Have you ever considered visiting the Old Continent and then taking a plunge into the beautiful and exotic Black Continent?

Europe has always ranked high in the hearts of travelers. Whether you want to see beautiful landscapes, drive on fantastic roads which resemble Formula 1 circuits, visit museums or immerse in the interesting castles’ atmosphere, Europe does have it all.

This summer you can fly into London, visit the amazing city for several days and then hop on a flight to Spain. Indulge in Mediterranean cuisine and soak up the sun before you travel from Spain to Morocco .

Now that you’ve reached this interesting African country, why not choose one of the Morocco adventure tours to explore the country. The Magical Morocco tour lasts for 9 days and explores places such as Casablanca, Fes and Marrakech. It is the perfect itinerary for the firs time traveler to this area. You get to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy everything that’s special about Morocco.

But Morocco is also an excellent destination for the active travelers. An active 9-day tour can take you to the High Atlas Mountains where you can enjoy trekking and climbing. Marrakech is not overlooked either. The souks are excellent places to pick up a souvenir or try the bizarre cuisine offered here.

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For most people going to see the World Cup, they’ve been planning their trip for months. Getting tickets to the games involved a lottery about a year ago – and because airfare to South Africa from anywhere in the northern hemisphere doesn’t tend to be cheap, many people had their eye on flight deals a good year before the tournament is set to start just so they’d know when the prices moved.

But if you’re not one of those plan-ahead people, that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. You might not get the absolute cheapest prices on airfare and accommodation, but after a few days in South Africa – cheering on your country (or whatever country you’re supporting) and enjoying the general fan fest atmosphere – you’ll probably forget about the cost difference. And besides, we’re here to help make sure you don’t get completely taken advantage of, too.

We published a series of articles about 2010 World Cup travel deals, including information about finding the cheapest airfare and even what airports are in the World Cup cities in South Africa to help you get around the country. And we’ve got listings for all kinds of accommodation options for you all over South Africa, too, including cheap hotels in Cape Town and Johannesburg hostels. And of course, in addition to this Africa travel guide, there’s the one dedicated just to the host country itself – the South Africa travel guide.

We hope you have a great trip to the World Cup, and we hope the best team wins!

photo by Frames-of-Mind

Your Resident Expert

Sam D’Cruz was born and lived in England for most of his life. Picking up a keen interest in photography in his teenage years and then being inspired by renowned Australia Landscape photographer Peter Lik, Sam progressed to becoming a professional photographer specializing in travel, wildlife and commercial photography. Sam is self taught and had some help initially from National Geographic wildlife photographer John Arifin.

Sam’s journeys, largely for the purpose of travel photography contracts, have covered over 20 countries and spanned over 5 years. This has included extensively exploring South East Asia, India, Nepal, China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, Alaska, parts of USA and East Africa. His work often required travelling completely alone and having to learn local languages to get by in remote areas where foreigners are seldom seen.

Travelling the world on photography contracts has entailed climbing several challenging mountain peaks; Stok Kangri – 6,150m (Himalayas), Mt Kilimanjaro – 5,850m (Africa), Mt Kinabalu – 4,100m (Borneo), Mt Fansipan – 3,143m (Vietnam), Throng La Pass – 5,400m (Nepal), Black Tusk – 2,319m (Canada). Sam firmly believes that travelling the world has proved invaluable in gaining an insight into different places and cultures, giving a broad perspective on many different levels.

Some of Sam’s assignments included some amazing moments, such as being a passenger in a tiny aircraft flying in and out of the mountains and glaciers on the West Coast of New Zealand, hiking 10kms along an original piece of the Great Wall of China, viewing the Taj Mahal at sunrise, trekking in the middle of the night to find pythons in Northern Australia, diving the Great Barrier Reef, marveling at the Ancient ruins at Angkor Wat, Cambodia, getting up close with big game wildlife across Africa, climbing a Himalayan Peak in Northern India, seeing Monks chant an ancient Buddhist recital in the oldest temple in Tokyo, Japan just a 10 minute walk from the neon lights and sky scrapers in Tokyo and many more.

Sam has exhibited and sold work online, in Bangkok, Thailand, at several venues and in Vancouver, Canada, where he now resides. His work has been used in a multitude of mediums including; press, aid organizations, marketing material, websites, auctions, stock agencies etc. There is a long list of satisfied clients on an international platform.

