Botswana Country Guide

Botswana is Africa’s game country, well known for its vast safari lands where adventure seekers can have a holiday of a lifetime. Wildlife spotting mingled with some cultural detours make for the ideal vacation.

Tourists have discovered the boundless game spotting opportunities in Botswana and come here in numbers as large as the wildlife population of the country itself!

Our Botswana Country Guide is full of handy information to plan for and use throughout your Botswana vacation. For some details on the many exciting things to see and do in Botswana, check out our Botswana Destination Guide and our Botswana tour ideas. Let us guide you through Botswana with our local suggestions.

Check out the latest Botswana Travel features on YouTube.

Botswana Country Guide

The good news for travellers is that Botswana is doing all it can to preserve its precious flora and fauna – so plan a trip here and make the most of what nature has to offer. As much as 17% of the land in the country has been set aside as National Park lands and if the privately owned reserves are added to the number, 40% of Botswana is green, wildlife reserves.

The world’s largest inland delta is also in Botswana and it may seem hard to imagine, but the bulk of the country is actually desert land. The deltaic regions of the country have been developed around tourism and great places to stay lie cosily tucked away between lagoons. Visitors can spot a variety of birdlife, giraffes and elephants in the waters and grasslands.

Follow the links below or scroll further down the page for some handy details to help you plan your Botswana holiday:

Check out our Botswana weather page to find out about the climate and weather in Botswana, the best time to visit, and for a comprehensive six-day Botswana weather forecast. Updated regularly, our six-day weather forecast will be a useful tool to help you plan your upcoming activities as you travel Botswana.

Major towns and cities in Botswana are well connected via an optic fibre communication network. There a number of government-run radio stations and newspapers as well as several privately run newspapers (as many as six weeklies at last count). The country’s first private radio stations were established in 1999 and have since grown in popularity. Botswana’s premier national television channel remains BTV or Botswana Television, which was launched in 2000 by the government.

Communication systems in Botswana in general have improved with the arrival of a number of mobile cellular service operators and the setting up of regional hubs. Open wire lines, radio communication stations and microwave radio relay links have helped provide the stimulus needed for the networks to grow. There are two international exchanges and 1 Intelsat serving the country besides digital microwave radio links hooking up to Zambia, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The interestingly named currency of Botswana – the Pula, when translated means ‘rain’ in the local Setswana language. Rain in the country is as precious as money itself and its rarity has made the name of the currency all the more poignant. Pula came into force in 1976 as the national currency after the South African rand was phased out.

Pula has the proud claim to being one of Africa’s strongest currencies. 50, 25, 10, 5 thebe coins and 5, 2 and 1 pula coins used to be in circulation until the thebe coins were discontinued in the country. Paper currency is available in 100, 50, 20 and 10 Pula.

Credit cards are accepted in major lodges and hotels across Botswana, as are foreign currency and traveller's cheques. Banks and money changing bureaux are present in most big cities and towns and are a safe and reliable place to change your money or cheques for some Pula. ATM machines dispense local currency but do check if your ATM card is accepted by the machines available. The surcharge on exchanging traveller's cheques is extremely high. Try and take your cheques in Pound Sterling or US dollars to allow for easy exchange.

Botswana runs off a 220-240V, 50 HZ

For a list of Botswana embassies around the world and foreign embassies within Botswana, check out EmbassyWorld.com.

Population: 1.9 million people
Total Area: 581,730 sq km
Capital: Gaborone
Time Zone: UTC+2

For current time in Gabarone, click on this link to TimeAndDate.com.

Botswana shares borders with Zimbabwe to its northeast, South Africa to its east and south, Namibia to the west and north, and Zambia to its west, close to the Victoria Falls. The magnificent yet harsh Kalahari Desert covers the tableland of Botswana and makes up much of its landscape. Despite the predominance of the arid desert on the one hand, Botswana is blessed with an abundance of green parkland rich with wildlife. Nearly 40% of the country is reserve land – private as well as national parks. National parks make up 17% of the land area of the country.

The Okavango Delta in the northwest of Botswana is the world’s biggest inland delta and the famous Moremi Game Reserve is spread across as much as two-thirds of this deltaic region.

The Linyanti and Savute regions fall under the Chobe National Park lands to the north while the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park covers areas in the southwest, including parts of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Management of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park is, however, done centrally as one single set up.

Much of Botswana’s population is concentrated in the southeast along the border with South Africa in Kanye, Serowe and Gaborone. The Kalahari dominates the western, northern and central areas. Seasonal rainfall is a boon to those living in the Okavango Delta and Makgadikgadi Pans and has helped vegetation thrive in these parts. Visitors to the delta region in particular will find that after a winter flood, the reserve is remarkably green and the wildlife bountiful, making it one of the most scenic places in Africa.

