ENCOUNTERSAFRICA
8-Day Selinda Reserve Fly-In Safari

Botswana - Fly-in safari

8-Day Selinda Reserve Fly-In Safari

Duration
8 days
Countries
Botswana
Suited to
2-8 guests
Pricing
From USD 22,880

The journey

Updated on 23 August 2026

Most safaris cross a map. This one stays inside a single fence-free reserve and goes deeper instead. The Selinda Reserve is 130,000 private acres between the Okavango and the Linyanti, crossed by the spillway that links the two systems, and it holds some of the best elephant and wild dog viewing in Botswana with only a pair of camps on the whole property. You split the week between them. Zarafa is the flagship: four suites of recycled hardwood and canvas above the Zibadianja Lagoon, with copper baths, fireplaces and a Swarovski scope on every deck. Selinda Explorers, an hour up the spillway, is its deliberate opposite, four canvas tents in the classic explorer style, lit by lantern, with bucket showers and the best walking guides in the reserve. Same ground, two registers: one polished, one stripped back. Dry season, May to October, concentrates game on the spillway; the green months bring storm skies and lower rates. Either way, you will likely have the sightings to yourselves.

Your camps, day by day

Stay 1

Arrival on the Lagoon

From Maun a 50 minute Cessna flight lands you in the reserve, ten minutes from Zarafa. The camp faces the Zibadianja Lagoon, source of the Savute Channel, and the afternoon settles you in gently: tea on the deck, the scope trained on elephant crossing the water, then a first short drive as the light goes long.

Stay 2

The Zibadianja Shore

Morning coffee on the fire, then a drive along the lagoon's margins where buffalo and elephant come and go all day. Zarafa's pace is unhurried: brunch stretches, the plunge pool waits, and the camp's photographic hide sits at water level for the midday hours. The evening drive pushes into the woodland for leopard.

Stay 3

Spillway West

A full day working the western spillway, the channel that decides where everything drinks. Wild dog are the reserve's calling card and the morning often belongs to them; the afternoon follows elephant herds filing to the pools in lines a kilometre long. Sundowners happen wherever the day ends, gin cold, hippo loud.

Stay 4

A Slow Masterpiece

Zarafa's last full day is unscripted on purpose. Follow the morning radio to a sighting, spend the heat of the day on your deck with the scope, or take the pontoon onto the lagoon if levels allow, drifting close to elephant crossing chest-deep. Dinner is by lantern with the reserve entirely dark around you.

Stay 5

Up the Spillway to Explorers

The move to Selinda Explorers is a game drive in itself, an hour or so up the spillway with stops for whatever crosses the track. The camp is a different century: four classic tents under shade cloth and ebony, brass basins, bucket showers filled hot, lanterns after dark. The afternoon walk starts a hundred metres from your tent.

Stay 6

On Foot

The upper spillway is walking country, and the morning goes to it: three hours on foot with an armed guide, reading rhino-beetle tracks and elephant middens, easing around a browsing bull at a distance that keeps everyone honest. The afternoon returns to the vehicle to range further, with a night-drive spotlight on the way home.

Stay 7

Canoes and Campfires

When the spillway holds water, the morning is a canoe trail: two hours of paddling the narrow channel, eye level with bee-eaters and half-submerged elephant. In drier months a long walk or drive takes its place. The last evening ends around the fire, the guides trading stories with the honesty of a camp with no generator hum.

Stay 8

Home Through Maun

A last sunrise walk to the nearest pan, breakfast under the trees, then the drive to the airstrip for the 50 minute flight to Maun and the afternoon Johannesburg connection, in time for evening international departures. Seven nights inside one reserve, and the strong suspicion that you barely scratched it.

Safari highlights

  • 130,000 private acres shared between just two camps
  • Four nights at Zarafa on the Zibadianja Lagoon
  • Three nights at Selinda Explorers, classic tented style
  • Walking safaris on the upper spillway
  • Some of Botswana's best elephant and wild dog viewing
  • Canoeing the spillway when water levels allow

What is included

Included

  • 7 nights accommodation, per person sharing
  • Return regional flights Johannesburg-Maun in economy class
  • Light-aircraft sectors Maun-Selinda and Selinda-Maun, with airstrip taxes
  • Road transfer between Zarafa and Selinda Explorers within the reserve
  • All meals, house wines, local spirits, beers and soft drinks
  • Twice-daily game drives, guided walks, and canoeing where water levels allow
  • 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 an 8-day Selinda safari cost?

From USD 22,880 per person sharing, rising to about USD 28,080 in peak season. That covers seven nights split between Zarafa and Selinda Explorers, all meals and house drinks, private concession fees, game drives, walks and canoeing where water allows, plus the light-aircraft sectors and return Johannesburg-Maun flights. International flights to Africa are quoted separately.

Why stay at two camps in the same reserve?

Because they do different jobs. Zarafa is a place to be still: copper baths, a lagoon full of elephant, long lunches on the deck. Explorers is a place to move: walking safaris, canoeing, fly-camping energy in a four-tent camp an hour up the spillway. The ground between them changes too, from lagoon and woodland to the narrow upper channel. It is two safaris for one set of flights.

When is the best time to visit the Selinda Reserve?

May to October, when the spillway's pools concentrate elephant in the hundreds and wild dog denning season, June to August, pins the packs to reachable ground. September and October are hottest and strongest for predators. November to April is green season, with lower rates, migrant birds and calving, though some ground gets harder to reach after storms.

Are walking safaris safe?

Walks at Selinda Explorers are led by armed professional guides who set a careful pace and read the wind before the route. You walk single file, keep voices low and give elephant and buffalo generous room. It is the most engaging way to learn tracks, birds and trees, and encounters on foot, always at a respectful distance, tend to be the memory guests keep longest.

Are international flights included?

No. International flights to and from Africa are excluded and booked separately, usually via Johannesburg. This price includes the return Johannesburg-Maun regional flights of about 1 hour 40 minutes each way and the light-aircraft sectors into and out of the reserve. Luggage on light aircraft is limited to 20 kg per person in soft bags.

Is the Selinda Reserve a malaria area?

Yes. Northern Botswana, the Selinda Reserve included, is malarial, with the highest risk in and just after the November to April rains. Take prophylaxis year-round and see a travel clinic about six weeks before you fly. Tents are screened and repellent is supplied. A yellow fever certificate is only required if you arrive from a country with transmission risk.