Botswana

Activities
Winter (April through August) is a good time to visit Botswana, as the days are generally pleasant and the wildlife never wanders far from water sources. Bear in mind, however, that this is also the time of European, North American and South African school holidays, so things can get a bit crowded. In general, June, early July and mid to late September are the least crowded times to visit. Summer isn't the best time to hit the back roads, enjoy wildlife viewing or explore the Okavango, as prolonged rains may render sandy roads uncrossable, and animals disperse when water is abundant.

Chobe National Park
Chobe covers 11,000 sq km (4300 sq mi) and has a greater variety of wildlife than anywhere else in Botswana. Kasane, at the northern tip of the park, is the park's gateway and its administrative centre. The town itself doesn't offer much to see, but it's a good place to base yourself for quick visits to the park, and it's also where you'll arrive if you fly into Chobe.
For those in a hurry, the most popular recreation is a cruise or drive along the riverfront, where the bulk of the park's animals congregate. Elephants - around 73,000 of them, in herds of up to 500 - are the main attraction, and the most memorable thing about a visit to the riverfront is seeing just how much damage a herd can do. The place looks like it's been bombed. Here, you also have an excellent chance of spotting lion, cheetah, hippo, buffalo, giraffe, antelope, jackal, warthog, hyena, crocodile, otter, zebra and any number of species of bird.

The Mababe Depression - a remnant of a large lake that once covered northern Botswana - is home to the park's next big attraction, the Savuti Marshes. Savuti presents an intensely flat, harsh landscape, but you'll be overwhelmed by the amount of wildlife, particularly elephant. Lions, wild dogs and hyena prowl through immense herds of impala, wildebeest, buffalo and zebra, while antelopes are present in numbers you won't see anywhere else. Ngwezumba doesn't have the hordes of animals you'll see at the riverfront or Savuti, but the area's clay pans and mopane forests do support buffalo, elephant and some antelope species, including the rare oribi.
At the upper end of Chobe, Kasane is also the northernmost point of the country, about 800km (500mi) north of Gaborone. You can fly to Kasane from Maun, Gaborone or Victoria Falls, and buses run to Kasane from Nata, about 250km (150mi) to the south. Once there, you'll need a high-clearance 4WD to get around most areas. There are camps and lodges throughout the park.

Okavango Delta
Described as 'the river which never finds the sea', the Okavango disappears into a 15,000 sq km (5850 sq mi) maze of lagoons, channels and islands in north-western Botswana. It's the largest inland delta in the world, and it teems with wildlife. Most obvious are the birds - thousands upon thousands of them - but there are also elephant, zebra, buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe, hippo and kudu. In the centre of the delta, the Moremi Wildlife Reserve totals around 3000 sq km (1170 sq mi) and is officially cordoned off for wildlife preservation. Outside of Moremi you won't see much in the way of wildlife, but there are fewer tourists and the landscape is no less lovely.
About 60km (40mi) south-east of Moremi, Maun is the administrative centre of the delta and home to the main airstrip. The cheapest area to visit is the Eastern Delta, as there aren't as many controls on operators here, and most of the guides and boat pilots are unlicensed freelancers.
If you want to stay where the wild things are, a number of camp sites are available in Moremi. Don't camp outside them, or you may end up as a local lion's midnight snack. There are also plenty of camps and lodges elsewhere in the delta and in Maun. If you're booked at one of these, transport to Okavango is usually organised by the camp. Otherwise, you can fly or bus from Gaborone - about 600km (400mi) south-east of Maun - and join a safari once you get there. The best way to see the delta is by mokoro (dugout canoe), which are generally poled through the waterways by experienced guides. The most agreeable time to visit is July to September, when water levels are high and the weather is dry.

Makgadikgadi & Nxai Pan National Park
Established at the same time, these two areas about 100km (60mi) east of Maun effectively operate as one national park. The southern area, Makgadikgadi Game Reserve, is a 4000 sq km (1600 sq mi) tract of pans, grasslands and beautiful savanna. Wildlife is plentiful, though not as dense as at Chobe. There are antelope, lion, hyena, cheetah, and hippo, as well as a stunning array of birds, but no elephant or buffalo. There's a campsite at the park with a toilet, cold shower and drinking water. You'll either need to join a tour or rent a 4WD to get there.
The northern part of the park, Nxai Pan, takes in another 4000 sq km (1600 sq mi). The southern part of Nxai Pan is a complex of mini salt pans. This is one of the few areas in Botswana that's more interesting during the rainy season - when huge herds hit Nxai's grassy pans. The numbers can be staggering; wildebeest, zebra and gemsbok appear in their thousands, along with large herds of other antelope and giraffe. Lion, hyena and wild dog come to take advantage of the expanded menu, and this is also one of the few places you'll see bat-eared fox. In the south of Nxai Pan, Baines' Baobabs comprise a hardy clump of large baobab trees, rendered immortal in 1862 by painter Thomas Baines, a member of Livingstone's expedition. If you've seen a copy of the painting, you'll notice that only one branch has fallen off in the last 100 years. There are no facilities at Nxai Pan's campsites, and you'll need a 4WD to get here. The park is about 500km (310mi) north of Gaborone.

Tsodilo Hills
Like Australia's Uluru, these lonely chunks of rock rise abruptly from a rippled, oceanlike expanse of desert. They are imbued with myth, legend and spiritual significance for both the Makoko and Dzucwa San, who see the hills as the site of creation itself. Laurens van der Post immortalised Tsodilo as the Slippery Hills - when he visited here his cameras jammed, his tape recorders stopped working and he was attacked by swarms of bees, apparently because he had offended the spirits of Tsodilo.
Tsodilo has been inhabited by ancestors of the San for up to 35,000 years, and the site has over 3500 rock paintings. These minimalist representations of animals, people and geomorphic designs may have been intended as little more than doodles, but it's more tempting to envision a succession of ancient Michelangelos straining upwards to produce masterly works. The majority are executed in ochres or whites and were probably produced by the San and later the Bantu people. Among the most interesting paintings are a zebra, a whale, a penguin, a family of rhino and a dancing crowd of sexually excited men.
There are no shops or services in the San or Mbukushu village, but you can camp around the base of the hills, and there's water available from a bore well. A visitors' centre and camp sites with facilities are being built. The hills are in the north-west of the country, about 800km (500mi) from Gaborone, and you can fly here or drive - the road is excruciating but unforgettable.