With its high-cost, low-volume tourism model, Botswana is known for having the most luxurious safari scene in Africa. Camps like Jao and Xigera Safari Lodge, featuring handcrafted furnishings and dining options that can fulfill any craving, can run guests upwards of $2,000 a night. But not every safari-goer wants all that cosseting (or the costs that go with it). Hence the arrival of a new tranche of camps for travelers who believe that, as Peter Allison of safari pioneer Natural Selection puts it, “the luxury of objects can distract from the luxury of experience.”
Take Wilderness's new Mokete camp, which costs roughly a third as much as its glitzier older sibling, Mombo in the nearby Okavango Delta of Botswana. Mokete sits in the Mababe wilderness area, which is home to some of Africa's biggest herds of buffalo and prides of lions. Because the camp features retractable roofs and oversized windows in all nine of its guest rooms, visitors can watch a shooting star or even a hunt without leaving their beds.
In the 62,000-acre Xudum concession, one of the largest and least touched areas of the Okavango, Natural Selection has refurbished its seven-room bush camp, Mokolwane. While the simple wood-and-canvas buildings have all the essentials, Mokolwane's top attraction is the proximity to the fauna that call these wilds home, with no other camp in the area to share them with.
The boutique hotelier Atzaró has opened Atzaró Okavango Camp, which offers traditional excursions, like traversing lagoons in mokoros (dug-out canoes), as well as modern luxuries such as massages, yoga, and a cocktail bar. With its elegant thatched living spaces, wine cellar, and spa, the camp isn't exactly low on frills. But its location in the heart of the delta, situated between the Moremi Game Reserve and Gomoti Plains, offers that sweet spot between creatures and creature comforts.
This article appeared in the July/August 2024 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here