Before You Go
- Confirm passport validity and entry requirements.
- Check whether a tourist visa is required.
- Keep digital copies of important documents.
- Consider purchasing travel insurance.
Gaborone
Botswana Pula (BWP)
English, Setswana
May–Oct
CAT (UTC+2)
Welcome to Botswana, a landlocked Southern African country renowned for some of the continent's most pristine and abundant wildlife. The Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, transforms into a lush, water-fed oasis each year, drawing elephants, lions, and countless bird species to its channels and islands. Chobe National Park boasts one of the largest concentrations of elephants in Africa, offering unforgettable safari encounters along the riverbanks. The vast, otherworldly Makgadikgadi salt pans stretch to the horizon, creating a stark and beautiful desert landscape unlike anywhere else. Botswana's commitment to low-impact, high-value tourism has helped preserve its wilderness, ensuring intimate and uncrowded safari experiences. The Kalahari Desert reveals a surprising abundance of life, from meerkats to desert-adapted lions, deeply tied to San Bushmen heritage. Luxury safari camps throughout the country offer world-class hospitality immersed in nature. Botswana welcomes travelers seeking an authentic, exclusive, and deeply memorable African safari experience.
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Helpful information to consider before and during your visit.
Discover some of Botswana's most popular flavors, traditional dishes and memorable local treats during your visit.
Beef, goat or lamb is slowly boiled until tender, then pounded or shredded and served at celebrations and communal meals.
Sorghum, millet or maize meal is cooked into a smooth porridge and served with meat, vegetables or sour milk.
Wild or cultivated leafy greens are cooked with onions, tomatoes and sometimes peanuts.
Beans, maize and sometimes sorghum are simmered together into a filling traditional dish.
Wild melon is cooked with sorghum meal into a mildly sweet porridge commonly enjoyed in rural areas.
Protein-rich caterpillars are dried, boiled or fried and seasoned with tomatoes, onions and spices.
Fried dough balls are crisp outside and soft inside and sold as a popular breakfast or street snack.
Botswana is known for quality beef, which is often simply seasoned and grilled over an open fire.
Cultured sour milk is eaten with porridge or enjoyed on its own as a traditional dairy staple.
Botswana is one of Africa’s most celebrated conservation success stories. The Okavango River does not reach an ocean; instead, it spreads across the sands of the Kalahari to form the Okavango Delta, one of the world’s largest inland deltas. Seasonal floods arrive during the dry season, creating a vast network of lagoons, channels, and islands precisely when wildlife needs water most. Elephants, lions, hippos, crocodiles, wild dogs, and hundreds of bird species gather around this extraordinary desert oasis.
The country supports one of the largest elephant populations on Earth, and significant portions of its land are protected as parks, reserves, and wildlife management areas. Chobe National Park is especially famous for enormous elephant herds along the Chobe River. Farther south, the Makgadikgadi Pans form one of the world’s largest networks of salt flats. These dry, shimmering plains are remnants of an ancient lake that once covered an area larger than Portugal.
Botswana is also known for the San peoples, whose ancestors have lived in southern Africa for tens of thousands of years and developed detailed knowledge of desert plants, animal tracks, and water sources. The country’s name comes from the Tswana people, while an individual citizen is called a Motswana. After independence in 1966, Botswana transformed from one of the world’s poorest nations into a relatively stable economy, aided by diamond resources and long-term public investment.
Another little-known fact is that Albanians have a unique cultural tradition called "Besa," meaning "to keep one's promise." This centuries-old code of honor became internationally recognized during World War II when Albania was one of the few European countries where the Jewish population actually increased because local families risked their lives to shelter refugees. Albania also boasts the stunning Blue Eye (Syri i Kaltër), a natural spring with crystal-clear turquoise water whose exact depth remains unknown despite multiple explorations.
Finally, Albania enjoys more than 300 sunny days each year, rivaling many Mediterranean destinations. The country is also famous for its "sworn virgins"—a centuries-old tradition in remote mountain villages where women could legally assume male social roles by taking a lifelong vow of celibacy, preserving family inheritance and leadership in the absence of male heirs.
