Wilderness Premium Camps in Botswana

Wilderness Safaris Premier Camp Collection combines the ultimate in luxury, refinement, and guiding in fabulous game-viewing areas of Botswana, while maintaining the intimate contact with the African Bush that constitute the Wilderness Safari experience. Drawing on the architectural and design experience of such well-known lodge designers as Sylvio Rech, location, placement, organization, and design are superb.

Specially trained chefs prepare superb meals served with an excellent selection of South Africa's noted wines.

The USA’s Travel & Leisure magazine, the largest selling travel magazine in the world has just released their 2004 World's Best rankings. This year’s results, which identify the cream of the crop in travel around the globe, name Wilderness Safaris as the second best tour operator worldwide. In addition, the company’s renowned Mombo Camp in Botswana was ranked twelfth best in the world, in the Overall Hotels category. With only nine rooms, Mombo is the smallest “hotel” acclaimed by the prestigious list.

Best of Botswana 9 day itinerary

Mombo and Little Mombo Camp Throughout the safari world the term "Mombo Magic" connotes the unmatched quality of the game-viewing, and indeed the unabashedly rich photographic record of unique sitings for which this area has become famous. Mombo and Little Mombo are situated just off the north-western tip of Chiefs Island within the Moremi Game Reserve. The "new" Mombo Camp is built on a scenic island where large concentrations of wildlife congregate occur right in front of the new camp. It is not impossible to see up to twelve different mammal species from the comfort of your veranda! Giant umbrella thorns and Ilala palms dot the expansive plains to create a magnificent savannah landscape alongside the marshes and floodplains of the Delta.

As a year-round exclusive wildlife destination (especially for predators), Mombo has a record unequalled in Africa. This area provides one of the highest quality wildlife viewing opportunities on earth. Many of the published wildlife photos that you wee were taken here and it is the site of many of the wildlife documentaries that have appeared over the years.. Mombo was rated as one of the top destinations of the 'Ultimate Safari' in the March 1999 issue of Conde Nast Traveller.

Elephant, Buffalo, Lion, Leopard, Cheetah and all the major predators are common in the region. A large pack of Wild Dogs frequents the area around the camp and has been successful in raising many litters in recent years. The excellent game at Mombo has made this area Botswana's top wildlife documentary location. National Geographic, the BBC and many others have filmed here. Birdlife is prolific, with waterfowl and waders being particularly common.

The design of the new Mombo is radically different from the old Mombo while still retaining its tented charm. The camp has a total of 12 identical guest rooms divided into two distinct and independent camps. Mombo has 9 rooms and Little Mombo has 3 rooms. Each tented room is raised off the ground offering great views over the floodplains. The new rooms have a tented camp feel, but are luxuriously appointed. The bathrooms are en suite, including an indoor shower with hot and cold running water. There is also an outdoor shower. The main living area is under thatch and canvas. There are pools at both camps. Raised walkways link bedrooms and the living area. Mombo Camp & Little Mombo have a "kgotla" or boma for outdoor dining under the stars

An excellent selection of South African wines are kept in the thatched wine cellar, which uses the evaporation of water trickled through charcoal brick walls to stabilize temperature.

Jao Camp is a 16 bedded luxury tented camp situated in a private reserve to the west of the Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta. The camp is located in a remote area on a long island, and a small bridge takes guests across to open flood plains and savannah country for a wonderful Okavango experience. Accommodation is under a beautiful canopy of shady trees in superb, twin bedded canvas walled rooms with en-suite bathrooms. The rooms are raised off the ground and offer wonderful views of the surrounding flood plains. The activities include mekoros, boats, game drives and guided walks. Game viewing is good, and includes Buffalo, Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Reedbuck, Lechwe, Impala, Zebra and Hippo. Wild dogs are also sometimes sighted.

