Botswana — The Okavango Delta and the Elephant Highway

Botswana built its safari reputation on doing fewer things, better. Low-volume, high-value tourism has kept much of the country wild: the Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a vast inland river delta where the Okavango River fans out across the Kalahari and never reaches the sea, creating a seasonal maze of lagoons, channels and islands best explored by mokoro canoe as well as game drive.

To the north, Chobe National Park holds one of the largest elephant concentrations in Africa, with herds gathering along the Chobe riverfront in the dry season in numbers that can run into the thousands. Moremi Game Reserve, on the delta's eastern edge, adds dense predator populations — lion, leopard and African wild dog — to the mix.

Botswana pairs naturally with Zimbabwe and Zambia for a Southern Africa circuit; our 10 Days / 9 Nights Africa Safari combines the Okavango Delta and Chobe riverfront with Victoria Falls in one trip.