Windhoek to Victoria Falls: the Kalahari, the Okavango Delta and Chobe

1. Day 1: Arrive in Windhoek

   Hosea Kutako Airport to central Windhoek

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Windhoek
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Hosea Kutako International Airport (WDH), about 45 km east of Windhoek; check your routing with us before you book flights. Plan to land by about 3 pm (the latest arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary). A driver meets you at arrivals for the 45-minute drive over the Khomas Highland into the capital and a central hotel near Independence Avenue. If you have the energy, walk up to the Christuskirche, the German Lutheran church from 1910 on its island of a roundabout, and the Tintenpalast, the parliament building below its gardens, both a few minutes from the hotel. Your See Sight Tours guide meets the group at about 6 pm to brief you on the two border crossings, the long Kalahari drive tomorrow and the soft-bag rule for the light aircraft into the Delta. Then we walk to a welcome dinner in town.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Hosea Kutako Airport (WDH)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   

2. Day 2: Across the Kalahari to Ghanzi

   Windhoek to Gobabis, the Buitepos border, then Ghanzi in Botswana

   • Drive about 6 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Ghanzi
   Day 2 details

   Today is the one long road day, about 530 km and six hours of driving, because there is no scheduled flight on this leg and crossing the Kalahari by road is how you feel its size. We leave at about 8 am in our air-conditioned vehicle on the Trans-Kalahari Highway, east through cattle country to Gobabis, about two hours out, for coffee and a stretch. From there it is roughly 115 km to Buitepos, where we leave Namibia and enter Botswana at Mamuno; allow up to an hour for both posts. We stop for a sit-down lunch along the way, timed around the border, then continue across flat red sand and thornveld to Ghanzi, the main town of the Botswana Kalahari, where farms and San communities share the land. We reach our lodge in the late afternoon. There is time for a swim or a drink as the sky turns red, and dinner is at the lodge.

   Included

   • Road transfer Windhoek to Ghanzi with stops in Gobabis and at the border
   • Border crossing from Namibia into Botswana with your guide
   • Lunch on the road and dinner at the lodge

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: The longest day on the road, broken by a coffee stop, lunch and the border. Keep your passport and a pen in your day bag.

3. Day 3: A San walk, then on to Maun

   Ghanzi to Maun

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Maun
   Day 3 details

   In the cool of the early morning we walk into the bush near Ghanzi with San guides from a local community. Over about two hours on flat sand they show how to find water in a buried root, which plants are medicine and which are food, and how to read the tracks crossing the path from the night before. Your guide translates where needed and leaves room for questions, and we confirm with the community how the walk is paid. We are back for a late breakfast, then drive north-east about 285 km, roughly three and a half hours, through cattle posts and mopane scrub to Maun, the town at the south-eastern edge of the Okavango Delta. Lunch is on arrival in Maun. We check in to a hotel on the Thamalakane River and the evening is yours, with time to repack into one soft bag for tomorrow's flight. Dinner is on your own; allow about CAD 25 to 45 for a main course and a drink in Maun.

   Included

   • Morning bush walk with San guides near Ghanzi
   • Road transfer Ghanzi to Maun
   • Lunch in Maun

   Easier option: Join the first half of the walk, about an hour, and return to the lodge.

   Free time: Evening free in Maun, dinner on your own (about CAD 25 to 45)

   Activity: About 2 hours on flat sand at a slow pace. Closed shoes and a hat.

   

4. Day 4: Fly into the Okavango Delta

   Maun by light aircraft to a camp in the Okavango Delta

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Okavango Delta
   Day 4 details

   After breakfast we drive the few minutes to Maun Airport for the flight into the Delta in small light aircraft, about 20 to 45 minutes depending on where the camp lies. From a few hundred metres up you see the shape of it: channels and lagoons through the papyrus, islands ringed by palms, and game trails worn between them. The Okavango River rises in Angola and spreads into the Kalahari instead of reaching the sea, and the Delta was listed by UNESCO in 2014. A camp vehicle meets the plane. The camp we book for both nights must meet our standard: a permanent tented camp where every tent has its own bathroom and hot water, and meals are taken together. We name it when we confirm your dates. Lunch at camp, then rest through the heat of the day. In the late afternoon we go out by mokoro, the Delta's narrow poled canoe, two guests to a boat, with a local poler. Sundowner, then dinner at camp.

