Things to do in Chobe

Chobe National Park runs along the Chobe River in Botswana's far north, and its northern entrance is on the edge of Kasane, a small town with its own airport. The park is home to tens of thousands of elephants, and in the dry months large breeding herds come down to the river to drink and swim. Numbers on any given day depend on how much water is left inland. Victoria Falls is only a short drive away, so Chobe fits neatly at the start or end of a longer trip through Botswana.

On the river and in the park

Most days pair a morning game drive with an afternoon on the water. Boat safaris leave from jetties in Kasane and drift along the floodplain, where hippos wallow in the shallows and elephant herds come down to the banks in the late afternoon. The riverfront drive heads west from town through the park, and by October the bush is bare and the animals stay close to the river. Savuti, in the drier west of the park, is open grassland and marsh fed by a channel that flows in some years and not others. Kasane and nearby Kazungula are the main settlements in Chobe district, and most lodges sit along the river.

Getting there and how long to stay

Kasane has its own airport with flights from Johannesburg, and many travellers fly into Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and transfer about 80 km by road. The Kazungula bridge, a few minutes from Kasane, crosses into Zambia, and the Zimbabwe border post is close by. From Maun it's roughly 600 km on tar via Nata, or you can take the 4x4 route through Moremi and Savuti. Two or three nights is enough for several boat trips and drives. Combine it with the Okavango Delta to the southwest, or head south towards the Makgadikgadi pans.

Booking on adventuro

Afternoon boat safaris are the most popular outing here, so it's worth securing those first. Use the Book here tab to see live dates and prices from local centres.