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Travel and Tourism in Botswana
Travel alerts, currency, climate, transit, health, and safety information for visitors to Botswana.
Practical Information
Travel alert status, currency, climate, and transit details.
- Travel Alert Status
- Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions
- Time Difference
- UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
- Currency
- 10.21
- Climate
- Most of its area is an inhospitable semi-desert known as the Kalahari. Even the most arable sections of eastern Botswana are subject to periodic drought and unpredictable rains. Botswana straddles the Tropic of Capricorn and has an average elevation of 3,300 feet. Daily high temperatures during the hottest month, January, average in the upper 90's to over 100°F. Winter daytime temperatures generally reach 70 degrees, but with little cloud cover and no humidity to hold warmth in the air, they plummet to 30 or 40°F at night.
- Language(s) Spoken
- English is the official language while Setswana is considered the national language. Tjikalanga is commonly spoken in northeastern Botswana.
- Ethnic Groups
- Tswana (or Setswana) 79%, Kalanga 11%, Basarwa 3%, other (including Kgalagadi and white) 7%
- National Holiday
- Independence Day (Botswana Day), 30 September (1966)
- Geographic Coordinates
- 22 00 S, 24 00 E
- Location
- Southern Africa, north of South Africa
- Airports
- 85
Destinations
Regions and cities, top sights, national parks, UNESCO sites, and festivals for visitors.
Chobe National Park
If the Okavango Delta is the jewel in Botswana's wildlife crown, then Chobe National Park is the setting that makes the jewel shine. Established in 1968 as Botswana's first national park, Chobe covers approximately 11,700 square kilometers in the extreme north of the country, bounded to the north by the Chobe River, which forms the border with Namibia's Caprivi Strip. The park's western boundary is close to the Okavango system, and together the two areas form part of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, the world's largest transfrontier conservation area, covering an enormous swathe of wilderness across five countries.
The Chobe River is the defining feature and the greatest attraction of the park. This broad, permanent river, flowing east toward its confluence with the Zambezi at Kasane, supports concentrations of wildlife that are almost beyond belief. The elephant population associated with the Chobe River system is the densest in the world.
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Health and Safety
Medical facilities, vaccinations, disease risk, and sanitation conditions.
Private medical facilities in Gaborone are adequate for simple medical problems, but facilities outside of Gaborone are severely limited. Adequately equipped emergency rooms and trained physicians are available in the capital but services are rudimentary elsewhere. Professional private emergency rescue services operate air and ground ambulances throughout the country, but care is rendered only after a patient’s ability to pay is established. Response times are often slow in less populated areas.
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