Has anyone been to Tanzania and Botswana?

[swimster01]

And if so, which do you think would be best for a family safari (DC 10 and 11), cheers

Either will be fantastic. I’m biased in favour of Botswana - the Okavango Delta, in particular, is fantastic and the Central Kalahari is real empty wilderness. Chobe is busier as gets lots of day trips from Vic Falls and Livingstone. Botswana is one of the most expensive places to safari, though. Tanzania (like Kenya) is busier - there are often a few jeeps around animal sightings and the Ngorongoro Crater - though beautiful - is particularly busy. (Of course, busy is a very relative term when discussing African game parks!) The tourism strategy in Botswana is for small, intimate camps, whereas in East Africa they have hotel style lodges too, so more jeeps out there. We’ve just been to Zambia, to the South Luangwa Valley and I’d say it’s the best safari I’ve done (and I’ve been on loads in southern and Eastern Africa - former ex-pat). You can also spend a few days at the Zambian side of Victoria Falls which is fab for kids and adults. Lake Malawi is an easy flight from S Luangwa and perfect for beach time/water sports post- safari.

Thanks for the response Annebronte - I hadn't considered Zambia so I will check that out also.

Expert Africa and Africa Travel Resource are both quite useful websites for research, although their camp info is not absolutely up to date. Aardvark are good for booking with. If interested in Zambia, look up Norman Carr and Robin Pope (both can be booked direct or through an operator like Aardvark etc). Lower Zambezi is also v good in Zambia, though in addition to S Luangwa, not instead.

Also meant to mention Flatdogs for S Luangwa: a more economical option and highly recommended. We combined it with smaller more remote (and therefore more expensive camps).

ITA with pp that the Okavango and South Luangwa are stunning! Victoria Falls is an amazing sight!

However, the Ngorongoro Crater is also stunning - although we only spent one day and night there; part of a trip to the Serengeti and Olduvai Gorge!

We used African Adventures to plan our 10 day safari in Tanzania. All the lodges were amazing and our guide was fantastic. We saw everything we were hoping to see, and more.

Would highly recommend both Tanzania and African Adventures. We then went to Zanzibar to lie on a beach for a week and that too, was planned brilliantly.

Checklist we stayed in Ngorogoro crater lodge for two nights. It's still the most amazing place I have stayed, I think.

Namibia is good with kids.

Thanks for your messages. After much deliberation, we have decided to go to Tanzania - really looking forward to it!

Tanzania is amazing. Good choice. If you can afford just one night in Ngorogoro Crater Lodge - it's worth every single penny.

craterlodge.com/index.html