Game Drives in Botswana
Game drives are the core activity on almost every Botswana safari, run twice daily from open 4×4 vehicles in the early morning and late afternoon when wildlife is most active. What a drive can actually do depends on where it happens, since national parks prohibit off-road driving and night drives while private concessions permit both. Botswana’s guides are professionally licensed, and the standard is among the highest in Africa.
How a Game Drive Works
The rhythm is consistent across the country and across price points, which surprises people who expect expensive camps to run differently.
Wake-up comes between half five and six. Coffee and something light, then out by first light, because that is when cats are still moving and the temperature is bearable.
The morning drive runs three to four hours with a stop somewhere open for coffee. Back to camp mid-morning for a proper breakfast, then the middle of the day is free. Most people sleep through it, and in October everybody does.
Afternoon tea around half three, then the second drive out until dark, ending with a sundowner drink somewhere with a view.
Vehicles are open 4x4s, typically Toyota Land Cruisers, with tiered seating so everyone can see. Some are fully open, others have a canvas canopy. Photographic camps run vehicles with fewer seats and camera mounts.
The single most useful thing to know about game drives in Botswana is that what your guide is allowed to do changes at the park boundary. Off-road driving and night drives are concession privileges, not national park ones.
National Parks Versus Private Concessions
This distinction shapes a game drive more than the camp, the vehicle or the price does.
Inside national parks and game reserves, meaning Chobe, Moremi, the Central Kalahari, Nxai Pan and Makgadikgadi, off-road driving is prohibited entirely. Vehicles stay on designated tracks whatever the sighting. Gates close at set hours, which rules out night drives. Guided walking is broadly restricted. The speed limit is 40 kilometres per hour.
Private concessions operate under different agreements and permit all of it. A guide can leave the track to follow a leopard into the treeline or a wild dog pack across country. Night drives with a spotlight run after dark.
Concession agreements also cap how many vehicles may attend a sighting, so a leopard is frequently yours alone rather than shared with a queue.
Community areas such as Khwai sit outside the parks too and permit night drives, at rates well below the private concessions.
That is the real argument for concession pricing, and it is worth weighing against a park camp costing considerably less.
Night Drives and What They Show
A night drive is a completely different activity from a daytime one, not simply the same thing in the dark.
A spotter works a handheld lamp across the bush from the vehicle, picking up eyeshine. What comes out of the dark is a cast you will never see by day: aardvark, porcupine, civet, genet, serval, honey badger, springhare and bushbaby.
Predators are more active. Lion, leopard and hyena hunt at night, and seeing a cat working rather than sleeping under a bush is a different order of experience.
Night drives run on private concessions and community areas only, which decides where you stay if this matters to you.
A practical note: nights get cold in winter, considerably colder than the afternoon suggests, and a drive that starts at six in the evening in June finishes in near-freezing air.
Guides, Trackers and Why They Matter
Botswana’s guiding standard is a genuine strength and it is the thing most worth paying for.
Guides here are professionally licensed, and their knowledge extends well beyond finding animals to birds, trees, tracks, insects and how the whole system fits together. Most grew up in the areas they work in.
Some camps, particularly in the Kwando and Linyanti concessions, run a guide and tracker system. The tracker sits on a seat mounted on the front of the vehicle, reading spoor on the ground while the guide drives and interprets. Guests consistently single this out as what makes the difference, especially when following wild dogs or leopard.
Three nights at a camp lets a guide learn what you actually want. By the second morning a good one will know whether you care about birds, whether you want to sit with a sighting or move on, and what you have already seen. A trip built around drives in three different habitats is the 7 day Okavango, Moremi and Chobe safari.
Tip your guide directly at the end of a stay rather than daily.
Morning drive. Out by first light for three to four hours. Coolest part of the day, cats still moving, best light for photography. The drive that most often produces predators.
Afternoon drive. Out around four until dark, ending with a sundowner. Warmer, with animals becoming active again as the heat drops. On concessions this can extend into a night drive.
Full day drive. Offered by some camps with a packed lunch, covering ground you cannot reach on a three-hour outing. Worth doing once, particularly in large concessions.
What to Bring on a Game Drive
Less than you think, and a few things that matter.
Your own binoculars are the single most valuable item and the one travellers most often regret leaving. Some camps supply them and many do not guarantee it, and sharing a pair across a vehicle means missing things.
Layers, particularly in winter. June and July drives leave at around 6°C to 7°C with wind chill on an open vehicle, and by mid-morning you are in a shirt. Camps supply blankets and hot water bottles, which supplement your clothing rather than replacing it.
A camera with a telephoto lens of at least 300mm, and a beanbag rather than a tripod, since you cannot leave the vehicle in a park and legs take too long to set up.
