Botswana/South Africa late January itinerary help
 

I posted on this forum a couple of weeks ago asking for safari advice/suggestions for a trip I plan to take to Botswana in January to visit my partner who is working in Gabarone. My particular interest is in bird photography, but am also interested in viewing and photographing all of the other animals as well. I got lots of great advice and suggestions. My partner has been dealing with a travel agent in Gabarone and this is what we have arranged so far:

I will arrive in Gabarone on the 25th. I plan to spend 2 days in Gabarone with my partner. We will then fly to Maun and transfer to Little Kwara and/or Kwara and spend 4 nights there. We were originally booked at Kwara but after reading about Little Kwara I decided to see if we could get a similar rate. So we are apparently confirmed there all but one night, and are wait-listed for there for the 30th.

I originally thought we'd spend a week on Safari, but we decided that 4 nights would be better for the budget on this trip, plus I was a little concerned about the unpredictability of the weather and the heat during the green season.

We are somewhat ambivalent but are contemplating adding one night at Victoria Falls. We're not really into being hounded by the locals to by souvenirs but it seems like something we should do if we're going to be so close. If we do go I'm thinking we might prefer Llala on the Zimbabwe side? Would be interested in feedback from you all.

Since I've never been we would then fly to Cape Town and plan to spend the remaining time in Cape Town, wine country and traveling around the area until returning home on the 8th of February.

Interested to hear what you all think and any suggestions you all may have, or things not to miss....
Thanks for the feedback.

Hi! Kwara area will be fantastic for birding and animals....you will enjoy your time there. Definitely, do the boat trip to the heronery, while at Kwara.

If you want to see Vic falls....ask your agent to send you to Songwe Village on the Zambia side. There are plenty of lodges on both sides of the falls......

Hari

I stayed at Ilala Lodge in Zim and highly recommend it. It was very nice, convenient and not at all stuffy as the Victoria Falls Hotel was. If I went back to Vic Falls, I would stay there again. And the Zim visa is only $30 compared to $100 for the Zam side (though it is good for 3 years). Bring a t-shirt or two from where you live, find a young man to take you to the falls, give him the t-shirts and $5.00 to keep the other hounders away, worked for me. Since you are that close to the falls, you might as well see them, and the Zim side is better for viewing the falls.

For what it's worth, if I had only 4 days for a safari I would absolutely skip the Falls. I've been there twice; they are beautiful, but they are waterfalls. An extra night on safari is irreplacable.

Thanks for the suggestions all. We still haven't made up our minds. It looks like we have an extra day to plan though since we're currently booked from the Jan 28th - Feb 1. However, we will be flying to Cape Town from there and the airline only flys on Friday the 2nd so we'll have to figure out what to do with the extra day.