Cresta Riley’s stands in the middle of Maun, a few minutes’ walk from the main shops and the bridge over the Thamalakane. It is the oldest hotel in town — it began as Riley’s, the trading store and hotel that gave the settlement its first permanent address — and it is now run by the Botswana hotel group Cresta. If most Maun properties sell you the river, this one sells you the town.
Quick facts
- Area
- Maun
- Property type
- Hotel
- Setting
- Central Maun, 3 km from the airport
- Nearest park or reserve
- Moremi Game Reserve
Rooms
Botswana Tourism records the hotel at 51 rooms and 102 beds. Cresta’s own listing divides them into Standard and Deluxe rooms at around 30 m² and Suites at around 35 m². All are air-conditioned with satellite television and Wi-Fi.
Facilities at Cresta Riley’s
A restaurant and bar, conference facilities, and Wi-Fi throughout. This is a working town hotel rather than a safari lodge: there is no game-viewing deck and no activity fleet parked outside. Trips into the Delta and Moremi are booked through operators in town, most of them within walking distance.
Location and access
About 3 km from Maun International Airport on tar the whole way, and walkable to the main shopping area. No 4×4 required, and secure parking on site.
Being in town is the whole point
Maun is a working town before it is a safari gateway, and most of what a traveller actually needs from it is transactional. Money, fuel, a SIM card, a supermarket shop before a self-drive, a replacement part, a conversation with the operator whose vehicle you are about to get into. Nearly all of that sits within a short walk of this hotel.
The riverside lodges north-east of town on the Shorobe road are quieter and prettier, and if you are arriving to fly straight into the Delta they may suit you better. But they are 10 to 20 minutes out, which means every errand becomes a drive. Our Maun guide covers the town itself — what is where, and how long things take.
The oldest address in Maun
Riley’s was a trading store and hotel long before Maun was a tourism destination, and the name still carries locally even though the hotel has been Cresta Riley’s for years. You will find it listed on older maps, in older guidebooks and on a good deal of the web simply as Riley’s Hotel. If you are searching for it, try both.
That history is worth knowing but it is not a reason to book. The building has been through several refurbishments and what you get today is a competent mid-range town hotel, not a heritage property.
Who it suits
Travellers who want to be in Maun rather than 15 km outside it — because they have errands, a bank to visit, a vehicle to collect, or an early flight and no interest in a pre-dawn drive.
- Arrival and departure nights where the airport is 3 km away and you would rather not add a drive at either end.
- Self-drivers resupplying before Moremi, Khwai or the Makgadikgadi, who want the shops and the fuel on the doorstep.
- Business and conference travellers, who are a large part of Maun’s year-round trade and are badly served by lodges built around game drives.
It suits you less if you have come for the Thamalakane. You are near the river here, not on it, and the view from a town hotel is a town.
Check availability at Cresta Riley’s
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