A Botswana Family Safari
Botswana is not the obvious family safari, which is exactly why it works: camps of a dozen guests, a private vehicle that runs on your children's clock, and a morning with meerkats that no one in the family will forget.
- Ideal length: 9 days, 8 nights — the delta, Linyanti or Chobe, and the Kalahari
- Best age: usually 6 and over for delta camps; any age at Jack's Camp in the Kalahari
- Several camps require a private vehicle for children under 12 — and it is worth having anyway
- From around US$800 per person, per night — tailored to the camps you choose
- Designed one-to-one by a Forest Travel advisor
Botswana is not the obvious family safari, which is exactly why it works: camps of a dozen guests, a private vehicle that runs on your children's clock, and a morning with meerkats that no one in the family will forget.
At what age can children come to Botswana?
Usually from six, with conditions that vary camp by camp. Xigera and Duba Plains welcome children from six; at Xigera, families with children between six and twelve book a private vehicle, and walks and mokoro trips start at twelve. Jao welcomes children from thirteen, and from six with private activities. Several Wilderness camps, DumaTau among them, assign a trained "Bush Buddy" to children up to twelve. Jack's Camp in the Kalahari takes children of any age. Your advisor matches the camp to the children, not the other way round.
Why a private vehicle?
Because children do not run on a game-drive timetable. With your own vehicle and guide you leave when they are ready, stop for the dung beetle as long as for the leopard, and come back when attention runs out — without strangers in the back. At several camps it is compulsory under twelve; it is worth booking at all of them.
Which room works for a family?
The family units are the reason Botswana works: the Duba Plains Suite, with two bedrooms and its own vehicle, guide and chef; Xigera's family suite; Mombo's two adjoining tents; Jao's villas with plunge pools. Everyone under one roof, with a door between parents and children.
What do children remember?
The meerkats at Jack's Camp, studied every day for years, which treat a quietly sitting family as part of the landscape. The mokoro, where the water is at eye level. Elephants crossing the Chobe. And the night sky over the salt pans, with nothing else in it.
When should you go?
The July and August school holidays coincide with the flood at its peak and the best game viewing — and with the camps' busiest weeks, so this is the trip to book a year ahead. Easter falls in the green season: lower rates, newborn animals and dramatic skies.
Related journeys
The camps, the seasons and the fees behind this route are set out in our Botswana safari guide. More private journeys there:
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Questions, answered.
Usually six, but it varies by camp and by activity: walks and mokoro trips often start at twelve or thirteen, some camps take younger children only on a private booking, and Jack's Camp in the Kalahari welcomes children of any age.
Those with real family units and a private vehicle: the Duba Plains Suite, Xigera's family suite, Mombo's adjoining tents and Jao's villas in the delta, with Jack's Camp and its meerkats in the Kalahari.
At several camps it is compulsory for children under twelve, and everywhere it is what lets the day run on your children's pace rather than a shared timetable.
July and August, when school holidays meet the flood at its peak — book a year ahead. Easter, in the green season, is quieter and cheaper, with newborn animals.
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