Sam is working on publishing several books and looking towards the future he will continue to work on photography contracts worldwide, as well as trying to help others gain an insight into this fascinating art and produce stunning results for themselves.

Sam’s inspiration remains the same as when he first picked up a camera; the fascination of interesting subjects and the challenge of capturing a result pleasing to the eye – often by pushing the camera and lenses to their very limits.

Photographs: Sam D’Cruz

The Photography of Sam D’Cruz

The Photography of Sam D’Cruz

Vilanculos

This is one of Mozambique’s most attractive and important coastal towns, and is the main jump-off point for the Bazaruto Archipelago. It is situated about 20km east of the main coast road, and is nestled in the elbow of a sweeping bay that makes up the archipelago.

Vilanculos has since the cessation of violence in Mozambique been a magnet for white Zimbabwean and South African escapees and drop-outs. Around an early core of these has grown a community of lifestyle travelers that make up most of the camp, lodge and tour operators that now dominate the tourist industry. Expect to find a plethora of hospitality and atmosphere establishments, ranging from the local campsite, through the gamut of backpackers lodges and mid-range guest houses to a handful of designer lodges, all set into the gorgeous coastal landscape and catering to the highly discerning traveler.

Vilanculos is a both a functional and atmospheric destination, with an international airport servicing mainly South African traffic, and all the usual facilities of fuel, supermarkets, a small internet café and a sprawling covered market that sells everything from foodstuffs to Chinese knockoff designer brands.

All in all this is a fine example of the groovy, open minded and mellow Mozambique coast atmosphere,. In keeping with its location, and its ‘manyana’ sensibility, it is grubby, dusty, could use a general coat of paint and an all over clean up, but that is so much part of the atmosphere, and what places this little town squarely in tropical Africa.

The Paradise Islands

The Bazaruto Archipelago is a finger of land that protrudes into the Indian Ocean from a point just south of Vilanculos town. The appendage is broken up into six separate islands, with the principal four being Bazaruto, the largest, Benguerra the second largest, and Magaruque and Santa Carolina being the smallest.

The area is characterized by a shallow stretch of sand shoals and tidal flats with the islands rising slightly above sea level and supporting a limited belt of vegetation. On the east side of the islands the sea bottom plunges to great depth in the Mozambique Channel that runs between the mainland and Madagascar, with the west side being sheltered, shallow and usually very calm.

The area is protected as one of the world’s most important marine national parks, and is home to a small number of surviving dugong that are a very rare sight these days. The islands also host a number of high end beach lodges and resorts that have tended to render the islands prohibitively expensive as an overnight destination.

The entire area is, by African standards, extremely well preserved, with a minimum of corruption and backroom politics involved in the allocation of permits and licenses for development. The result is that this is one of the few authentic tourist destinations in Africa that has managed with massive popularity to maintain most of its original charm, and what growth is visible is usually tasteful and restrained.

Facilities

The islands offer a wide variety of hospitality options, which for the most part are very high end, but offer great exclusivity and a quiet and authentic tropical African coast experience. Most of these establishments are self contained, and offer all the usual activities of diving, snorkeling, big game fishing, horse-riding and dhow excursions, with the added attraction of relaxation in exquisite surroundings.

For the more budget minded traveler Vilanculos itself offers a much wider range of cheap and mid-range hosplaity options, and from there access to the islands is very easy.

On the whole the tourist industry in Vilanculos is very organized, and organizing such activities as diving, snorkeling, dhow safaris and coastal horse adventures is very east.

Vilanculos is serviced by good access roads and a very functional international airport.

As a last work it could be said that the coast of Mozambique has become a South African beachfront property, but if this is so then at least the advantage of this is that everything is run to the high standards that South Africans promulgate and expect, and that cannot be a bad thing.

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It is a beautiful region of green forests, rolling hills and occasional rugged mountain peaks. It has in the past attracted a more genteel class of colonist – the Bengal Chancers as they were once known – and there are still clear shades of old-world gentility evident all over the Vumba Mountains of Zimbabwe.

