are big enough to take buffalo. The day is built around whichever of them is working, with a long lunch and siesta in the heat.

Stay 4

North to the Linyanti

A morning drive, then the light aircraft lifts you north over the delta's fingers to the Selinda Reserve, about 45 minutes. Zarafa has four suites of recycled hardwood and canvas facing the Zibadianja Lagoon, each with a copper bath and a Swarovski scope on the deck. Elephant cross the lagoon in front of camp most afternoons.

Stay 5

The Selinda Spillway

The reserve's 130,000 acres are shared with one other camp, so a full day here means tracking without traffic. The Selinda Spillway links the delta to the Linyanti and its banks pull game all through the dry season: big elephant bulls, buffalo herds, and the lion prides that follow them. Sundowners are on the lagoon's edge.

Stay 6

Dogs, Boats and Hides

Selinda is one of the most reliable wild dog areas in Botswana, and the morning often goes to them. When the lagoon is high enough there is a pontoon for a water-level view of elephant swimming; otherwise the photographic hide near camp puts you at eye height with whatever comes to drink through the heat of the day.

Stay 7

South to the Salt Pans

The longest flight of the trip, about 1 hour 15 minutes south over drying country until the horizon flattens into the white of the Makgadikgadi. Jack's Camp stands in a palm grove on the edge of it, nine tents lined with Persian carpets and a museum's worth of desert archaeology. The afternoon introduces the pans at sunset.

Stay 8

Meerkats and the San

Before the heat rises you sit inside a habituated meerkat colony, close enough that a sentry may climb you for a better view. The rest of the morning walks with Zu/'hoasi San trackers, reading spoor, digging tubers and learning how people lived on this ground for tens of thousands of years. Night drives look for brown hyena and aardvark.

Stay 9

Onto the Pans

In the dry season you ride quad bikes out onto the pan itself, an unbroken white disc where the curvature of the earth is the only feature, and sleep-out beds can be arranged under the full sky. In the green season the same ground holds tens of thousands of zebra and the desert's short, sudden grass. Either way, the silence is the point.

Stay 10

Desert to Johannesburg

A last early outing, breakfast in the palm grove, then the light aircraft back to Maun, about 40 minutes over the Boteti River. You connect to the afternoon Johannesburg flight in time for evening international departures. Ten days that ran from floodplain to lagoon to salt pan, with almost no one else in the frame.

Safari highlights

  • Three nights at Mombo, Botswana's most decorated camp
  • Three nights at Zarafa on the Zibadianja Lagoon
  • 130,000 private acres in the Selinda Reserve
  • Three nights at Jack's Camp on the Makgadikgadi pans
  • Habituated meerkats and San tracking in the desert
  • All legs flown by light aircraft

What is included

Included

  • 9 nights accommodation, per person sharing
  • Return regional flights Johannesburg-Maun in economy class
  • Light-aircraft sectors Maun-Mombo, Mombo-Zarafa, Zarafa-Jack's Camp and Jack's Camp-Maun, with airstrip taxes
  • All meals, house wines, local spirits, beers and soft drinks
  • Twice-daily game drives, mokoro and boating where water levels allow, and desert activities
  • Moremi Game Reserve and private concession fees, government levies and VAT
  • Botswana Tourism Development Levy of USD 30 per person
  • Laundry and emergency medical evacuation cover

Not included

  • International flights to and from Africa
  • Visas and entry permits
  • Comprehensive travel and medical insurance
  • Premium spirits, champagne and imported wines
  • Gratuities for guides, trackers and camp staff
  • Items of a personal nature, curios and telephone calls

Frequently asked questions

How much does a 10-day luxury Botswana safari cost?

This routing starts at USD 41,080 per person sharing and reaches about USD 52,480 in peak season. It is priced off three of the most expensive camps in Africa: Mombo, Zarafa and Jack's Camp. The rate covers all meals and house drinks, private concession fees, four light-aircraft sectors and the return Johannesburg-Maun flights. International flights to Africa are excluded and quoted separately.

Is Mombo really worth the price?

Mombo's floodplains carry game densities that most camps cannot match: resident leopard along the treelines, lion prides that hold territories within a short drive of camp, and big herds of lechwe, impala and buffalo that keep them there. The camp itself, rebuilt in 2018, runs nine suites on raised walkways. If one camp in Africa justifies its rate on game viewing alone, it is this one.

What do you actually do at Jack's Camp?

The desert flips the safari format. You sit inside a habituated meerkat colony at sunrise, walk with Zu/'hoasi San trackers who read the ground like text, ride quad bikes onto the pans in the dry season, and visit Chapman's Baobab. Between December and March the pans green over and tens of thousands of zebra arrive, Botswana's own migration.

When is the best time for this safari?

May to October gives the classic dry-season game viewing at Mombo and Zarafa, with the delta flood peaking June to August. December to March is the desert's season, when the zebra migration masses on the green pans. April, May and November are the compromise months that catch both ends. There is no wrong answer, only different films.

Are international flights included?

No. International flights to and from Africa are excluded and booked separately, normally via Johannesburg. The price includes the return Johannesburg-Maun regional flights, about 1 hour 40 minutes each way, and every light-aircraft sector between camps. Light aircraft enforce a 20 kg luggage limit per person in soft-sided bags.

Is northern Botswana a malaria area?

Yes. The delta and the Linyanti are malaria areas, highest risk from November to April. The Makgadikgadi is lower risk but not risk-free. Prophylaxis is recommended for the whole routing; talk to a travel clinic about six weeks out. Camps provide repellent and screened tents. A yellow fever certificate is required only if arriving from a country with transmission risk.