AFRICA TC JOURNEYS
A Romantic Botswana Safari:
Five Nights Between Chobe and the Khwai
5 nights | 2 adults
Trip highlights
- Wake to uninterrupted views across the Chobe River floodplains.
- Experience wildlife encounters in Chobe National Park, one of Africa's most prolific game reserves.
- Spend three nights at a classic safari-style camp with just four luxury tented rooms on the edge of the Khwai River.
- Glide along the Chobe River by boat, watching hippos surface beside you and elephants gather at the water's edge.
- Track lion prides, and other wildlife on morning and evening game drives through the remote heart of the Khwai.
This 5-night journey through Botswana pairs the elevated clifftop setting of Ngoma Safari Lodge near Kasane with the intimate remoteness of Little Machaba Camp in the Khwai area. Both properties are fully inclusive throughout, and every need is taken care of. All you need to do is arrive.
Day 1: Arrival in Kasane and Ngoma Safari Lodge
You land at Kasane Airport and your road transfer to Ngoma Safari Lodge takes you along the edge of Chobe National Park, where elephants routinely wander across the road as though the traffic is their inconvenience, not the other way around. Ngoma is perched high on a sandstone ridge, and when you step onto the deck of your suite for the first time, you'll understand immediately why this spot was chosen. The Chobe River stretches out below, wide and copper-coloured in the late afternoon light, with Namibia visible across the far bank. It's a view that asks nothing of you except to sit quietly and take it in. Dinner is served around an open fire as the bush settles into night and the sounds of the African dark begin.
Day 2: A safari adventure in Ngoma Safari Lodge
With the full day ahead of you, Ngoma's activities come into their own. Game drives into Chobe National Park put you amongst elephant herds numbering in the hundreds, plus lion, leopard, buffalo, and a year-round profusion of birdlife. Boat cruises along the Chobe River offer an entirely different perspective, with hippos surfacing alongside the vessel and fish eagles calling from the banks. Back at the lodge, brunch on the deck, a long lunch, and the kind of afternoon that moves at whatever pace you choose.
Day 3: Discover Little Machaba Camp
After breakfast, your road transfer back to Kasane Airport is smooth and straightforward. From there, a light aircraft carries you south over the Okavango region, a landscape of channels, islands, and flood plains that looks, from the air, like something drawn by hand. You touch down at Khwai River Lodge Airstrip and transfer directly to Little Machaba Camp.
This is an intimate camp in the truest sense: just four luxury tented rooms, built on raised decks and connected to the main area by boardwalks. The tents are spacious and well-appointed, with the sounds of the bush pressing gently against the canvas as you settle in. The Khwai area sits at the boundary of the Moremi Game Reserve and the Okavango Delta, which means the wildlife here is both varied and unpredictable in the best possible way. Your first game drive that evening will set the tone for the days ahead.
Days 4-5: Deep in the Khwai
Two full days at Little Machaba give the kind of depth that a single night simply can't. Morning and evening game drives cover terrain that feels genuinely remote with lion prides on the move, wild dogs working the floodplain edges, and leopard sightings that require patience and a good guide (Little Machaba has both). The fully inclusive nature of the camp means nothing is rationed: meals, drinks, activities, and guiding are all part of the experience. Evenings gather guests around the fire under a sky with no competition from artificial light whatsoever.
This 5-night itinerary concludes with a final light aircraft transfer, which takes you from Khwai River Lodge Airstrip to Maun Airport. It's a short flight, but the view over the Okavango Delta as you bank west is the kind of send-off that makes leaving enjoyable and lets you reflect on your amazing trip as you head home. From Maun, onward connections depart to Johannesburg and beyond.
