Solo Travel Botswana: An Unforgettable Adventure

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If you’re considering solo travel, Botswana is the place to go!

I love Botswana. It’s a safe place with beautiful, friendly people, and incredible wildlife. I’m a big fan of travelling solo, and I found Botswana to be a perfect place to explore on my own.

Plus, as a female, I never felt unsafe while I was here, though I did exercise caution and common sense.

People ask me what it is about Africa that keeps bringing me back. I’ve discovered that this is something that’s hard to put into words.

And that isn’t easy to admit for someone who makes a living by putting things into words! Maybe it’s because I’m not quite sure myself.

Part of its appeal is the wildness of Africa. But coming from Western Canada, I’m used to wilderness. It’s easy to find, whether you’re looking for it or not.

And wild animals? Canada has bears, deer, mountain lions, moose – the list goes on. They’re not always around every corner, but it’s their home as much as it is ours. But it’s not wildness.

So what is it about Africa? Come with me on my trip to Botswana, one of my favourite places in Africa, and see if you can tell me.

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Solo Travel – Botswana

Botswana is the perfect place for a solo adventure in Africa. Even if you’re a female travelling on your own, like me. You just need your common sense and a grasp of basic travel safety to have a worry-free trip.

For example, I recommend never walking alone at night. Get a taxi door to door if you really must go out after dark. This applies even to the best parts of town.

It applies even to towns that are considered some of the safest in Africa, like Gaborone.

This was my first stop when I travelled to Botswana. I arrived in Botswana’s capital city of Gaborone, or Gabs, from Tanzania in the wee hours of the night. I grabbed a taxi at the airport to get me to my vacation rental.

The driver wasn’t familiar with the address I gave him, but fortunately, he had a GPS. This isn’t always the case. I’ve been asked for directions from taxi drivers several times, and that’s stressful in a new country!

Now I always try to have the Google Maps route from the airport to my accommodation downloaded on my phone. If I can. Just in case. An alternative that I highly recommend is to arrange an airport transfer in advance.

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Related Post
 A Botswana Wildlife Safari: The Best Trip for 2024

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Viator is a great place to find one at your destination. I also encourage you to speak with your driver – sometimes he will also offer taxi service and tours of the area. If you like him, ask about that.

But we were on our way, and we had a good chat. It turned out that his take on the US’s current president and his policies was interesting, and not that different from my own.

He’d spent his whole life in Botswana, and he had a lot of questions about Canada, where I’m from. About the schools, about healthcare, and about the food.

This always makes me laugh. We all wonder what we’d get to eat if we were somewhere new.

The people of Botswana, called Batswana, or Motswana in the singular, are some of the friendliest people I’ve come across in Africa. I find the language tough, though, and was glad that English is widely spoken.

I’d come to Africa this time with a different purpose than on my previous trips. Seeing the wildlife has always been my main reason for visiting.

Nothing can really compare to making one’s way through a landscape populated by the variety and the number of animals that live in Africa.

Wildlife – definitely an enormous part of what keeps bringing me back to Africa.

But this time I was determined to see the towns and the cities. I wanted to observe the people, talk to them. Find out what they thought about, what they did for fun, and what their dreams were.

I spent a month in Gabs doing just this. 

When I’m in a new place, I like to get around by walking as much as I can. I feel like this way I get to know a place better. Side streets, little diners, corner parks. And people.

I’d walk through the residential neighbourhood I was staying in. I’d exchange “dumela mma”  with the ladies who spent time every day sweeping their small dirt yards to keep them tidy. 

I met lovely, quiet women, and bold, boisterous women. They were all wonderful, and all marvelled at the fact that I was a woman travelling on my own.

I got to know the young girls who worked at the place I was staying at. And chatted with the kids as they walked home from school when I was on my way to the large supermarket nearby.

Because Gabs is a large city, and pretty spread out, I spent some time in taxis, too. They’re plentiful, inexpensive, and easy to find or flag down.

I found a driver who was a bit older, personable, and knew his way around well. A good taxi driver is gold, so when he offered me his cell number for future rides, I took it.

We’d sometimes take the long way to where I was going if he had an errand to run while I was riding with him. I went with him once to pick up his wife from her job keeping house for a doctor in a nearby suburb.

His name was Richie. Talking with him while he drove seemed to confirm what I’d heard from others whom I’d spoken to so far on my trip. That Batswana aren’t that different from people anywhere. 

They thought about their families and their friends. They went to work and came home to some housework and some yard work. They played sports and games and went out on dates. 

They hoped for a better job but were grateful for the one they had. They did what they could to make a better life for themselves and the people they cared about.

But there’s one main difference. It seems to be the fact that the opportunities for these things are much more available to those of us in the Western world. 

They see Canada as a utopia, and they made me see it that way, too. 

I had an amazing time getting to know the people in Gabs, and the city itself. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Botswana is one of the best places in Africa to see the wildlife.

I hadn’t been on safari in Botswana yet, and I couldn’t resist.   

For me, it’s all about making the most of my time where I’m at. For my first Botswana safari, I wanted to go with a guide who knew the territory. Also, I didn’t want the hassle of renting equipment for myself.