   Included

   • Light-aircraft flight from Maun to the camp airstrip
   • Late-afternoon mokoro trip with a local poler
   • All meals at camp

   Free time: Midday free at camp

   Activity: Light aircraft take soft bags of about 20 kg each, hand luggage included; the exact limit is confirmed with your final itinerary.

   

5. Day 5: A full day on the water

   A full day at the camp in the Okavango Delta

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Okavango Delta
   Day 5 details

   Coffee before sunrise, then we cross by mokoro to one of the larger islands for a guided walk with a licensed camp guide and your poler, in the coolest and quietest hours. On foot you notice what a vehicle drives past: last night's tracks in the sand, termite mounds several metres tall that seed new islands, red lechwe splashing off through the shallows. The group walks in single file and the guide decides how close is safe. Back at camp by late morning for brunch, and the middle of the day is free: rest in your tent, read or watch the water. In the late afternoon we go out on the water again, by mokoro or by the camp's motorboat depending on the flood, into wider channels where hippos surface and fish eagles call from dead trees, and stop somewhere open for the sunset. Dinner at camp, with the hippos calling in the dark.

   Included

   • Dawn guided walk on an island with a licensed guide and your poler
   • Afternoon mokoro or boat trip into the channels, with a sunset stop
   • All meals at camp

   Easier option: Skip the walk and stay at camp, then join the afternoon on the water.

   More active option: A longer walk of about three hours on a bigger island, where the camp guide allows it.

   Free time: Middle of the day free at camp

   Activity: Walks are 2 to 3 hours on flat, sandy ground at a slow pace. Wear neutral colours and closed shoes.

   

6. Day 6: To Kasane and the Chobe River

   Okavango Delta by light aircraft to Kasane, then a boat on the Chobe River

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kasane
   Day 6 details

   Breakfast at camp, then the camp vehicle takes us to the airstrip for the flight north-east to Kasane, roughly an hour to an hour and a half in the air, sometimes with a short stop at another airstrip. This flight replaces the 600 km road via Nata that the overland trips drive. Below, the water gives way to dry woodland and then to the green line of the Chobe River. A vehicle meets us at Kasane Airport for the short drive to a lodge near the river, where we stay two nights. After lunch and a rest, we board a boat for the afternoon on the Chobe River inside Chobe National Park, Botswana's first national park. From the water the riverbank is the show: elephant family herds coming down to drink, swim and cross to the islands, buffalo and hippos on the floodplain, and crocodiles on the sandbanks. We stay out until the sun drops over the Namibian bank. Dinner at the lodge.

   Included

   • Light-aircraft flight from the Delta to Kasane
   • Afternoon boat cruise on the Chobe River in Chobe National Park, park fees included
   • Lunch and dinner at the lodge

   Free time: Early afternoon free at the lodge

   

7. Day 7: Chobe by land at dawn

   Kasane to the Chobe riverfront and back

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Kasane
   Day 7 details

   We leave the lodge before sunrise in two open 4x4s, at most six guests in each, to be at the Sedudu gate of Chobe National Park as it opens. The first hours are the best on land: the air is cool, the cats are still active, and the riverfront track is quiet before the day visitors arrive. The drive follows the river west along the floodplain, stopping wherever the animals are: elephant and buffalo herds, giraffe, sable antelope in the woodland, and the puku, an antelope found here at the edge of its range. Lions and leopards are seen in Chobe, though never promised. We are back at the lodge by late morning for brunch. The afternoon and evening are free: swim, sleep, walk into Kasane, or take the optional small photographic boat for a second, lower look at the river. Dinner tonight is your choice, at the lodge or in town; allow about CAD 25 to 45 for a main course and a drink.