The Vumba

The Vumba is a small part of the long chain of mountains that define the eastern border of Zimbabwe. It is situated on the edges of the Manicaland provincial capital of Mutare, and is a favorite getaway for the Harare business and political elite, and is a mixture of gorgeous scenery, casino hotels, golf courses and tucked away country lodges and hotels with a distinctly non-African flavor.

This is the surface impression however, for in fact the Vumba is a quintessential African highland environment, with large expanses of open moor and grassland punctuated here and there by dense forests and thickly wooded gullies and water courses. The resemblance to the English countryside is superficial, and on closer examination the proliferation of tropical birdlife, the striking color infusions of wildflowers, blue skies and verdant green all speak undeniably of the tropics. This is one of the most scenic quarters of southern Africa, and justly deserves its reputation as the most beautiful and best kept secret in the region.

Facilities

The Vumba is most famous for its variety of hotels and hospitality establishments. These range form the Leopard Rock Resort Hotel, featuring what is reputed to be Tiger Woods’ favorite golf course, and this is easy to understand considering the ever-changing vistas of mountains, plains and valleys, to the deeply traditional White Horse Inn offering haute cuisine and a sense of old world colonial charm.

The Vumba Botanical Gardens is a showcase of Zimbabwean garden horticulture, and is definitely a highlight of any trip to the Vumba.

Potential activities beyond the obligatory scenic drives through arguably one of the loveliest landscapes in the world, include horse-riding, fly-fishing, golf, hiking, birdwatching and relaxation when possible

Why Go?

This is the ‘other’ Africa, the antithesis of the open plains and the thundering hooves, and is actually in some ways a more authentic image of modern Africa. In small protected highland regions from the slopes of Mount Kenya, to the Ngorongoro Highlands, the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe and the beautiful Lesotho Highlands, it is here where most of the population is concentrated, and images of hillside cultivation, fringe forests, banana groves, avocados and mangos all blend into a colorful picture of a continent that offers a great deal more than dry bushveld and wild animals.

The Park

The Midlands of Zimbabwe could not be considered as an obvious destination for a facility like Antelope Park. This is the agricultural heartland of the country, and just a few miles out of a rapidly industrialising provincial capital with a bourgeoning population. It is hard to imagine a bush idyll taking root here, particularly with its emphasis on lions and elephants, but it has. Considering the difficult recent history of land in Zimbabwe, it is also surprising that a facility like this has managed to survive at all. Despite this Antelope Park is a thriving tourist destination that in a compact and accessible package offers all the iconic features of a wildlife safari.

Facilities

The focus of Antelope Park is much like many similar establishments across the sub-region. A very comfortable camp facility featuring a central hospitality area, bar and restaurant, set in a picturesque bushveld setting, and a surrounded by a campsite, lodges and a selection of luxurious tented rooms overlooking the river. It is an idyllic setting with a parkland atmosphere and a river backdrop with most noticeably an amazing proliferation of local bushveld and aquatic birdlife.

The park offers facilities for campers and overlanders, with a great campsite, well appointed and serviced by excellent ablution facilities. There are a handful of fire-pits that are lit every evening and offer a superb platform to absorb the African night.

Also on offer is a more secluded selection of tented camps set slightly apart, and boasting the usual high standards of décor and comfort that most regional tented facilities offer.

Smaller fixed singles and doubles are also available

Wildlife

The surrounding bush does not boast a huge concentration of wildlife, although a game drive will reveal a selection of local antelope species, excellent birdlife, and now and again a surprise such a pangolin, an aardvark or a bushbaby. What sets Antelope Park apart is its focus on lions, and one of the most thrilling, and sometimes unnerving, activities available is an afternoon walk through the surrounding bush in the company of a small pride of young lions that is truly an elemental African experience.

Other options are a ride on an African elephant, game drives and walks, fishing in the local dams and river, horse-rides on the property, and canoeing, boating and sundowner cruises.

Why Go?

Antelope Park is a stopover with a park-like feeling that does not attempt to appear more than it is. It is primarily a conservation and breeding project, with an associated tourist facility to allow visitors to see and experience African lions at close quarters. As a conservation project it deserves support, and as a brief point of rest and relaxation on an overland journey it is unbeatable.

Don’t miss it!

Venture Travel in a Caring Environment

Volunteer travel is a way of returning a little of what you take as an international voyager. It is also one of the few ways these days that a visitor to a region can be genuinely immersed in local society and culture. For the recipient communities your help will provide a little welcome relief from the daily pressures of care giving, as well as a similarly unique perspective of international exposure.

