BW · Curated travel guide
Okavango Delta, Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and 7 more — what each one is, and why it is worth the detour.
Chosen from everything Wikidata knows about Botswana and ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions describe them, which is about as close to "famous" as open data gets. One is on UNESCO's World Heritage list.
World Heritage
River delta in Botswana
Also called the Okavango Grassland, a huge inland delta in Botswana, formed where the Okavango River meets a tectonic trough 930–1,000 m (3,050–3,280 ft) above sea level, in the centre of the Kalahari Desert's endorheic basin.
Photo: Teo Gómez, Public domain
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National park in Botswana
A huge national park in Botswana's Kalahari Desert, set up in 1961. Covering 52,800 square kilometres (20,400 mi²), it is the second-largest game reserve in the world.
Photo: Benjamin Hollis from Seattle, WA, USA, CC BY 2.0
Transfrontier conservation area in Botswana and South Africa
A large conservation area and wildlife reserve in southern Africa.
Photo: Klaus Donath, CC BY-SA 3.0
Protected area in Botswana
A Botswanan reserve on the Okavango Delta's eastern edge, which takes its name from Moremi, a chief of the BaTawana people.
Photo: Ian Sewell, CC BY-SA 2.5
International crossing of the Zambezi River
A bridge for road and rail across the Zambezi at Kazungula, linking Botswana and the Zambian town of the same name. It is 923-metre-long (3,028 ft) and 18.5-metre-wide (61 ft), with a longest span of 129 metres (423 ft).
Photo: JonGT, CC BY-SA 4.0
Diamond mine in the Kalahari Desert, Botswana
The world's richest diamond mine, and its second largest, nicknamed "the Prince of Mines", in south-central Botswana, about 170 kilometers (110 mi) southwest of Gaborone.
Photo: Cretep, Public domain
Mountain in Botswana
A peak in the village of Otse, South-East District, often named as Botswana's highest point, with a reported height of 1,491 metres (4,891 feet).
Photo: Morgane Sekalaba, CC BY-SA 3.0
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Private not-for-profit game reserve in southern Botswana
A private, non-profit game reserve in southern Botswana, founded in 1994 by The Mokolodi Wildlife Foundation. Its 30 square kilometres (12 sq mi) were given to it, and lie 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from Gaborone, the capital, which is to their north.
Photo: Nick Jonsson from Killearn, Scotland, CC BY-SA 2.0
Mountain in Botswana
A mountain often regarded as Botswana's highest point, 1,494 metres high according to SRTM data.
Photo: CNJerem, CC BY 4.0
Dam in Botswana
A dam on Botswana's Notwane River, run by the Water Utilities Corporation, which can hold 141,100,000 cubic metres (4.98×10⁹ cu ft) and supplies water to Gaborone, the capital.
Photo: Athena Lao, CC BY 2.0
Officially the Republic of Botswana, a landlocked country of Southern Africa. It is flat, and about 70% of it lies within the Kalahari Desert. Its neighbours are South Africa (south and southeast), Namibia (west and north), Zambia (north) and Zimbabwe (northeast).
Officially The Republic of Botswana.
Based on the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: the facts are Wikipedia's, the wording is this site's.
This guide lists 10: Okavango Delta, Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and Moremi Game Reserve and others. Okavango Delta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
By machine, from open data, with no human ranking them and nobody able to pay for a place on the list. Everything Wikidata records in Botswana that is a building, a landform, a protected area or a tourist attraction, has coordinates, a photograph and an English Wikipedia article, is ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions wrote about it. Provinces, cities, airports, stations and stretches of sea shared with the neighbours are filtered out.
1 of the 10 in this guide: Okavango Delta. That is not the full count for Botswana, only the listed sites that made this guide.
English, Tswana. The currency is BWP.
A travel eSIM is usually the cheapest way, and avoids a roaming bill. The plans suggested at the foot of this guide start at $7.73 for 1GB per day. The eSIM is data-only and sits alongside your normal SIM, so calls, texts and WhatsApp keep working on your own number.
Orange. Your phone picks whichever has the best signal where you are, the same way a local phone does.
Maps, tickets and translation all want data, and roaming is the expensive way to get it. A Computatus eSIM eSIM connects to Orange once you land, and installs by QR code before you leave.
| Plan | Data | Valid | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB per day Cheapest | 1 GB | 1 day | $7.73 | Get it → |
| 1GB for 7 days | 1 GB | 7 days | $8.59 | Get it → |
| 2GB per day | 2 GB | 1 day | $17.18 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 15 days | 3 GB | 15 days | $22.91 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 30 days | 3 GB | 30 days | $24.34 | Get it → |
| 3GB per day | 3 GB | 1 day | $27.21 | Get it → |
No app needed. Install by QR code before you fly, keep your own number for calls, and it connects the moment you land.
A commission on plans bought through these links is what pays for this guide. Nothing above depends on it: the places are chosen before any price is looked up.
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