As with many other African nations, you need to be wary of catching typhoid, HIV/Aids and malaria on your holiday here. If you have been inoculated against polio as a child but never had any follow up doses as an adult, you would be advised to also take the polio vaccine. If you’re travelling to the north anytime from November to June, you will need to be careful not to catch malaria, which is rampant in the area during this time of year.

By law, there are no mandatory vaccinations you need to take (be sure to check this is true of your countries laws). However, if you are travelling from any country that is prone to yellow fever, then you will need a yellow fever vaccination certificate. If there is an anthrax outbreak among the wild animals during your stay there, check with park authorities for any advisories. The healthcare system in the cities and towns is well developed; however, far flung locations may not be as well equipped. It is best to get some form of health insurance cover for your trip – it is critical.

Drinking water straight from the tap in any urban centre is largely okay, as is eating food at local restaurants.

Agriculture came to the fore in the some areas in the country from the 7th to the 13th century. After the 14th century, though, the Tswana dynasty took control from the eastern extremities (a region now part of the Gauteng Province of South Africa). The collapse of local economies accompanied by slavery brought fresh change in the 19th century and saw those from the north making their way to new lands. First came the Kololo, then the Ndebele and later the Boer settlers and British colonialists.

Many local leaders and rulers affiliated themselves to the British and opposed the Boers. Significant among them was the Tswana King Sechele, who was at the helm from 1829 to 1892.

Britain in its trademark style of colonialism used private means to gain control of Botswana. By 1890 Botswana had come under the control of the British South Africa Company and by extension, under the control of the British protectorate and the Empire. The company came to be known as the Bechuanaland Protectorate and was given administrative charge of the region.

It was only in 1951 that an African-European advisory council was set up. By 1961 the constitution provided for the creation of a consultative legislative council, paving the way for modern-day Botswana.

Officially, Botswana names English as its national language. However, much of the country speaks Tswana.

Farmers as well as those living in the south of the country speak Afrikaans. Some locals speak San dialects. People in the north near Chibe speak Sibuya while those to the southeast are most comfortable with Ndebele, making the country quite the melting pot of languages and dialects!

More importantly for travellers – guided safaris are almost always conducted in English, so you don’t have to worry too much about communicating and being understood unless you plan to spend a lot of time in the smaller towns and villages away from the main tourist circuit.

Botswana is located in Southern Africa. To view a map of Botswana, click on this link to WorldAtlas.com.

The bush men of Botswana, known as the San, are a fascinating group. The cultural uniqueness of these people indigenous to the Kalahari Desert region draws many a visitor. Do remember, though, that much of the romanticised notions one may have about the San are built on hearsay and popular culture and must be taken with a pinch of salt. The reality may be quite different!

The San people have sadly been marginalised on their own lands by outsiders who have not given them recognition of ownership of lands that have been part of San life for centuries. They are territorial and do not lead a nomadic life, making the presence of fixed lands all the more central to their lives and livelihood. They have been able to build life off lands that no one else wanted and make animal and plant life thrive alongside their social and cultural systems.

The San are not one homogenous group – they are actually made of a number of different family groups each speaking their own dialect. This essentially means that one San may not always understand another! Sadly, what they all have in common is being on the fringes of Botswana society with a number of challenges to cope with.

When Botswana gained independence, it was one of the world’s 10 poorest nations. Since 1966, though, the country has come a long way. Just a few years after independence, diamonds were discovered on the land here and helped turn the state of the economy around. Today, Botswana is the world’s 3rd biggest producer of diamonds and has a healthy growth rate and a strong economy.

Follow the link  to view a current list of public holidays in Botswana.

Owing to its close association with several European countries by way of both missionaries and colonizers, Botswana is largely a Christian nation. The official religion is Christianity, with services being conducted in English (mainly in the cities and towns) and Tswana (in smaller towns and villages).

The practise of Christianity in its true form is limited to just about 20% of the population; the rest have evolved their own versions of worship, which combine local traditions, faith healing and the more traditional Christian practices.

Traditionally, local beliefs accord great importance to the role of ancestors, who are revered and even worshipped. There is a definite belief in the spiritual world and its influence in one's daily life.

Besides Christians, the expat community in the country also includes a number of Muslims and Hindus.

To enter Botswana, you will need a valid passport, tickets (return or onward) as well as funds that will cover your expenses during your time in the country.

If you’re a citizen of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand or Australia, you will not require a visa if you plan to visit for under 90 days.

Do check on the latest travel norms before you leave your home country, though, just to be sure. It is best to check with the local embassy or consulate of Botswana in your country on the latest rules and entry requirements.