Wilderness Savuti — Hotel in North-West District

We had a wonderful 3 night stay at Wilderness Safaris’ Savuti Camp, as part of a larger safari itinerary that included different and distinct parts of Botswana. It was a fantastic adventure. Whether this camp is right for you depends on what you’re looking for and where else you’re going.

The Camp: Wilderness is a great camp operator, and Savuti fits squarely in their class of camp that we like most. It’s got plenty of creature comforts, but it’s a “classic” camp that’s focused on the wilderness as opposed to the luxury amenities. In other words, there are no glass doors to your “tent.” No private plunge pools and massage spas. If you want that nonsense, try Kings Pool or Duma Tau or some of the other ritzier, pricier offerings in the Wilderness family. But don’t worry. Savuti is plenty luxurious, with beautiful comfortable tents, great beds, great service, and great food – but the focus is on the safari, not on spending time in your tent.

The Location: Most Botswana safaris focus first on the Okavango Delta, with good reason. Depending on the time of year you could easily include multiple locations within the Okavango in your safari. It would be hard for me to recommend prioritizing this camp (which is in the Linyanti region) over, say, the Chitabe concession in the Okavango, but it makes an excellent complement if you are visiting multiple camps.

The Linyanti concession stretches northeast of the Okavango Delta, where the narrow channel called the Selinda spillway extends beyond the Delta until it connects to the Linyanti and Chobe River systems. During high water floods, the spillway connects the entire ecosystem, but in some years it dries up completely. I recommend looking at a map to make sure you understand where you’ll be staying. A fair bit west of this camp is where the Selinda Spillway empties into the Linyanti River, then a branch called the Savute Channel runs off to the east. Wilderness Camp Savuti is along that branch – the Savute Channel. It is in the Linyanti Concession, but it is NOT on the Linyanti River. That would be at least an hour’s drive north.

So this is not the delta. It’s not the savannah. And it’s not the river. Much of the terrain you’ll cover as you drive around this camp is forests of mopane trees (very cool trees that elephants love – look them up). We saw more lions and elephants here than we have at any other camp, but there are of course no guarantees and with the dense brush, the spotting here can be challenging compared to most of the Delta.

The Linyanti is known as a magnet for elephants, and it doesn’t disappoint. If you stay here, I highly recommend coordinating with your guide to stay out all day and pack lunch. If you follow the standard itinerary of coming back to camp for lunch, then you can’t venture nearly as far. If you’re out all day, then your guide can cross the forest or possibly take you to a boat onto the Linyanti River. If you have that opportunity, don’t miss it. There’s nothing quite like being in a small boat on a river filled with elephants in the late...

We cannot begin to express how amazing our experience was at Wilderness Savuti. We came here from Tubu Tree (also reviewed), and honestly were worried that it would not live up to that newly refurbished location. We were wrong. Although the drought hit this area hard as well, we still had an absolutely incredible experience. Once again, we were thrilled to come up close and personal with lions (including cubs), leopards, elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeast, smaller cats (serval and the one that they call a cat, but isn't really), cape fox, warthogs, baboons, hippos, gorgeous birds...I can't list them all. The sunsets were breathtaking, as they all for parts of Southern Africa.||As to the camp itself, we loved our "tent" (#5). One afternoon, we had to wave down our guide, because an elephant was standing over the walkway from our tent to the main area. We also heard elephant walk right next to our tent one night, and heard lions nearby.||Our wake up call was at 5:30AM, breakfast was at 6:00AM, and the first drive was shortly thereafter. We would get back between 11-12 to wash up, enjoy lunch, and then rest (or do yoga; mats are provided). There was plenty of hot water for showers, and the staff did a terrific job of refilling our water bottles and making sure we stayed well hydrated (and fed!! - tea and snacks were provided at 4pm before we headed out for an evening drive, and then dinner was when we got back).||We celebrated our anniversary while there, which the staff made sure to be extra special! We also enjoyed the bbq and songs by the staff.||We recommend this camp wholeheartedly, and are so very thankful for our experience. To note, Safari Adventures Worldwide helped put this trip together for us. We would use them and Wilderness again without...

On the ride in from the airstrip, our amazing guide Onks stopped for some quality time with painted wolves and that set the tone for a marvellous safari in Savuti. Returning after 15 years we found the landscape transformed as the river had reclaimed its bed and everything was emerald green. A spring visit ensured we saw lots of babies, including very new impala and waterbuck as well as lion cubs, elephant calves and tiny baboon toddlers. The birding was superb and we also saw more turtles and monitors than on our previous trips. A factor in this was having the jeep, and guide to ourselves, which allowed for more flexible scheduling and meant we could stop and see some of the smaller bush stories unfold without inconveniencing other guests. Onks, a fantastic naturalist and a great storyteller, found the carmine bee eaters we’d been hoping to see on a full day out, that included a lovely cruise on Zib lagoon, spotted a tiny python resting in a bush and even caught a cicada for us so we could see one up close as he told us about their complex and vital role in the ecosystem.|Wonderful wilderness experiences, though, are only half the story of the trip. Staying with Wilderness also means meeting the amazing members of the team who make us so welcome and comfortable. It’s always a treat to reconnect and share stories with people we’d met on previous trips and enjoy the warm hospitality that Wilderness is known for. A special thank you for the amazing lunch we had while on our full day tour - a feast delivered to a shady hide with an...