If you are intending to enter the health care fraternity, or are retired as a doctor, dentist, nurse or therapist, yours would obviously be the most useful and welcomed contribution, but even if you are just a concerned layperson there is ample space in Africa for you to lend a helping hand. Volunteer travel may just be the option for you, to give and take, to teach and learn, and to contribute your time and enthusiasm to struggling communities throughout Africa.

Experience and Challenge Your True Calling in Life by Volunteering

The main practical application of your service as a volunteer in Africa will be in the provision of vital assistance to doctors and nurses as they perform primary health care functions, but you will also be able to assist in a variety of different aspects of field work in community health care and outreach, allowing for many unique perspective of day to day life in rural and urban Africa. You will be working at all times with dedicated and professional health care workers.

Africa accounts for nearly 64 percent of AIDS/HIV worldwide, and it is here that the need for dedicated human resources is most acute. However your help is also needed in important fields of nutrition, education, family planning and many other aspects of poverty alleviation as it relates to the provision of basic health care. If you care about leaving a positive impression on the world, overseas volunteering is the right path for you. Work with dedicated health care teams to achieve success together. Whether you hand out vitamins to families or comfort a sick child, you can make a huge impact on global health by becoming a volunteer today.

The Falls…

There is no doubt that this is one of the world’s most breathtaking natural features, a mile wide, 360ft spectacle of the great Zambezi River plunging into the Batoka Gorge, which is in fact a series of 7 switchback gorges that within itself is a major geological feature. The falls are situated on the mid-Zambezi River, in a region gifted with great natural beauty and bounty. The falls enjoys some of the best preserved and most easily accessible game viewing facilities on the continent, as well as a wide spectrum of hospitality and general tourist facilities to make this arguably one of the best known and most visited destinations in Africa.

Everything Else

Victoria Falls, or Vic Falls to her many devotees, is so much more than a platform to gaze at one of nature’s wonders. It is the adventure/adrenalin capital of Africa, making it probably one of the most exciting places on the entire planet. Victoria Falls, both on the Zambian and Zimbabwean sides, marks the crossroads of almost every overland journey form north to south, so the towns of Victoria Falls and Livingstone are Meccas for overland trucks, with at any given time some hundreds of these parked up at campsites and hostels on either side. These trucks feed the hungry beast of the adrenalin industry, the flagship of which is the Zambezi whitewater rafting.

There are several companies operating on the river, based both in Livingstone and Victoria Falls, with most of the big international names represented, as well as a handful of local hybrids. Every lodge, hostel or hotel has its adventure connection, and riding a flurry of shockingly energetic rapids for an adventure packed day makes this the first choice of just about everyone passing through.

Afterward there is much else to consider. The 360 Victoria Falls Bridge bungie jump, which, if not the highest in the world, is one of the best known and certainly the most spectacular. On a sliding scale its hard to choose between this as the whitewater as the biggest rush, but the runners up are the mircrolite and helicopter flights over the falls (particularly on a full moon), the obligatory booze cruise on the upper Zambezi, and then the benign option of game viewing and relaxing and a generally very pleasant holiday/safari environment. There is also game fishing on offer, with the legendary Zambezi Tigerfish the most sought after fare, and ski boat flips in the gorge, and of course the options of taking your boogie board, kayak or anything else you have on hand down the gorge as a private individual.

Facilities

With all this on offer, and with perhaps the history of being the oldest tourist destination the region, Victoria Falls has every conceivable hospitality option available in abundance. The Zimbabwe side has a longer tradition of high class hospitality, with the venerable Victoria Falls Hotel leading the pack, but a selection of country clubs, casino hotels, game lodges, tourist hotels, backpackers lodges and hostels as well as a selection of private guest houses and B&Bs proliferate.

When to Go

The whitewater fraternity is largely what governs the optimum time to travel to Victoria Falls. At high water, during the wet season between late November and late February, water levels in the river are high and the rides downstream a little easier on the stomach. During the dry season the rapids are at their wildest, and for extreme whitewater enthusiasts this is the time to travel.

