Botswana Platinum Safaris Experience

• Accommodations, Meals and activities as indicated 
• Road transfers as indicated
• Sit in plane charter flights as indicated 
• National Park Fees where necessary 
• Emergency  Medical Evacuation 
• Digital  travel document 

• International Flights 
• Visa Applications
• Anything of personal nature 
• Gratuities
• Additional Activites not indicated
• Any Government taxes, levies, fuel or industry increase beyond our control
• Any errors & omission

Game Drives
Take game drives and night drives in custom built 4x4s to spot the unique desert wildlife that inhabit the pans, like the elusive brown hyena or Kalahari lion. Your experienced safari guide will help you discover a desert landscape, pulsating with life. Complete with bush picnics, morning coffees and chilled drinks.

Meet the Meerkats
Get up close and personal with our habituated meerkats, the cool cats of the Kalahari! Hangingout with them at their burrow is a once-in-alifetime experience. As they dig and play around you, your head could become the perfect lookout point and part of the fun and games. This is where you’ll truly feel like one of the gang.

Bushman Walk
Discover the secrets of the pans with the Zu/’hoasi Bushmen on a fascinating bush walk. See this ancient desert landscape through their eyes. These skilled hunter gatherers will show you how to survive, using their extraordinary tracking skills to uncover a smorgasbord of culinary delights… from bulbs, to scorpions, to berries. Spending time with them is a very rare privilege.

Fallen Baobab
Visit the site of the Fallen Baobab, one of the three largest and oldest trees in Africa and the camp site for Livingstone and Selous..

Fat Bikes
Grab a fat bike and peddle around the Makgadikgadi Pans. This is a really fun activity for the whole family, and an ideal way to get some exercise. These bikes can easily cruise over the desert terrain, taking you along 4×4 tracks and around the crusty salt flats. Keep a look out for sightings of wildlife, while breathing in the beautiful scenery, alongside the desert silence.

Flamingo Migration
The Makgadikgadi Salt Pans are one of the most important breeding sites in southern Africa forthe lesser and greater flamingos. These flying flame birds, arrive in their millions during seasons of good rain, when millions of small shrimp and other crustaceans crack through the salty pan crust to spawn. The result, a pink extravaganza in the heat of the desert. You can also heli to Sua Pan to view the flamingos in Mar – Apr (scenic helicopter flight must be booked at an additional cost).

Horse Riding (additional cost)
Saddle up to explore this wild, unspoilt area in the same way many of the earliest explorers, huntersand missionaries did – on horseback! You’ll embark on an adventurous outride (for all level riders). This is an exhilarating way to spot wildlife, cantering along the crusty salt flats and following the animalhighways that bring life to the Makgadikgadi Pans.

Optional

Quad Biking (seasonal activity)
This is pure desert adventure! Take an exhilarating quad bike across the salt-crusted pans (all pan activity is weather permitting and dependent on the dryness of the pans). You’ll feel total freedom as you trek across this vast and ancient landscape, discovering so much about the remnants of this once super lake.Seasonal: April – October

Zebra & Wildebeest Migration (November – April)
Witness the second largest migration in Africa. A stonking spectacle of black and white stripesas approximately 30,000 zebra and wildebeest migrate across the Makgadikgadi Pans, followed closely by stalking predators, waiting for the rich pickings of tired hooves. This is a wildlife explosion and an experience not to be missed!

Game Drives
This is one activity that screams safari. Hop on our comfortable game viewing vehicles for a morning and afternoon/evening game drive. Your safari guide has all the expertise and knowledge to find you some of the best kept secrets and most loved wildlife in the Okavango Delta.

Scenic Helicopter Flights (additional cost)
Enjoy a scenic helicopter flight over the Okavango Delta. This is an incredible opportunity to appreciate the vastness of the Delta when seeing it from above. From your seat, door off (or on), you’ll be able to spot game, take exceptional photos and follow the waterways and animal pathways that shape this ancient wilderness.

Mokoro Canoe Safari
This traditional dugout canoe takes you gliding over shallow, clear waters past brilliant water lilies and papyrus grasses to areas inaccessible by boat.

Walking Safari
On a walking safari through the Delta you are totally enveloped in nature. You spot amazing things close-up: an insect, animal tracks, big game droppings, swarming termite mounds. These small, unexpected aspects of life often make the biggest impression. If a game drive is like reading a book: a walking safari is like actually becoming a character in that book.

Bird Watching
Many people come to Belmond Eagle Island Lodge purely to experience its huge variety of birds. The 400 land and aquatic species drawn to the watery Okavango Delta make for unrivalled bird viewing.

