Frequently asked questions

The water is highest in the dry winter, which turns the usual safari calendar on its head: May to October is the classic window, and the rains are a real case of their own. Month by month, with the value months marked, is on when to go.

Yes. The rains price gentlest, April and November sit in the shoulder everywhere, and most camps only switch full winter pricing on from June, which is why May keeps being chosen by people who have been before. The value months are marked, month by month.

Three nights in one camp is the useful minimum: two full days of drives and, where the camp has it, water. Five to seven nights across two camps — one on the land-fast Khwai side, one on the lagoons or the island heart — is the shape most trips settle into, because the two halves of the reserve are different trips.

Moremi rarely stands alone; a week in Botswana often pairs it with Chobe, the wider delta or the Falls, and the journeys we have already built show how the pieces fit.

The camps are small and they run full. The winter favourites are typically taken nine to twelve months out, the festive fortnight longer still, and rooms that take children are the scarcest kind, so families need the longest runway of all. The green season is the exception: quieter camps, shorter notice.

A trip in mind but no camp yet is the normal starting point; the full collection, side by side is where most people begin.

Yes — it is the delta's protected heart, roughly a third of it, and the only part of the delta under formal protection. How the reserve sits against the private concessions around it, and what that means for choosing between them, is the orientation read.

They are different trips: Moremi is fly-in, water-and-land, with camps small enough that a sighting is rarely shared; Chobe is the river, the elephant herds and a road trip that folds Victoria Falls in easily. The comparison, fact against fact, is on the orientation page.

Where you base yourself decides which Moremi you get. The Khwai riverfront holds reliable drives in every month and is where the night drives and walks are; the Xakanaxa lagoons and the delta camps are where the water is; Chief's Island is the predator ground. Each corner, and what it is for, is on the map & areas read.

You write to us with the trip you have in mind; we reply with a written quote, itemised and obligation-free, with every park and concession fee already inside it. We refine it together until it is right — or until it is clear we are not the right fit, and we will say so — and then you confirm and the trip is ours to run. What a quote contains and how the price is set is on why book with us.

Fly to Maun, change to a light aircraft, and about half an hour over the water later you land at a dirt strip where your camp's vehicle is waiting; if you are coming from Chobe or the Falls, the same light aircraft picks you up at Kasane instead. That is nearly everyone's journey, and you do not choose the airstrip — your camp does. The gateways, the connections through Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the road option for the few who drive are on getting there.

You can: the Khwai side is reachable by a proper 4x4 from Maun, the reserve's public campsites — Third Bridge among them — are used by equipped overlanders on a longer route, and the camps deeper in the delta are fly-in only.

We are glad to book a camp for a self-driver, and that is where our part ends: we don't rent vehicles, plan routes or support the drive on the ground, and we don't book the public campsites either — the 4x4 hire companies and the campsite operators do that, and do it well.

The road read itself — the gates, the going, the timings — is on getting there.

Easily, and most trips do. Chobe and the Savuti sit a short flight north-east and the classic Botswana journey threads them together, often continuing to the Falls; the connecting flights are arranged with the rest of the trip. The pairings we run, priced and day by day, are on safari packages.

A soft bag under the light aircraft's limit, clothes in quiet colours that layer as the day warms, a proper warm layer for the winter mornings, and binoculars. Laundry is part of the rhythm at nearly every camp, so bring less than you think. The list, the bag rule and the things to leave at home are on what to pack.

Treat all three as a bonus rather than a plan. Mobile coverage inside the reserve is patchy to none; most camps run wifi in the main area rather than the tents, and charging happens in the tent or the main area, never in the vehicle, on solar or generator power that will not carry a hairdryer.

Each camp's own page says exactly what it offers — the camps, side by side.

Elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and hippo are the daily currency, and the birding is the delta's. Wild dogs are the reason many people choose Moremi — it is one of Africa's strongholds for them and the packs den on the Khwai side in winter, which shortens the odds without promising anything. What the reserve delivers, species by species, is on the wildlife guide.

The same rhythm at every camp: out as the light comes, because the cats are still moving and the dogs hunt early; the long cool outing of the morning; the heat of the day given to a book and the pool; out again as the light softens, often on the water; the evening at the fire. The shape of the day, hour by hour, is on things to do.

At many camps, and it is the quietest thing you will do on safari — but it depends on the water level, and every camp takes it off the programme when the level drops too far. If it matters to you, say so when the camp and the month are chosen. Where it runs, and what it is like, is on things to do.

Not inside the reserve, where vehicles are back in camp by dark and walking is rare; outside the boundary, on the Khwai side, the camps make their own rules, the afternoon drive carries on under a spotlight and most camps walk. If the hours after dark matter to you, that is a reason to put a Khwai camp into the trip. How each activity works, and which camps can offer it, is on things to do.

The camps are unfenced by design, with the same animals walking through them at night that you photograph by day, and safety rests on a system rather than a wall: a briefing on arrival, an escort between the main area and your tent after dark, and guides who read the bush the way you read a street. How that system works, and what stays your job, is on safety.

Malaria is present in Moremi all year, heaviest after the rains, and antimalarials are usually advised — but which tablets, and whether they suit you, is a conversation for a travel clinic, four to six weeks before you fly. The bite-avoidance layer, the yellow-fever rule and the children question are on malaria & health.

Yes, at many camps, and some of the best family camps in Botswana are here. Each camp sets its own minimum age for a stay, and usually a higher one for walks and boats; several run children's programmes. Many camps take children within an age band; under it, and often for any family sharing a vehicle with other guests, the camp asks for a private vehicle and guide, which is booked with the stay and adds to the cost.

Two things to weigh at destination level: this is a malaria area, and the winter mornings are cold enough that a child's warm layer is the first thing to pack.

Which camps take which ages is stated on each camp's own page — the family camps, filtered.

It can be done, with the right camp chosen on purpose. Most camps here are tented, on raised decks with steps and sand paths between them, and the way in is a light aircraft with a high step; a few lodges are more level than the rest. Tell us what you need and we will say plainly which camps work and which do not.

Your trip is paid before you travel, so the money you need on the ground is for tips and a few extras. US dollars are what most guests carry and every camp welcomes; pula is welcome too, and small notes make everything easier. Some camps can add a tip or a drink to a card, but treat that as the exception; there are no cash machines in the reserve, and Maun has them.

The people who look after you directly — your guide, the poler on a mokoro day — are thanked in person at the goodbye, and the team you never see shares one box; once per stay, never per drive. Who is thanked, how much is customary and how the money moves is on tipping.

Yes. Comprehensive travel insurance that includes medical-evacuation cover is a condition of every booking we take, and on a safari this remote it is essential whoever you book with: the nearest hospitals are in Maun, and a serious case leaves the delta by air. Why that flight matters is on safety.

Sometimes — camp-set offers that come and go with the season, stated with their dates and conditions, never a discount we invent. What is running now is on special offers.

A hot, wet summer of afternoon storms, a clear, dry winter with properly cold nights, and the water at its highest in the driest months of the year. The month-by-month figures are on weather & climate.