Accommodation in Gaborone

Gaborone is where most Botswana trips start and finish. Sir Seretse Khama International Airport sits on the north-eastern edge of the city, the A1 runs south toward Lobatse and the border, and the Tlokweng Gate crossing into South Africa is a short drive east. Almost nobody comes to the capital for wildlife; people come for a flight, a meeting, a hire car or a night before the road north. For the wider region — Tlokweng, Mogoditshane, Molepolole, Kanye, Lobatse and Jwaneng — see accommodation across Gaborone and the South-East, and the Gaborone travel guide for what to do here.

That shapes the accommodation. The centre and the Central Business District hold the business hotels. Beyond them, in Broadhurst, the Village, Phakalane and the numbered blocks, the bed stock is overwhelmingly small licensed guesthouses and bed and breakfasts on residential plots — places that hold a national tourism licence but rarely appear on international booking channels.

The practical question in Gaborone is location rather than character. A guesthouse fifteen minutes from the airport is a different proposition from one on the far side of the city at seven in the morning. Every property below is licensed with Botswana Tourism, and each page records what the register actually publishes: class, locality and room count, with no invented facilities.

Read our full Gaborone travel guide for what there is to do, when to go and how the town fits a wider route.