And, honestly, I love having someone else cook for me.

So I got online and found the longest camping safari I could that started ASAP. Camping is absolutely my favourite way to go when I’m in the bush.

This tour left from Maun, a smaller town on the edge of the Okavango Delta. It’s about an hour and a half flight to the north of Gabs, and it started in a week!

*I got lucky – I was solo, and it was off-season. I recommend booking much further in advance if you can.

It was 17 days long, it ran through Christmas and ended a few days after the New Year. Plus, I was able to get a great, affordable vacation rental – yup, even in Africa – in Maun.

I booked it for the few days before the safari started, and a few weeks after it ended. So I wasn’t completely abandoning my people project.

I enjoyed my few days exploring Maun (that’s pronounced Mau-oon’), but I was excited for the safari to start! I met up with the guide and group at a shopping centre near where I was staying.

From here we all stocked up on gallon jugs of drinking water for the trip, along with soft drinks and favourite snacks.

I was lucky to end up with a small, really great group of international travellers of all ages. The US was represented, as was Switzerland, Germany, and Australia.

We had a bit of drama to start when a young Swiss fellow’s luggage didn’t meet him at the Maun Airport.

But not to worry, he had the important stuff – his drone and camera equipment. He was able to borrow a bit of clothing from Sheila, the German interpreter. 

He was a great sport when it came to the good-natured ribbing that went along with wearing women’s shorts. I think that “I feel very secure in my masculinity” were his words.

The safari was spectacular. We began in the Central Kalahari, moving to a different wild camp each night and setting up our tents. Our facilities consisted of a freshly dug latrine with canvas walls.

We also had an occasional outdoor shower with canvas walls. Both of these travelled with us, and our guide took care of putting them up and packing them up at each camp. 

We travellers were responsible only for setting up our own tents. Our amazing guide and our equally outstanding cook took care of everything else.

But, of course, we all chipped in wherever we could.

There’s no better way to sleep in the African bush than in a tent, with as little between you and the ground as possible. There are always quintessential African sounds to drift off to.

The grunt of hippos, and the whoop and giggle of hyenas. Everything sounds close in the still night air. And if you’re really lucky, a nearby lion will roar, calling out to their pride.

Sometimes this roar will cause the ground to tremble just a bit. That feeling as you lie in your tent is something that you’ll never forget.

I always tried to stay awake as long as I could, afraid I would miss something.

We did have a few curious visitors in camp during the night. A black-back jackal sniffing around the campfire in the Kalahari. A lone hyena in the Okavango Delta wreaking just a little havoc with the safari vehicle.

No real harm done, and always exciting to talk about in the morning.

Mornings in a safari camp are really the only times I enjoy mornings. Toast and tea or coffee, the spectacular African sunrise – they are always insanely beautiful in Africa.

And the anticipation of what the day will hold for us. Plus the odd discovery when packing up of a scorpion sleeping under a tent, or a community spiders’ nest nearby.

After we’d explored the Kalahari, we travelled through the Okavango Delta, including Moremi Game Reserve. We carried on to the Khwai Concession and Chobe National Park, through Savute.

Every day included an early morning game drive and an afternoon one. Even without the wildlife, the African landscape is stunning to drive through. But of course, the focus is on the animals.  

The hottest part of the afternoon is when the wildlife is the least active. This time is spent back at camp, reading, chatting, or napping.

It’s also the perfect time to get to know the people in your group, if that’s your thing.

Elephants handle the heat well, and often wandered past the camp during the day. We’d watch them go by and smile at each other, and someone would say what we were all thinking – “I love Africa”.

A good guide can spot wildlife where you could swear there was none. And as this was summer in Botswana and water was more plentiful than in winter, the animals were more spread out.

That made this skill especially impressive.

An expert guide also knows where the best places to look are. We were treated to amazing sightings of leopards, lions, cheetahs, buffalo, hippos, and crocodiles, to name just a very few. 

We even saw the smaller guys like the bat-eared foxes (above) and aardwolves.

And with all of those stunning sightings, one of the most fun was watching a honey badger dig for his lunch. They can smell the tasty scorpions, reptiles and amphibians underground, and will dig like fiends to find them. 

As many as 50 small craters were left around this guy’s lunch spot. Next to each one, we got to watch the badger smacking and crunching a succulent scorpion or giant beetle. 

They’re known as fearless and ferocious animals, and even lions and leopards avoid tangling with them. 

On a morning game drive through the savannah of the Kalahari, we came across a 2 lion coalition, brothers. One had had a tussle with a cape porcupine and had quills stuck in his mane.

The other grabbed hold of one with his teeth as he walked past – one less quill to worry about. Sometimes a lion just needs his brother.

The highlight of this safari for me was a bushwalk in the Okavango Delta. An older local fellow was our guide, and he travelled without a gun. He used his wits and a lifetime of experience to keep us all safe.

We travelled by a traditional canoe called a mokoro through the waters of the Delta. This took us to a large area of land where we’d begin our bushwalk.

