In this latest series, I will be going through all the countries I’ve travelled to on my mission to visit every single country in the world. In this article, we will be covering country #13: Botswana. If you haven’t gotten a chance already, read this story first to find out why I’m trying to visit all 193 UN-recognized countries.
VIDEO – Country #13: Botswana
Botswana articles
- My Complete Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia Spending Breakdown
- How to Cross From Zambia to Botswana
- Botswana Chobe National Park Safari Tour Review
Crossing from Zambia to Botswana
Our journey starts in Jollyboys Backpackers (the hostel we stayed in). We joined a tour from there because it’s typically cheaper to book tours once you’re in the country itself.
To do a full-day trip to Botswana’s Chobe National Park, we paid $157 USD. This price includes:
- Light breakfast
- Buffet lunch
- Transportation to and from the border
- The boat ride between Zambia and Botswana
- Safari jeep tour
- Boat tour
When we reached the border, Karen and I took the neat boat ride across the river. This is my first ever river border crossing between countries and I was definitely excited.
After reaching the Botswana side, we got loaded up on jeeps and proceeded to pick up the other tourists that were joining us on this safari.
Botswana Chobe National Park safari truck tour (first half)
Because it was the dry season, Chobe National Park has very sparse or burnt up vegetation.
This was a good thing for us because animals would be congregating near water holes as a result.
Despite seeing a lot of these animals already during my trip to South Africa, the elephants in Chobe National Park came in hordes.
The highlight was definitely seeing the baby elephant following the parent. It was also cool to see the elephants hide in the shade when it got too hot during the day.
After a fun-filled first half of the day, we went to a place called Coffee Buzz, located just outside Chobe National Park, to eat our lunch buffet. Sadly, the service during the buffet was quite unfriendly. The locals definitely made us feel like they didn’t want us there.
Botswana Chobe National Park boat tour (second half)
In the second half of our safari, we went and picked up additional tourists.
We were a bit sluggish and sleepy in the second half of our trip thanks to the huge lunch that we had.
The boat safari was neat in the sense that it gave us a different perspective on animals.
Specifically, we got to see tons of hippos and crocodiles which would have been harder to see during the jeep safari.
After a long day, we wrapped it up and started heading back to the border.
Returning back to Zambia
The border crossing was interesting this time because of the ferry going across the water. The one we saw had a piece of the ramp broke off which I thought was pretty funny.
No one seemed to care which is the general attitude when travelling in Africa.
Karen only purchased a single entry visa to Zambia which was a bad idea because now she had to purchase a second single entry visa. Single entry visas cost $50 USD and multi-entry cost $80 USD. She lost $20 USD as a result.
Conclusion
Our trip to Botswana was neat but I wouldn’t say I was blown away. $157 USD sounds like a lot of money for a tour and to be honest, this is standard price when travelling to Africa.
Unfortunately, anytime you want to do any activity in Africa, you need to be prepared to shell out a lot of money. Africa is not a cheap travel destination.
The one place I would have liked to see in Botswana is the Okavango Delta but we didn’t get around to seeing it. But I’m okay with that decision because, to me, Botswana was just an okay travel destination.
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