Palapye
The busiest overnight stop on the A1, a university and coalfield town in the middle of nowhere in particular, and the junction that decides whether you are going to Serowe or carrying on north.
Palapye accommodationThe A1 corridorThe church at Old Palapye, photographed around 1895 by Rev. William Charles Willoughby and now a ruin a few kilometres from the modern town. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Where Palapye is, and why you end up there
Palapye sits on the A1 in Botswana’s Central District, roughly 240 kilometres north of Gaborone and 170 kilometres south of Francistown. That position is the whole story. It is far enough from the capital that a late start puts you here at dusk, and far enough from Francistown that pushing on is a decision rather than a formality. It is also where the A1 meets the A14, the road west to Serowe and the Khama Rhino Sanctuary.
The result is a town with a much larger and more varied stock of beds than a visitor would predict from the map — and one of the reasons this site lists a substantial Palapye inventory rather than a token two or three lodges.
A town that grew for reasons that have nothing to do with tourism
The 2022 census recorded 52,398 residents, up from 37,256 in 2011 — growth of about 3.3 per cent a year, which is fast by any standard. Two things drove it.
The first is energy. The Morupule colliery and its power stations sit just outside town and are Botswana’s principal domestic source of electricity, with Morupule A rated at 132 MW and Morupule B at 600 MW. The second is education. The Botswana International University of Science and Technology opened its Palapye campus in 2012 on a 2,500-hectare site against the Tswapong Hills, taking pressure off the University of Botswana in Gaborone.
For a traveller this matters in a practical way. A town built around a coalfield, a power station and a university runs on contractors, engineers, students and visiting staff. That means mid-range guesthouses and business hotels rather than safari lodges, food that is open late, and fuel that is genuinely reliable — which is exactly what you want at the end of a long day on the A1, and not at all what you get in a village that exists only for tourists.
Old Palapye, and the name
The modern town is young; the place is not. The name comes from Phalatswe, meaning the place of impalas. Old Palapye, a few kilometres from the present centre, was the capital of the Bangwato under Khama III until 1902, and the ruins of the church built there in 1892 still stand — the building photographed at the top of this page while it was still in use. It is the most substantial piece of nineteenth-century Bangwato history you can reach from the A1 without a detour worth the name, and it is the single best reason to give Palapye a morning rather than only a night.
Getting there and onward routes
- From Gaborone — about 240 km north on the A1, via Mahalapye. Three to four hours realistically.
- From Francistown — about 163 km south on the A1. Under two hours.
- To Serowe and the Khama Rhino Sanctuary — west on the A14. This is the reason many people stop in Palapye at all.
- North to the parks — continue on the A1 to Francistown, then the A3 towards Nata for either Maun or Kasane.
Palapye also has a railway station on the line between Gaborone and Francistown, which matters if you are travelling without a vehicle.
Where to stay, and how long
Most people give Palapye one night, and for most trips that is correct: it is a break in a drive, not a destination in itself. Two nights makes sense if you intend to see Old Palapye properly, or if you are using the town as a base for a day trip west to Serowe and the Khama Rhino Sanctuary rather than moving your luggage.
What you will find is guesthouses, small hotels and serviced lodges aimed at business and contract travellers. Expect functional rather than scenic, and expect the better ones to be booked out mid-week during term and project cycles — a genuine consideration in a town whose demand is not seasonal in the way a safari town’s is.
Accommodation in Palapye
Every Palapye property we have checked. Each card opens our own property page first - we publish no rates, no availability and no ratings of our own.
View all 48 Palapye properties
Every card opens our own property page first. We publish no rates, no availability and no ratings of our own.
Best time to visit
Palapye is a stopover town, so the honest answer is that its season is dictated by wherever you are going next rather than by the town. That said, the Central District sits at the edge of the Kalahari and swings hard: winter nights from May to August are genuinely cold, and October before the rains is the hottest and least pleasant month to be sitting in traffic on the A1. If you are timing a trip around the Makgadikgadi or the Delta, the corridor drive will simply follow.
What Palapye puts you within reach of
- Old Palapye (Phalatswe) — the Bangwato capital until 1902 and its 1892 church ruin, a few kilometres out of town.
- Serowe — west on the A14, the Khama family seat and one of the largest villages in southern Africa.
- Khama Rhino Sanctuary — a community sanctuary near Serowe, comfortably a day trip from Palapye.
- The Tswapong Hills — the range the BIUST campus sits against, running east of the town.
Plan the rest of your trip
- The A1 corridor — the full Gaborone to Francistown drive, with distances and timings.
- Eastern Botswana — the region Palapye belongs to.
- All Palapye accommodation, or every town archive.
- Self-drive Botswana and travel planning.
Sources and references
- Statistics Botswana — the 2022 Population and Housing Census
- Botswana International University of Science and Technology
- Botswana Tourism Organisation
- Botswana Power Corporation — the Morupule stations
Nearby
What the A14 junction at Palapye actually opens up.
The Khama seat, west on the A14, and the reason to turn off rather than drive past.
Open →Khama Rhino SanctuaryA community sanctuary within a comfortable day trip of Palapye.
Open →FrancistownThe next city north, and where the road to the parks divides.
Open →The best-supplied stop on the A1.
If you are breaking the drive between Gaborone and Francistown, Palapye has the beds, the fuel and the food. Book the town, then decide about Serowe in the morning.
Palapye accommodationEastern BotswanaView all accommodation in Palapye — every property we have published there, each with our own write-up before any booking route.