Botswana is one of the most beautiful countries we visited on our Southern Africa trip. However, it is also pretty expensive to travel here. For this reason, we only stayed seven days in the country and tried to find the cheapest safari options. Here is our budget for two travelers:
Transport
We didn’t rent a car and made our way by bus from Windhoek in Namibia through Botswana and to the border of Zambia:
Taxi from Namibian border to Charles Hill: 30 BWP ($3 USD)
Bus from Charles Hill to Ghanzi: 90 BWP ($9 USD)
Bus from Ghanzi to Maun: 90 BWP ($9 USD)
Bus from Maun to Kasane: 136 BWP ($14 USD)
Taxi from Kasane to the border: 30 BWP ($3 USD)
TOTAL: $38 USD
Accommodation
As always we were staying at campsites since they were the cheapest option with private rooms being three times more expensive at most times. We only stayed five nights on campsites because one night we took an overnight bus from Maun to Kasane and one night we camped on a mokoro tour in the Okavango Delta which is included in the tour price.
Camping at Kalahari Arms in Ghanzi: 300 BWP per night ($30 USD)
Camping at the Old Bridge Backpackers: 160 BWP per night (2 nights) ($16 USD)
Camping at the Chobe Safari Lodge: 180 BWP per night. ($18 USD)
TOTAL: $80 USD
Tours and activities
This is the main reason for visiting Botswana but we did a lot of research and think that we found the cheapest options in each place.
2-day/1-night camping trip to the Okavango Delta: 2.200 BWP ($222 USD)
Chobe River Cruise: 540 BWP ($54 USD)
Chobe Game Drive: 360 BWP ($36 USD)
Entrance fee Chobe National Park: 140 BWP ($14 USD)
TOTAL: $326 USD
Groceries
Most of the time we cooked ourselves but the Old Bridge Backpackers had vegan food options which were very exciting for us so we ate out two times and since we met a fellow traveler we also had some more beers than usual:
Dinner out at the Old Bridge(2x): 260 BWP ($26 USD)
Beers (6x): 114 BWP ($12 USD)
Groceries: 500 BWP ($50 USD)
TOTAL: $88 USD
TOTAL FOR 7 DAYS IN BOTSWANA: $532 USD