Kings Pool Camp in the Linyanti Wildlife Reserve has been converted into a “Premier” camp to the same standards as Mombo and Jao. Kings Pool is located in the 125,000 hectare Linyanti Wildlife Reserve.The area is characterised by open grassland, riverine forest, mixed terminalia woodland and the dry Savuti Channel. The camp overlooks the Kings Pool Lagoon and the Linyanti River to the north. Accommodation is in ten tented rooms. Each room is built on a raised deck with wonderful views onto the Kings Pool Lagoon and its wildlife. The main lounge, pub and dining room are under thatch and there is an open air "Kgotla" for dining under the stars. There is a swimming pool as well as a hide on the periphery of the camp where guests can watch game safely during the midday "siesta" hours.

The area is most noted for its very large Elephant populations, which can reach enormous densities in the winter months (April - October). Impala, Lechwe, Kudu, Zebra, Giraffe, Sitatunga, Sable, Roan, Waterbuck, Buffalo, Bushbuck and the smaller antelope are all found here. The major predators, such as Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, Wild Dog and Hyena, are resident and regularly sighted. The reed and papyrus swamps are ideal for numerous and diverse species of birds, ranging from the Fish Eagle to waterfowl, cranes, storks, plovers and herons. Elephants wander through camp and trumpet, and Lions often roar around the camp at night! Activities include game drives in open 4x4 vehicles, night drives and walks. In addition, the lodge has a double-decker boat which cruises the Linyanti River, offering wonderful opportunities to view game and birds from the water when water levels allow. There are also a number of great hides in the area where guests can view wildlife peacefully.

Vumbura Plains Camp overlooks a vast, attractive floodplain and the rooms are built under the shade of cool and shady trees. Vumbura Plains consists of 2 x 14 bedded camps linked by raised boardwalks and each has its own dining, lounge and bar area although all 28 beds or parts thereof can be utilised for larger parties. All 14 of the luxury rooms are raised off the ground on wooden platforms with walkways connecting them to the main living areas. Each room has a large, very comfortable bedroom, a lounge, a "sala" and en-suite facilities with a shower, a flush toilet and an outdoor shower under the stars. The main dining, lounge and pub area is also raised off the ground and tucked beneath a canopy of shady, indigenous trees with a wonderful vista across the floodplains. Each room has its own plunge pool.

The Vumbura Reserve offers both land and water activities in a park that has a wonderful variety of habitats and a great diversity of wildlife. The reserve offers an enormous traversing area of close on 130,000 acres. The main activity at Vumbura Plains is game viewing in wonderful and varied countryside. Open 4x4 Land Rovers allow close proximity to animals in the savannah and forested areas. The Vumbura area is possibly the only area in the Okavango where one can see Red Lechwe (an animal that inhabits the fringes of the waterways) and a Sable antelope (an animal that enjoys the dry countryside) on the same game drive. Add in Lion, Leopard, Elephant, cheetah and Buffalo along with all the plains animals and one has an excellent all round wildlife experience in a remote and private part of the Okavango. Birding too is great with large varieties and quantities. Walks, mekoro’s and boating give Vumbura's guests the opportunity to enjoy Africa from a different perspective.

Zibalianja Camp closes on November 27th 2007 to reopen as a three-roomed camp Premier Camp on 5th April 2008 to become perhaps the most exclusive (in the truest sense of the word; where you are alone) safari camp in Botswana. It is located to the east of Kings Pool and close to the western boundary of Chobe National Park. The vision is return to the elegant safari under canvas, but with the ultimate style of what many early travellers pioneered, only better. Zibalianja will become an ultra-exclusive and ultra-personal experience in the old style luxury safari. It will be a camp which a family or a small group of friends can book out for that ultimate private experience in a remote and beautiful part of Africa. The style will embody the age of exploration and adventure that nearly lost the sense of being first and living on the edge, but doing it elegantly, almost decadently. There will be three tents with telescopes to sweep the plains, maps and books to plan and plot out the direction of roars heard during the night over a pre-dawn coffee as we trace the map and pinpoint possible islands for that leopard call heard at 4am. At the same time the new camp will (behind the scenes) have every bit of the latest green technology to make it entirely environmentally friendly. It will be that ideal meeting place between great wildlife, interesting and luxurious but authentic safari accommodation and perfect service. The goal is to create a camp where people will want to stay for a month.