Chobe National Park protects 11,700 square kilometres of floodplains, savanna, and mopane woodland along Botswana's northern border, home to an estimated 120,000 elephants — the highest concentration on the African continent.
Established in 1968 as Botswana's first national park, Chobe anchors one of southern Africa's most intact wildlife corridors, linking the Okavango Delta to the west with Zimbabwe's Hwange ecosystem across the Zambezi. The park's northern Serondela sector, where the permanent Chobe River threads through seasonal grasslands, supports year-round populations of buffalo, hippo, and Nile crocodile, while the dry interior pans of Savuti and Linyanti host migratory herds and opportunistic predators.
Chobe National Park safari packages typically combine morning game drives through riverine forest with afternoon boat excursions along the river's edge, where elephants wade chest-deep to reach island vegetation and fish eagles patrol exposed mudbanks. The park's four distinct ecosystems — riverfront woodland, Savuti Marsh, Linyanti swamps, and the arid hinterland — shift character with the seasons: the November-to-March rains green the interior and scatter herds across temporary pans, while the June-to-October dry months compress wildlife along the Chobe River, producing the dense game concentrations that draw photographers and researchers. Lion prides trail buffalo herds through the mopane, leopards cache impala in leadwood branches, and wild dog packs course the open flats, their ranges overlapping with resident cheetah and spotted hyena clans.
Most Chobe safari packages depart from Kasane, the gateway town 5 kilometres north of the Sedudu Gate, or include road transfers from Victoria Falls, 80 kilometres west across the Zimbabwean border. Day safaris layer a three-hour river cruise with a four-hour game drive, maximising contact with the park's 460 recorded bird species and seasonal elephant aggregations that can exceed 1,000 individuals on a single floodplain. Multi-day packages push deeper into Savuti's fossil shorelines or the remote Linyanti channels, where overnight mobile camps and fixed lodges offer predator tracking and night drives unavailable in the day-visitor zones. The park operates year-round, though road conditions in the wet season restrict access to specialist four-wheel-drive operators.
10 hr
