Botswana 10 Day Itinerary

The standard two-region trip: the Okavango and the Chobe riverfront, and the honest cost of the road between them.

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Elephants silhouetted at sunset on the Chobe River, northern Botswana. Photo: NikSimpson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A Botswana 10 day itinerary is where the two-region trip finally works. Seven days forces a choice between the Delta and the river; ten days lets you have both, provided you are honest about the transfer between them. Maun and Kasane are about 600 km apart on tar via Nata, and the interesting alternative through the park is slower still.

This route runs one way: start at Maun, work north through Moremi and Khwai, cross Savuti, and finish on the Chobe riverfront at Kasane. Both ends have an airport, which is what makes a one-way trip possible without repeating 600 km of your own tracks.

In this guide

• Who this itinerary suits
• The route at a glance
• Day by day
• The transfer: drive it or fly it
• When to do this trip
• What to cut if you lose a day
• Where this route extends

Who this Botswana 10 day itinerary suits

Ten days suits the traveller who wants Botswana’s two signature habitats in one trip and is willing to run the route one way rather than out and back. It is the most commonly booked shape in the country for good reason: the Delta and the Chobe riverfront are genuinely different, and seeing one without the other leaves a real gap.

It suits self-drivers who are comfortable with a long sand crossing, and it suits mixed parties who want to drive the first half and fly the second. It does not suit anyone hoping to add the salt pans or the Kalahari; both sit south of this route and pulling them in at ten days means cutting the Delta to a single night, which defeats the purpose.

One structural point worth deciding early: Kasane has an airport served by scheduled flights, which makes it one of the few places in Botswana you can reach without either a long drive or a charter. For many itineraries that single fact decides the shape of the trip.

The route at a glance

Day by day

Day 1 — Arrive Maun

Maun is the last dependable fuel, cash and provisioning point before the reserve. Take the night, collect the vehicle properly and check the campsite bookings rather than arriving at a gate with a reservation nobody can find. There is no fuel, no shop and no reliable signal inside Moremi.

Days 2–3 — Moremi Game Reserve

South Gate (Maqwee) is about 92 km from Maun, which is a long half-day in a loaded 4×4 rather than an hour drive, because the surface deteriorates well before the gate. Inside the reserve: daytime driving on established tracks at 40 km/h, no night drives, no walking, no off-road. Two nights around Xakanaxa or Third Bridge is enough to work one area rather than commute across the whole reserve.

Days 4–5 — Khwai

Khwai (NG19) is the community concession on Moremi’s north-eastern boundary, reached through North Gate. Because it sits outside the reserve, night drives, walking and off-road tracking are permitted. Two nights here buys the activities the previous two nights could not offer, which is why the pairing is worth the extra move rather than simply staying put in Moremi for four.

Day 6 — Savuti

Savuti is the middle section of Chobe National Park and the natural bridge between the Delta side and the river. It is open country and predator ground rather than river frontage, and self-drivers generally treat it as the harder second act after the riverfront rather than the other way round. Running it northbound, as this route does, means you arrive at the river having already done the demanding driving.

The Savuti Channel itself runs roughly 100 km from the Linyanti River into the marsh and the Mababe Depression, and over the past century it has dried and resumed flowing several times, killing stands of trees and later regenerating them. What you see there depends heavily on which phase it is in.

Days 7–9 — Kasane and the Chobe riverfront

Sedudu Gate is about 10 km from Kasane, close enough that a riverfront game drive is genuinely a morning rather than an expedition. Three nights is generous by Botswana standards and deliberately so: it gives you a boat cruise, at least two riverfront drives, and a recovery day after the park crossing. Two nights is the honest minimum to get a cruise and a drive without rushing either.

Note that night drives and walking safaris are not permitted inside the national park, so the evening activity here is the river rather than a spotlight. That is not a downside; the Chobe riverfront at dusk in the dry months is the reason most people came.

Day 10 — Depart, or add Victoria Falls

Kasane Airport is 4 km south of town and is served by Air Botswana from Gaborone and Airlink from Johannesburg, with charter transfers to the bush strips. Four countries sit within about an hour of the town, and Botswana Tourism gives Victoria Falls as 80 km away. If you have a spare day, that is the obvious use of it.

The transfer: drive it or fly it

There are three honest ways to get from the Delta side to the river, and they are not equivalent.

Through the park. Moremi to Khwai to Savuti to the Chobe riverfront is the classic self-drive run and the reason people hire a 4×4 in the first place. It is slow, sandy, and dependent on season and current track conditions. It is also the only version of this trip where the transfer is part of the holiday rather than a cost.

Round on the tar. Maun to Kasane is about 600 km via Nata, all tar. It is a full driving day and it shows you the A3 rather than the park. Take this option if the park route is closed, if the vehicle is not up to Savuti, or if the group has had enough sand.

Fly one leg. The most useful structural trick in Botswana planning is refusing to choose. Drive Maun to Moremi and Khwai in your own vehicle, then fly out from a Delta airstrip, or drive north to Kasane and fly back to Maun rather than repeating 600 km of tar. Driving is exposed to mud and flood; flying is expensive but unaffected by either, and it converts a long backtrack into an hour.

When to do this trip

June to August in Chobe is dry and effectively rainless, with minima of 9–12 °C that make a dawn drive or boat cruise genuinely cold. That is the peak window and it is priced accordingly. Once the rains break, animals disperse widely inland, including into Zimbabwe and Namibia, and the riverfront empties by comparison.

The green season from November to March gives you birds, newborn antelope and lower rates against harder game viewing and tracks that can close. The park crossing in particular is the part of this route most exposed to that. Check current access before committing, and read our best time to visit Botswana page for the regional trade-offs.

What to cut if you lose a day

Cut Savuti first and take the tar or a flight instead. It is the most demanding night in the itinerary and the easiest to remove without unbalancing the trip. Cut Kasane to two nights second. Do not cut Moremi or Khwai to a single night each; a one-night stop in either is mostly arrival and departure.

Where this route extends

Four more days brings the salt pans within reach, running south on the A33 from Kazungula to Nata and west into Nxai Pan and Makgadikgadi. That is the 14-day Botswana itinerary. Add another week and the Central Kalahari becomes possible, which is the 21-day route.

Shorter, and the answer is the 7-day itinerary, which keeps to one region on purpose.

Plan the next stage

• Chobe and Kasane — the region, its four park sections and three border crossings.
• Moremi Game Reserve — gates, camps and the rules that shape the route.
• 4×4 and vehicle requirements — what the park crossing actually demands.
• Travel planning — visas, money, health and connectivity.

Official sources

• Botswana Tourism Organisation — Chobe National Park (area, sections, gates and activities)
• Botswana Tourism Organisation — Kasane (distance to the park and to Victoria Falls, activities and services)

Reviewed August 2026. Park access, gate times, flood levels and flight schedules change; if something here is out of date, tell us.