Island Safari Lodge occupies a private island reserve on the Thamalakane off the Shorobe road, in Matlapana ward north-east of Maun. The lodge puts the reserve at about 300 acres. It is far enough out to feel like bush and close enough that the airport is a short drive, which is the trade most Maun travellers are actually trying to make.
Quick facts
- Area
- Maun
- Property type
- Safari Lodge
- Setting
- Private island reserve on the Thamalakane, Shorobe road
- Nearest park or reserve
- Moremi Game Reserve
Rooms and camping
Botswana Tourism records 24 rooms. The lodge divides them into twelve free-standing Heritage Chalets, six Heritage Rooms and six Family Rooms with bunk beds, all en-suite with satellite television and air conditioning. A camping area runs alongside.
Facilities at Island Safari Lodge
Two swimming pools including a children’s pool, a restaurant, a bar and lounge with a campfire, and walking trails through the island reserve. Mokoro trips, boat cruises and day trips are booked on site, and the lodge runs airport transfers.
Who it suits
Travellers who want bush and water on arrival rather than a town hotel, and families who need bunk-bed rooms and a pool that is not just decoration.
Location and access
Tar on the Shorobe road then a short access track. The lodge puts it at about 10 km from Maun International Airport. No 4×4 required in normal conditions.
How we checked this listing
Room counts and facilities come from the lodge’s own website and the Botswana Tourism Organisation register. We have not stayed here.
An island is a different kind of Maun stay
The Thamalakane splits and rejoins on its way past Maun, and several properties on the Shorobe road sit on the channels. Island Safari Lodge is on one of the islands that results, with the reserve wrapped around it, so the walking trails are on the property rather than somewhere you drive to.
That gives an arrival day something to do that is not shopping. If you have landed from a long-haul flight and are flying into the Delta the following morning, a walk and a pool beat an afternoon in town. Our Okavango Delta guide covers what comes next.
Water is seasonal here, as it is everywhere in this system
The Thamalakane carries water that fell on the Angolan highlands months earlier and worked its way down through the Delta, so the river outside a Maun lodge is not a fixed feature. In some years it runs strongly past Maun; in others it is low or dry in stretches.
We cannot tell you what it will be doing when you arrive, and neither can a photograph taken in a good year. If the water itself is the reason you are booking, ask the lodge directly before you commit — and read our guide to the Okavango flood cycle for why the timing is counter-intuitive.
Who Island Safari Lodge suits
- Families, for the bunk-bed family rooms, the children’s pool and space to run about that a town hotel cannot offer.
- Arrival and departure nights where you want the bush immediately rather than after a two-hour flight into a camp.
- Self-drivers staging for Moremi or Khwai, with camping alongside if you are carrying your own kit.
It suits you less if you need to be near the banks and the shops. Every errand from here is a drive into town.
Book or compare
The availability button on this page opens Island Safari Lodge through our booking partner. We click-tested it on 30 August 2026 and it resolves to this property.
We publish no rate here. Prices move with season, occupancy and cancellation terms, and a figure copied once is a figure that goes stale.
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What we publish, and what we do not
We publish no rates, no availability, no star ratings and no review scores of our own. Prices and room availability are shown by the booking partner at the link below, not by us.
If anything here is out of date, tell us through our contact page and we will check it against the source and correct it.
