Chobe National Park is a 7,000-sq-mi/18,130-sq-km swamp-and-grasslands wilderness on the flood plains of the Chobe River. We rank it as one of the finest parks in Africa: Its programs offer enough structure to put a first-timer at ease, yet its backcountry areas will get even the most jaded traveler's adrenaline pumping. Chobe Game Lodge reigns over the northwest area. Comfortable and tasteful - it's where Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were remarried - Chobe's stucco buildings offer 50 luxury rooms (semiprivate swimming pools are attached to the suites). The lodge offers morning and evening game rides, but its specialty is guided excursions on the river. During the evening Sundowner Cruise, guests board a double-decker river boat to have cocktails and to watch herds of elephants coming down to the river's edge for a bath and a drink (nonalcoholic). The experience is fascinating, bordering on decadent.
The lodge also offers a boat excursion that is sheer excitement, bordering on terror. Guests are taken in a small speedboat to a calm part of the river, then the engine is cut. It doesn't take passengers long to realize that they're in the midst of slithering, hunting crocodiles and herds of restless hippos.
Chilwero Lodge, a resort on a hill offering spectacular views at sunset, is also deluxe but less formal. The latest luxury accommodation is Chobe Marina Lodge, whose thatched building enjoys extensive river frontage overlooking the Caprivi Strip and the national park. These lodges and other, less-expensive ones, offer their own game drives and river cruises.
No matter where you stay at Chobe, you'll see plenty of elephants, Cape buffalo, hippos, warthogs, various antelope and a wide variety of birds (watch for the beautiful peach-colored carmine bee-eaters along the Chobe River). Spotting hyenas and lions takes a bit more luck, but you're almost guaranteed a sighting in the Savuti Marsh area, on the park's wild west end. The marsh has the highest predator density in southern Africa, and there's a good chance you'll see lions, cheetahs and leopards, as well as wild dogs, jackals and hyenas. The relatively short grass provides excellent photo opportunities. Migrating zebras pass through the marsh in one direction October-November (depending upon the rains) and return March-April. Accommodations are in tents set up in one of four camp areas. Gubatsaa Hills, another site within Chobe, contains prehistoric rock paintings. 400 mi/645 km north of Gaborone.
Tourist information about another destination in Botswana