At one point we passed a “bloat” of hippos, and the alpha bull hippo took exception to our presence. 

He reared up and roared at us, chasing after our small group of boats. This prompted our guide to lead the mokoros quickly to the nearest dry land.

We had to wait for almost an hour before we were he would take us back into the water. All part of the fun.

In the meantime, a light rain started to fall and we took shelter in a copse of trees with a tiny clearing. Even there we could enjoy the lilac-breasted rollers and other mesmerizing birds that are everywhere in the Delta.

We left the trees a few minutes later, and I ducked back in to get the daypack that I’d left behind. At the same time, a spotted hyena trotted past an opening on the other side of the copse, 6 or 8 feet from me.

We both saw each other at the same time and stopped to stare for a startled second.

That stare felt longer than it actually was. I really only had time to think how much bigger he looked from the ground than hyenas look from the truck.

All in all the safari was an incredible experience, and it was over way too soon.

I left my safari family in Livingstone, Zambia and returned to Maun, and to my solo adventures. After falling into a routine in Maun and seeing as much of this little town as I could, I moved on to Namibia. 

I continued to observe and enjoy the people I met. But my time in Africa was once again focused on the iconic wildlife. 

Is Botswana Safe for Solo Female Travellers?

As I mentioned at the beginning, yes, Botswana can be a safe place for solo female travellers. But ‘safe’ in Botswana may not equate to ‘safe’ in your home country.

There are rules that all visitors should follow when visiting Botswana. Unfortunately, solo females need to be especially vigilant.

The first rule – never walk alone after dark. Even just a few blocks. Or in an area you’ve heard is safe. Or somewhere that you’ve been a hundred times in the daylight and think it seems fine. Just don’t.

Here are just a few tips more to follow during solo travel in Botswana:

1. Avoid clothes that scream “tourist”, as this can make you stand out and potentially make you vulnerable. Opt more for the casual clothes you might wear at home.

2. Be careful when choosing an ATM  to use. If you find one that seems isolated, or if there seem to be sketchy people around, keep looking.

3. During your pre-trip research, investigate any common scams in your destination area. For instance, if there’s a known taxi scam, familiarize yourself with the appearance of legitimate taxis.

4. Project an air of purpose and direction when walking. Before setting out each day, ensure the area’s map is downloaded on your phone for offline access.

5. Always have your accommodation’s address with you before leaving for the day. Also, make it easily retrievable on your phone. If they have one, take a business card from your hotel.

6. It’s advisable not to use both earbuds. While it’s important to hear directions from your map app, staying alert to your surroundings is crucial.

7. If someone approaches you and you feel uneasy, don’t hesitate to cross the street. Feigning ignorance of the language, shaking your head firmly and quickening your pace can be useful strategies.

If you spot someone who seems trustworthy – an older person, or mom with kids – engage them in conversation. Trust your gut – your safety is always more important than being polite.

These are just a handful of strategies for staying safe in Botswana. You can find a much more comprehensive list in 41 Health & Safety Tips for Travel in Africa.

Best Time to Visit Botswana

If you’re planning to spend some time in Botswana, the best time to go depends on what you plan to do there. To get a glimpse of Botswana’s incredible wildlife, the best time to visit is from around June to October. This is known as the dry season, or winter.

During the dry season, animals are more likely to gather around water sources, making them easier to find. There are also fewer plants and leaves to block your view.

Additionally, many of Botswana’s parks and reserves are more difficult to reach during the rainy season, so the dry season is the best time to visit these areas.

With mild temperatures and clear skies, the dry season is a perfect time to see Botswana’s amazing wildlife. If you want an unforgettable wildlife experience, this is a great time to go.

But really, whether you’re going to explore Botswana apart from the wildlife, or a safari is your goal, there’s no bad time.

Summertime, around November through May, is the rainy season. However, it doesn’t rain constantly, so it’s unlikely that you’ll have to spend much time waiting out a storm.

Keep in mind that October is the hottest month, with an average day temp of 34ºC. June and July are the coolest months, averaging about 15ºC during the day.

Botswana does often get frost at night, and mornings can be very cool. Pack accordingly, especially if you’ll be on a safari vehicle at sunrise!

For all the packing info you need, click over to our comprehensive packing post.

Summing It Up: Solo Travel Botswana

As for why I keep returning to Africa, I’m still working on a good answer to that. But I think, if you’ve experienced it for yourself, you’ll know.

As well, Botswana definitely stands out as a top destination for solo travel in Africa. Its undisturbed wilderness, the fascinating culture, and the hospitality of the locals create an experience that I love.

For solo travellers seeking a unique, authentic, and secure African journey, Botswana undoubtedly deserves your consideration.

This isn’t just another travel recommendation – it’s an invitation to discover the untapped wonders of Botswana for yourself.

Happy travels!

Read more about Africa:

➵ The National Animal of Botswana: What It Is and Why It Was Chosen
➵ 125 Solo Female Travel Quotes: Unleash Your Wanderlust
➵ Types of Safaris in Africa
➵ The Best African Sunset and Where You Can Find It

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