A hat with a brim, sunglasses, sun cream and more water than you think you need. Dry season humidity runs 20 to 40 percent, so fluid loss goes unnoticed.
Neutral clothing in khaki, olive or brown. Avoid dark blue and black, which attract tsetse fly in the north.
Etiquette and Safety in the Vehicle
The rules are few and they are what keeps an unfenced safari safe.
Stay seated and stay inside the vehicle’s outline. Animals read a vehicle as a single large object and do not distinguish the people in it until somebody stands up or a limb sticks out. Do not stand, do not lean out.
Keep noise down at a sighting, and keep movement slow and deliberate rather than sudden.
Never ask a guide to get closer than they are comfortable with. A good guide is reading the animal’s behaviour continuously and will position accordingly.
Ask for the engine to be switched off if you want a long look at something distant, since idling vibration travels into binoculars and cameras. Most guides do this without being asked.
Do not feed anything, ever, and keep food out of sight in vehicles where baboons and vervets operate.
Consider a private vehicle if you are photographing seriously or travelling with children. It removes the compromise of sharing a sighting with guests who want to move on, and most camps offer it for a supplement. Families with children aged six to twelve are usually required to take one anyway.
Self-Drive Game Drives
Driving yourself in a Botswana park is genuinely possible and asks a great deal more of you.
Moremi, Chobe, the Central Kalahari and the pans all take self-drive traffic, and doing your own game drives is one of the real pleasures of a Botswana road trip.
What you need is a properly equipped 4×4, real deep sand experience, campsites booked well in advance and park permits arranged before arriving at the gate.
What you lose is the guide, and it shows. A licensed guide finds things you will drive past, reads behaviour you will misinterpret, and knows which track was productive yesterday. Self-drivers see less, and many consider the independence worth it.
The rules bind you the same way. Forty kilometres per hour, no off-road driving, out or at your campsite by gate closing, no night driving.
Fuel is not sold inside the parks, and recovery help can be hours away.
Frequently Asked Questions About Game Drives in Botswana
How long is a game drive in Botswana?
Three to four hours is standard, with a morning drive leaving at first light around six and an afternoon drive going out about four until dark. Both usually include a stop, for coffee in the morning and a sundowner drink in the evening. Some camps offer full day drives with a packed lunch, which cover ground a shorter outing cannot reach and are worth doing once, particularly in large concessions.
Can you do night drives in Botswana?
Only on private concessions and in community areas such as Khwai, not inside national parks or game reserves, which close their gates at set hours. Night drives use a handheld spotlight to pick up eyeshine and reveal a completely different set of animals, including aardvark, porcupine, civet, genet, serval, honey badger and springhare, alongside predators that are far more active after dark. If night drives matter, that decides where you stay.
What is the difference between a park and a concession game drive?
What the guide is permitted to do. National parks and reserves prohibit off-road driving entirely, so vehicles stay on designated tracks whatever the sighting, close gates at set hours ruling out night drives, and broadly restrict walking. Private concessions permit off-road driving, night drives and guided walking, and cap the number of vehicles at a sighting by agreement. Concession rates run considerably higher, and that access is what you are paying for.
What should I wear on a game drive?
Neutral colours in khaki, olive, brown or stone, avoiding white, bright colours, and dark blue and black, which attract tsetse fly in northern Botswana. Long sleeves and long trousers handle sun, thorns and insects at once. In winter, add a fleece, a windproof layer, gloves and a warm hat, since June and July drives leave at around 6°C to 7°C with wind chill on an open vehicle before warming considerably by mid-morning.
Should I book a private vehicle?
Worth considering for serious photography, since it removes the compromise of sharing a sighting with guests who want to move on and lets you position the vehicle for light rather than for the group. Most camps offer it for a supplement. Families with children aged six to twelve are usually required to take one anyway, and for them it is genuinely better, allowing you to cut a drive short without inconveniencing anybody.
Are game drive sightings guaranteed?
No, and any guide who suggests otherwise is selling rather than guiding. Botswana offers exceptional density in the right places at the right times, particularly elephant on the Chobe riverfront and predators in Moremi and the concessions during September and October, but wildlife moves and nothing is promised on any given drive. Three nights at a camp gives far better odds than two, since you get four or five drives rather than two.
Booking Your Botswana Trip
The safari companies and tour operators listed on this website put trips like this together for a living and know which camps, guides and routes actually deliver. We are an independent guide to Botswana; we do not book or sell tours ourselves.
When you are ready, arrange your safari, tour or holiday with one of the recognised operators listed here. Tell them your dates and what matters most, and a real person, not a form, will handle the itinerary, park bookings and logistics for you.