Village Life
Belmond Eagle Island Lodge is positioned close to Xaxaba village. On request you may visit the village and you may be invited into a private home to experience aspects of their way of life. This is no tourist attraction, but a community of people who have adapted ancient traditions to modern times.

Motorboat Safari
Motorboat safaris up the Delta takes to closer to nature and far of areas not acceptable by foot or vehicle.

Game Drives
Morning and afternoon game drives are available in open land cruisers. Night game drives with spotlights and stargazing presentations are also available after dinner. As the lodge is located on a private concession, vehicles are allowed to drive before and after sunset, as well as off road.

Dining at Belmond Eagle Island Lodge
Enjoy superb cuisine under cover or in the open air surrounded by nature and wildlife.

Our chefs will also happily prepare picnics for you to take on a game drive.

Game drives often start early. You will be woken with a light breakfast to enjoy in your tent before setting off on your drive.

Restaurant times:
Early breakfast (served around 6am)
Light snacks, tea and coffee on morning activity
Midday meal served between 10h30-13h30
Afternoon tea (served around 4pm)
Drinks and snacks on afternoon activity
Dinner (served around 8pm)

Private Dining
With incredible views cross the Okavango Delta and delicious food to match, the dining experience at Belmond Eagle Island Lodge is one to remember.

Choose an elegant candle-lit dinner on the private outdoor deck (additional rates apply).

Fish Eagle Bar
There is no better place to experience the sunset over the Okavango Delta than from the Fish-Eagle Bar.

Open-air and covered bar and lounge areas with a dedicated viewing deck provide the best of both worlds – a complete view of the Delta coupled with the cool relaxation of this safari hideaway.

Optional

Helicopter Safaris
Here you experience the remoteness of the Okavango Delta and get a bird's eye view of the inaccessible lakes and islands.

Your pilot’s voice is coming through on the headset. “Look to the right where a herd of buffalos is crossing the river. We’re going down for a close-up view.” Next, you’re soaring up again. “We’re heading to a higher altitude. See the formation of the channels and the way in which the water and land mass has evolved over centuries.”

Helicopter flights over Botswana are one of life’s big adventures. Hunting has rarely been done from above and therefore animals are unperturbed by aircraft. Surprisingly, you may hover just a few feet over great herds of zebra as they continue to graze, completely unconcerned.

Even more exciting, you may be able to touch down on an island far away from human habitation and stand in a spot that has not been touched by the modern world. A speed boat may appear bearing coffee or a celebratory glass of sparkling wine: sip at leisure as you gaze on lush, riverine scenery—one of the world’s last great wildernesses.

(Additional rates apply)

Horseback/Helicopter Safari
We are thrilled to introduce the first helicopter and horseback safari combination in Botswana at the Belmond Eagle Island Lodge.

Combining an aerial safari by private helicopter with a horse-ride through one of the world’s last true remaining wildernesses, the excursion offers a new way to explore the UNESCO world heritage site and its magnificent inhabitants.

Barge Cruise
Take a slow gently cruise down the Delta for sundowners, you might just see a Fish Eagle taking flight or pods of hippos in the distance through an African sunset.

Morning and Afternoon Game Drives
Join your Guide and head out in a game-viewer to explore the 150,000 acres that make up the Zambezi National Park. Whether the opting to be the first to catch the ‘bush telegraphs’ early broadcast of the previous night’s events – or preferring to take a leisurely break, from an afternoon of game spotting, to enjoy the phenomenal sunset with sun-downers – a Victoria Falls River Lodge's safari experience promises to be memorable.(Included in accommodation rate)Kindly refer to the "Little Livingstone's Children's Activities" (Appendix C) for more information on activities specially developed for younger guests

Sunrise and Sunset River Cruise
A relaxing voyage on one of the Victoria Falls River Lodge luxury river cruisers is arguably one of the best ways on earth to soak in the magnificence of the iconic Zambezi River and its surrounds. Watch as the world awakes and the sun’s first rays skip and dance across the shimmering surface of the mighty Zambezi – a truly revitalising way to start any day!Or, for the not-so-early-birds, sit back and let the gentle ebb and flow of the Zambezi lull and relax you. Join in on Mother Nature’s Happiest Hour and sip on a sun-downer whilst viewing her creatures, big and small, coming to the water’s edge to lap at its liquid life. (Included in accommodation rate)Kindly refer to the "Little Livingstone's Children's Activities" (Appendix C) for more information on activities specially developed for younger guests

