Getting Around Botswana

The quick answer

Botswana is large and thinly populated, and its best places are deliberately hard to reach. Most visitors move between them by light aircraft, with short road or boat transfers at each end. The tarred main roads are good; everything past them is sand.

The airports that matter

• Maun (MUB). The gateway to the Okavango Delta and the busiest light-aircraft hub in the country. Most delta itineraries begin here.
• Kasane (BBK). For Chobe, and for the Zambia and Zimbabwe borders — Victoria Falls is a short drive and a border away.
• Gaborone (GBE). The capital and the main international gateway for business travel; less used for safari itineraries than Maun.

Light aircraft

Scheduled and charter light aircraft link the camps, landing on bush airstrips that are sometimes little more than a graded strip with a windsock. It is a genuine part of the experience: the flight over the delta between camps is one of the things people remember most.

It is also why your luggage allowance is small and your bag must be soft — see the packing list. Expect to be weighed with your bag; it is a safety calculation, not a comment.

The mokoro

The mokoro (plural mekoro) is a shallow dugout canoe, poled from the back while you sit at water level. Traditionally carved from a tree, most are now fiberglass, which is a conservation gain.

It is transport and it is the activity: gliding through reed channels at the speed of a walk, with frogs on the papyrus at eye level, is the quietest way to see the delta and unlike anything else in African travel. Water levels determine where and whether it runs, which is another reason the flood matters.

Roads and self-driving

Botswana has a strong self-drive tradition and the main tarred routes — Gaborone to Francistown, on to Nata, Maun and Kasane — are generally in good condition.

Off them it is deep sand, and reaching most reserves needs a properly equipped four-wheel-drive vehicle, ideally traveling in convoy, with recovery gear, extra fuel and water. This is a serious undertaking rather than a convenience, and it is one of the great overlanding experiences in Africa for people set up for it.

Two cautions that are not optional:

• Avoid driving at night outside towns. Botswana's roads are unfenced in many places and livestock and wildlife use them. Hitting an elephant or a cow at speed in the dark is the most serious ordinary risk here.
• Foot-and-mouth control fences and veterinary checkpoints cross the country. You will be asked to step on a disinfectant mat and may have raw meat or dairy confiscated. It is routine; allow time for it.

Buses and taxis

Intercity coaches connect the main towns and are inexpensive and reasonably comfortable. Shared combis cover shorter routes and leave when full rather than on a timetable. In town, use recognized taxis or a ride-hailing app, and agree a fare before setting off if there is no meter.

Crossing to the neighbors

Botswana borders four countries, and three crossings matter to travelers: the Kazungula Bridge to Zambia (2021), which replaced the old ferry and made a Chobe-to-Livingstone run straightforward; Ngoma for Namibia's Caprivi Strip; and the Trans-Kalahari Highway west to Windhoek. Each has its own hours and procedures, and a rental vehicle needs written authority to cross.

Planning with LABUSA Travel

We build Botswana itineraries around the flight schedule rather than against it, and we will tell you honestly when a road transfer is better value and when it will cost you a day you would rather spend in the delta.