   Included

   • Dawn game drive in Chobe National Park in an open 4x4, park fees included
   • Brunch at the lodge

   Optional experiences

   • Small-boat photographic trip on the Chobe River (priced at booking)

   Easier option: Sit the drive out and take a slow morning at the lodge.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Kasane, dinner on your own (about CAD 25 to 45)

   Activity: Bring a warm layer and a hat: dawn in an open vehicle is cold from May to August.

   

8. Day 8: Across the border to Victoria Falls

   Kasane through the Kazungula border to Victoria Falls, then a cruise on the Zambezi

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Victoria Falls
   Day 8 details

   Breakfast at the lodge, then we leave Kasane at about 9 am for Victoria Falls, about 80 km and an hour and a half on the road. First comes the Kazungula border: we leave Botswana and enter Zimbabwe, where you buy your visa at the post in US dollars cash if you do not already have one, and your guide steers the group through the forms. Allow up to an hour. Past the border the road runs through mopane woodland, where elephants sometimes cross, into Victoria Falls town. This is our one night at the Falls. Lunch is a sit-down meal in town, then we check in to our hotel and rest through the early afternoon; you can already hear the Falls from parts of town in high water. In the late afternoon we board a boat on the upper Zambezi, above the Falls, for a sunset cruise past islands where hippos surface, with the spray rising downstream. We end the trip with a farewell dinner together.

   Included

   • Transfer from Kasane to Victoria Falls through the Kazungula border with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Victoria Falls town
   • Zambezi sunset cruise, national park fee included
   • Farewell dinner

   Optional experiences

   • Helicopter flight over the Falls in the afternoon (priced at booking), if you leave late on day 9 or prefer it today

   Free time: Early afternoon free in Victoria Falls

   Activity: Keep your passport, the visa fee in US dollars and a pen in your day bag for the border.

9. Day 9: Victoria Falls at opening, then home

   The Victoria Falls Rainforest, then Victoria Falls Airport

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 details

   We are at the gate of the Victoria Falls Rainforest, in Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls National Park, when it opens in the morning, before the tour groups arrive. The Falls are about 1.7 km wide and drop up to 108 m into a narrow gorge, and the path on the Zimbabwe side runs along the opposite lip, facing the water. Your guide walks you through the viewpoints, from the statue of David Livingstone past the Devil's Cataract and the Main Falls to Danger Point, where you look down into the gorge and across to the Victoria Falls Bridge. From March to May the spray can soak you; later in the year the view is clearer. We are back for a late breakfast at the hotel. Victoria Falls Airport (VFA) is about 20 km south of town, roughly 25 minutes, and a driver takes you there; book a flight leaving after about 1 pm. Victoria Falls is a one-night stop on this trip; for more time here, add a second night when you book.

   Included

   • Guided walk of the Victoria Falls Rainforest at opening, entry included
   • Drop-off at Victoria Falls Airport (VFA)

   Optional experiences

   • Helicopter flight over the Falls (priced at booking), if your flight is late in the day

   Easier option: Walk only to the Devil's Cataract and Main Falls viewpoints, then head back for breakfast.

   Free time: Late morning free before the airport transfer

   Activity: About 3 km on a mostly flat path with some steps, wet in high water. Book a flight leaving after about 1 pm, and allow two hours at the airport.

Wildlife and weather: May to October is the dry season. Kalahari nights are cold from June to August, often near freezing, and the days are warm and clear. The Delta flood is usually highest from about June to August, so mokoro trips run well, and as the bush dries the animals gather along the Chobe River. September and October are hot, often above 35°C, with the best game viewing. Victoria Falls is fullest from about March to May, when spray can hide the view, and lowest in October and November.

• Windhoek1 night
• Ghanzi1 night
• Maun1 night
• Okavango Delta2 nights
• Kasane2 nights
• Victoria Falls1 night