Guided Tour of the Falls
There is not much that can compare to the heady fragrance of drenched earth and sun-kissed Rainforest foliage, the intense power of the wall of water – its deafening rumble coursing through your veins – or letting the cooling and constant spray of “the Smoke that Thunders” saturate the senses…Join your passionate and knowledgeable Victoria Falls River Lodge Guide on a truly unforgettable tour of Victoria Falls and experience this Natural Wonder of the Word first hand.With intimate knowledge of the local fauna and flora and other points of historical interest, coupled with advice on the best viewing spots (and an extra pair of hands to help get that ‘full’ family photo!), our Guides will happily assist wherever possible to help ensure that the memories created at this World Heritage Site will last a lifetime.(Included in accommodation rate)Kindly refer to the "Little Livingstone's Children's Activities" (Appendix C) for more information on activities specially developed for younger guests

Bird Watching
Victoria Falls River Lodge and the Zambezi National Park are a bird watcher’s paradise.In a comparatively small area around Victoria Falls, birding enthusiasts will be able to view a great diversity of birds within rain forest, riverine, gorge and savannah habitats.Local species include Rock Pratincole, Schalow’s Turaco, African Finfoot, Half Collared Kingfisher, Thick Billed Weaver, African Skimmer, Pels Fishing Owl, Collared Palm Thrush and Western Banded Snake Eagle (to name but a few).Guests at Victoria Falls River Lodge seldom have to travel too far from their private decks however as the lush foliage around the lodge offers ample opportunity to enjoy many of the spectacular array of bird life that Zimbabwe has to offer.(Included in accommodation rate)Kindly refer to the "Little Livingstone's Children's Activities" (Appendix C) for more information on activities specially developed for younger guests

Guided Bush Walks
Experience the wonder of the African bush on foot and, when accompanied by an expert Guide, enjoy the thrilling opportunity to an up close and personal introduction to some of the Zambezi National Park's resident wildlife.(Optional activity – available at an additional charge. Kindly refer to Appendix A for further details)

Fishing
The Upper Zambezi is home to a wide variety of fish species and Victoria Falls River Lodge offers half-day guided fishing trips leaving directly from the Lodge. Tiger fishing is a highlight and a unique experience on this iconic river.Fishing from the jetty is also an option.(Optional activity – available at an additional charge. Kindly refer to Appendix A for further details)

Children’s Activities (staying at Luxury Tented Suites)
Adventure options – for the younger generation Sharing children’s rate is inclusive of:o Transfers (shared) to and from the Victoria Falls Airport / Livingstone International Airporto All mealso Local beverages (soft drinks)o Optional daily transfers from camp (typically departing at 10h00 and returning at 15h00) to Victoria Falls town o Tour of the Falls (part of the daily transfer to town) – entry fee to Rainforest for guest’s own accounto Transfers to/from National Park Gate / Jetty for 3rd party activitieso Afternoon Teao Bird watching o A choice of 2 x Game Activities (i.e. morning/afternoon game drive and sunrise/sunset river cruise) per person per day – subject to availability and the below conditions:Game Drive (incl. snacks and soft beverages) Children aged 0-3 years are not permitted on game drives• Junior Discoverers Drive (incl. snacks and soft beverages)o Aimed at children aged 4-7 years accompanied by at least 1 parent – subject to vehicle capacityo Outside of standard Game Drive times – timing is seasonal and in consultation with Managemento Families wishing to take children aged 4 – 7 years on game drive during standard early morning / late afternoon game drive times (i.e. not Junior Discoverers Drive) will require a sole use game viewer – per details above.  ‘Standard’ game drives for children aged 8 years and older are included in the rate Management reserves the right to remove any unruly/disruptive children from the vehicle and return them to Camp before resuming the game drive.Boat Cruise (incl. snacks and soft beverages) Children aged 0-3 years are not permitted on river cruises Children aged 4 years and older are permitted on the river cruises Management reserves the right to remove any unruly/disruptive children from the vessel and return them to Camp before resuming the cruise."LITTLE LIVINGSTONE'S CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES"• Junior Discoverer’s Drive (mentioned above)o Embrace the outdoors like a true African Explorero Join your Guide in his trusty 4×4 and bravely head into the ‘great unknown’ – learning all about the fascinating fauna and flora of its wild surrounds o Aimed at children aged 4-7 years accompanied by at least 1 parent – subject to vehicle capacityo Outside of standard Game Drive times – timing is seasonal and in consultation with Management• Young Bush Wackers o Take a walk on the “wild side” and discover innumerable natural wonders right at your doorstep!o Conducted by qualified Guide within camp surrounds and river banks immediately in front of the Lodge.o Geared for children ages 4-11 years (although older siblings and parents are welcome too!)o Timing is seasonal and in consultation with Management• Various books & games – for indoor entertainment NOTE: All activities/excursions are subject to the aforementioned conditions (and those below) and with parental supervision only.(The above Children’s Activities are included in the accommodation rate but are available at the Victoria Falls River Lodge – Luxury Tented Suites only)

The Boma
Gather around the campfire in this circular log hut and exchange your day’s adventures, much as local villagers do in similar buildings throughout Botswana. Flames flicker and lamps glow as drinks are served; a choir sings traditional songs and invites you to a buffet of African specialities.

