National Parks in Botswana

Botswana is located in southern Africa and is totally landlocked. The country is best known for having some of the best wilderness areas on the African continent. Just under 40% of the land area is identified as being national parks, reserves and wildlife management areas.

The national parks in Botswana are more remote than other countries and some roads can become impassable during the rainy season (November to March). The roads require 4WD and many are rough and sandy year-round. It is worth considering a safari in Botswana with Far and Wide or other companies as they will know the road and weather conditions and ensure you have the best experience and often include horse riding or canoeing in their itinerary. You do need to research the company you use to ensure they employ ethical practices.

National Parks and Wildlife Reserves in Botswana

Central Kalahari Game Reserve

The Central Kalahari Game is the second-largest nature reserve in the world. It is part of a large sand basin that reaches into South Africa, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. It has a varied landscape including deserts, salt pans, river valleys and dunes.
The northern part, known as Deception Valley is where antelopes and zebra can be seen as well as elephants, lions, oryx antelope. One of the more unusual animals to spot here is the brown hyena which isn’t seen elsewhere.

Chobe National Park

The Chobe National Park is in the northeast of Botswana and the Chobe River runs along the northern border. Chobe borders the Moremi Game Reserve and the main access town is Kasane.
This nature reserve has the highest wildlife populations of all the Botswana reserves with over 50,000 elephants as well as big cats, hyenas and herds of zebras and wildebeest. It also has populations of African bush babies, honey badgers and wild cats. The river attracts hippos, buffalo and crocodiles. This is also one of the places to visit for birdwatching with over 450 species of birds.

Gemsbok National Park

Gemsbok National Park is located within the Kalahari region. This desert is a vast area comprised of sand dunes. Water flows underground allowing low-lying vegetation including small shrubs, succulents and a range of grasses to grow.
Gemsbok National Park is named after the herds of gemsbok, a large Oryx gazelle that is commonly seen in the park. The park also has herds of springbok, eland, red hartebeest, and blue wildebeest that migrate across the drylands. Lions, cheetahs, leopards and hyenas can be found across the park.

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Kgalagadi straddles the border between Botswana and South Africa and wildlife is free to migrate through the region. It is made up of the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in South Africa and Gemsbok National Park in Botswana.
This park has stunning red sand dunes making it perfect for photography. It has its own ‘big 5’ – lion, leopard, cheetah, gemsbok and eland. This is not the place to visit for elephant or hippo encounters, however, this is more than made up with the black-maned lions and the Southern African wildcat putting in an appearance.
Kgalagadi is best visited from March to May when the wet season is ending and the riverbeds attract wildlife. In the summer months, the temperatures are high making visiting hard.

Khutse Game Reserve

This game reserve is best visited during the wet season February to April. Thunderstorms can be spectacular and the storms bring an increase in wildlife.
Wildlife in Khutse Game Reserve includes kudus and hartebeest with springboks, oryx and wildebeest visiting the pans. You are less likely to see cheetahs and giraffes but lions, leopards and brown hyenas are regularly found.

Kwando Concession

This reserve is located in the far north of Botswana with the River Kwando and the Linyanti Marshes providing a range of habitats.
This is an easy place to spot the Big Five although there are no rhinos the large numbers of elephants, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest make up for their absence.
While this area has excellent wildlife viewing it is one of the more expensive areas to visit and has limited, more budget-friendly places to stay.

Linyanti Game Reserve

This wildlife reserve follows the southern bank of the Chobe River with marshland, lagoons and waterways that open out onto grassland and riverine forest. This has some of the most remote areas in Botswana and for this reason, much of the landscape is untouched.
This is a slightly different area to visit with carmine bee-eaters being seen on the river banks while wild dogs can be seen here in large numbers with their pups in July and August.

Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

This is one of the less visited national parks in Botswana with its name meaning ‘vast, lifeless land’. There are no camps within the park although there are a number close to the borders of the park.
This national park is linked to the Nxai Pan National Park and has one of the biggest salt pans in the world. These were formed from a prehistoric lake that had its feeding rivers cut off when the tectonic plates in the area moved.
This national park is good year-round and is home to zebra, elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs and giraffes.

Mashatu Game Reserve

Mashatu Game Reserve is located within the Tuli Block an area made up of a number of smaller game reserves. It shares open borders with Tuli Safari Area, a national park in Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe National Park, a World Heritage Site in South Africa.
The game reserve is home to over 50 species of mammals and reptiles, 350 bird species and over 150 different species of trees. It is a good place to see flocks of storks and herons and has regular elephant and leopard sightings.
Mashatu has unique photography hides which are placed to make the most of the landscape and the visiting wildlife.

Mokolodi Nature Reserve

Mokolodi is located close to Gaborone and access is one of the easiest from all of the national parks and game reserves in Botswana. The highlight of this park is cheetah encounters. As with other parks, there are elephants, giraffes and rhinos that can be tracked either on foot or on a game drive.

Moremi Game Reserve

This game reserve is more varied than other areas with mopane woodland, acacia forests, floodplains and lagoons and is located around the Okavango Delta. The mopane tree is only found in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia and it provides an important ecosystem in the region.
The reserve has a wide range of wildlife including a large number of birds. It is also home to the rarer Red Lechwe antelope, the African wild dog and the endangered black rhino.

Northern Tuli Game Reserve

This game reserve is sometimes known as Notugre. It is part of the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area on the border of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Close to the Northern Tuli Game Reserve is the smaller Mashatu Game Reserve and these two reserves along with a number of other privately owned game reserves make up the Tuli Block.
This game reserve has most of the common species found across Botswana as well as large herds of eland that are not seen in many of the national parks in Botswana.

Nxai Pan National Park

This national park is north of Makgadikgadi Pans National Park and is known for its two large salt pans. These attract herds of animals towards the end of the rainy season and are best visited from December to March. There is also a waterhole that has a pride of lions that use it on a regular basis.
The park has seven large baobab trees known as the Baines Baobabs with stunning desert scenery. The open plains of the salt pans make wildlife viewing easy and are a draw for wildlife in the rainy season.
This area is very hot and dry and has less wildlife than other national parks but this is made up for by the lower visitor numbers and amazing landscapes.

Okavango Delta

The Okavango Delta is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is made up of three main areas – The Panhandle, Delta and Drylands. This is the largest delta in the world and is within the Kalahari Basin.
The size of the delta varies depending on the season. In the wet season, it covers a much larger area and attracts larger numbers of wildlife. The delta is a great place to see African plants including reeds, real fan palm, acacia, sycamore fig, sausage trees, rain trees and African mangosteen. These thrive in the wetland areas.
The delta has a range of mammals that visit as well as migratory birds that make the most of the waterways. It is also a great place to experience more adrenaline-fuelled activities including canoeing and speed boat trips.

Savuti National Park

This small national park is hidden between Chobe National Park and Linyanti Game Reserve. Once on the coast of an ancient lake, it is now a dry environment with sandy veld, mopane bushes and savannah.
Savuti is one of the best places to find lions which visit artificial waterholes and hides have been placed to allow viewing of the birds and wildlife that visit the waterholes.

Selinda Concession

The Selinda Concession stretches southeast from the Linyanti River toward the Okavango Delta and encompasses vast floodplains fragrant with wild sage and seasonal wetlands with tall reeds and papyrus.
Selinda has antelope (roan, sable, giraffe, reedbuck and red lechwe), large herds of zebra and wildebeest. It’s an excellent reserve for cheetahs, spotted hyenas and large prides of lions. Buffalo and elephants also use the delta.