Help with Botswana Itinerary
 

I am planning a safari to Botswana and So. Africa for August 07 and am told that many of the best safari camps are already booked. Our travel agent has been able to get the following places for us. Please let me know what you think of this itinerary:

Chobe Game Lodge(in northern Chobe Nat'l Park)-3 nights
Xugana Camp-Okavango Delta - 2 nights
Baines Camp-Okavango Delta - 2 nights
Sabi Sands (Kruger Nat'l Park)-not sure yet which lodge - 3 nights

thank you!

I'd say snap this up.

Chobe--great elephant activity plus other game. I loved my Chobe stay.
Read about the Chobe part of this trip.
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34973167
Be sure to get a couple of river cruises during a 3 day stay. This will be your most crowded part of the trip. It's best to have that early in the trip IMO.

Xugana--Not familiar with it but it appears to be your water camp. Should be lovely and relaxing with the emphasis on birding and water activities. Maybe you could get some references from past clients.

Baines--You can do the elephant walk. Type in Baines in the search box and see what others have done. That same elephant walk was is also done at Stanley's. There are several elephant walk threads that gush about that wonderful experience. It costs extra but I'd do it. You can also see decent game here.

Sabi Sands--3 nights there is good. This should be a wildlife highlight. There are many options of places to stay.

This is a good mix of environments and activities. It doesn't appear as though you are making lots of sacrifices in destinations in order to get accommodations at this late date.

Good luck.

Can only comment on Baines - go there!


Lovely lodge, great staff, fantastic wildlife viewing - do the ele expereince - type Elephant Experience into the search you are sure to find earlier reports.

Happy travels

thanks for the feedback! The lodge in Sabi Sands that the travel agent suggested is
Simbambili. Anyone know anything about this one? Will it be very congested in August?

Simbambili is well known. It gets high marks from Fodorites. Here’s a link to info on Simbambili
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34867890

This one strays a bit but comes back to Simbambili
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34942476

This link gets to Simbambili at 09/28/2005, 09:50 pm, near the end.
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34680408

There are rules in the Sabi Sands that limit vehicles at sightings and that in turn limits congestion.

Here are some links on Baines and the elephant encounter.
Here is one Thembi mentioned.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34965467

Baines starts at 01/03/2007, 12:22 am on this one
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34920152

Your agent has done a good job of coming up with an itinerary in a relatively tight timeframe. Care to give them credit by mentioning their name?

Mia at Go2Africa! Looks like she did a great job in little time.