Then take a comfortable seat and listen as camp guides recount tales of the bush. Musicians strike up traditional songs and the evening often ends with everyone on their feet, dancing to rhythms handed down through generations.

Star Gazing
The open skies around Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge make it the perfect place to experience the vast, dark dome of the African night sky. “A jewel box” is how one of our guides describes it, and certainly it is a wealth of riches from the Milky Way to Orion and Venus. Discover how Bushmen used the stars to locate the true south. And, using a powerful telescope, gaze on constellations that visitors from the northern hemisphere may never have seen before, including the Southern Cross.

Bushmen Paintings and Baobab Trees
Out in the bush, where rocks rear up among stony hills you will find a collection of paintings that take your breath away. These works by Bushmen are thought to be more than 1,500 years old—beautiful images of elephant, giraffe, sable and eland antelope. Normally these types of painting might be found hidden in caves, but here, unusually, they are out in the wide, open landscape. No-one knows what materials the bushmen used, but the paint is thought to be a mixture of snake venom, blood and plant juices.

After viewing these paintings, continue to the amazing baobab grove—a cathedral-like cluster of 13 giant trees that rival the Bushmen’s paintings in age. Stand among these towering columns at sunset, as the evening light bathes them in a russet glow and wonder at this ancient land.

Bird Watching
It is a fascinating time to spot birds at Savute as the intermittent Savute Channel, dry for 30 years, is flowing past the camp again. With it has come a host of new bird species. Dry land birds such as bustards and secretary birds have suddenly been joined by more aquatic varieties. Simply sit out on your terrace and watch the show, especially at dawn and sunset, as they come to splash and drink right in front of your eyes.

Keen birders should also take note of the seasons. At certain times of year you may encounter annual migrations such as flocks of carmine bee-eaters on the move. Some ride on the backs of kori bustards—an amazing sight.

Lookout Hide
Head to our new viewing hide to enjoy a front-row seat of the action as elephants, hyenas and leopards gather at the watering hole for their daily drink.

Game Drives
It’s dark outside as a cup of steaming coffee and a freshly-baked pastry is brought to your tent. The first rays of sun are sneaking over the horizon as you set out with your guide. As the light intensifies, the scent of wild sage perfumes the air.

Early morning and late afternoon game drives take you out and among Africa’s largest populations of elephants. Big cats are on the prowl, from leopards to lions. Depending on the season you will also experience the great migrations such as zebra and antelope. Rare sightings might include the endangered wild dog, rock-climbing klipspringers and the elegant roan antelope.

Equally atmospheric and exciting are evening drives, as the shadows lengthen and the sky turns red. Animals and birds emerge from their siesta, and suddenly the bush is alive with sights and sounds.

Game viewing vehicles sit up to only 6 guests, allowing all on board to enjoy the wildlife from a window seat.

Boma experience (place of eating)
A dining experience second to none in a traditional Boma, best translated as a traditional meeting place, where senior tribe/community members would get together for the "Kgotla" or meeting. Typically traditional food dishes would be served during or after these get-togethers in the Boma.

The Boma had two entrances, one more hidden than the other to ensure the safe passage of tribe elders or the chief should any threat arise. The Boma offers spectacular vistas of the African night skies, through the silhouettes of Camel Thorn trees and Acacia nigrescens, which have been incorporated into the design.

Dining in the Savute Boma will, without a doubt, bring you closer to nature within the heart of a true bush environment.

Dining at Savute Elephant Lodge
Enjoy a relaxed meal overlooking the stunning Savute channel in our raised restaurant.

Throughout the day you will have the opportunity to relax is in the quiet atmosphere of the lounge taking in the remote landscape.

Restaurant times:
Early breakfast (served around 6am)
Light snacks, tea and coffee on morning activity
Midday meal is served between 10h30-13h30
Afternoon tea (served around 4pm)
Drinks and snacks on afternoon activity
Dinner (served around 8pm)