Besides these factors there are visitors flocking to Victoria Falls all year, and each month has something to offer that can be found nowhere else. The dry winter season between May and August is the most comfortable, with the wet summer season between November and February the hottest and most humid.

How To Go

Victoria Falls is at the crossroads of north and south, so it is probably one of the most accessible destinations in Africa. Road services from all associated and adjacent countries are good, and an international airport is available in both Victoria Falls and Livingstone. There are train services form both Zambia and Zimbabwe, and almost every overland truck that burns rubber on a southern or east African road at one time or another checks into Victoria Falls.

Travel Warning

Victoria Falls and Livingstone are tourist Meccas, so petty crime, exploitation and thievery are rampant, but violent crime is rare, and more likely you will be touted rather than mugged. Watch out though, and keep your wits about you, and don’t splash your money, cameras or anything else about.

The Park

The protected area of Chobe can be divided into four distinct ecological zones.

The first is the Serondela, or the riverfront on the south bank of the wide and languid Chobe River, which is where most of the main lodge and camp facilities are situated. This is the main dry season drinking area for most of the larger species, and within the dense teak forests that line the river the proliferation of birdlife is extraordinary. It is here that some of the loveliest vistas of Africa pass before your eyes, as you enjoy a game cruise on the river, or sundowners on the terraces and decks that line the rivers edge.

The Savuti Marsh region is a large area of grassland savannah situated along the western edge of the park, and comprising an area 10 878 km² in extent. Thanks to the rich and varied habitat Savuti is famed for its quintessential African aspects and dense concentrations of antelope, lion and elephant. Most notable is the largest annual zebra migration on the continent, with the consequent presence of many predators.

The Linyanti Marsh is situated in the northwest corner of the park and in an area of concentrated wildlife conservancies both in Botswana and Namibia. The landscape is characterized by pristine riverine woodland, open grassland as well as inland lagoons and floodplain. There are healthy populations of the big cats as well as the beautiful sable antelope, red lechwe, sitatunga and roan.

Situated between these two wetland zones is a hot and dry hinterland characterized mainly by grass/woodland. This is a remote and scarcely visited region known principally for eland and kudu populations.

Facilities

The park contains three main camps sites all of which are fully equipped with ablutions, but require advance booking

These are situated in the Serondela region at Ihaha, Savuti, 172 km southwest of Sedudu Gate, and a smaller facility situated at Linyanti about 39km northwest of Savuti.

In addition to these Linyanti has a handful of private concession where luxury tented camps and lodges provide a more established and comfortable option for non traditional campers.

Each of these facilities has a unique flavor, which makes them all worth visiting during a Chobe wildlife safari. The road system within the park is primitive, and so 4×4 transport is usually obligatory, and the best way to get the most out of a trip to Chobe is to hire the services of a local Tour operator to arrange and expedite a trip. The park is nonetheless accessible to all and any who have the right equipment, and is a wonderful option for free range overland travel.

Near the town of Kasane and along the south bank of the river a variety of commercial lodge and campsite options are available, from where many different tour operators pick up and drop off, and indeed where many are based.

What to do

If you visit Chobe then the one and only things to do is indulge yourself in some of the best wildlife safaris available in Africa. Facilities are good, and the travel industry is generally slick and well organised. Multi-day safaris or day, morning and evening game drives are easy to arrange. Once you have drunk your fill of fabulous nature then it is time for a booze cruise on the river, or simply to relax in any one of the wonderfully appointed lodges and river side camps. Fishing can be arranged

When to Go

Wildlife adventure in Africa is always best during the cool and dry winter months between May and August. The reason for this is not only the cooler weather and reduced humidity, but because during the dry season the chances of seeing wildlife is always higher thanks to the fact that herds tend to concentrate around permanent water at that time, and are more easily located in large numbers.

How to Go

Botswana is a drive destination and the road system from the south of the country, from east via Zimbabwe and Zambia, or north and west via Namibia is very good. The main jump off point for Chobe is the nearby town of Kasne, and here there are any number of travel facilities and hospitality options. Close to Kasane is the Victoria Falls adventures center, and easy transit thereafter into all the neighboring countries. The nearest commercial airport facility is Kasane, and then Maun on the Okavango and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, but air strip facilities for light aircraft are available in and around Kasane.

The Makadikadi (Makgadikgadi) complex of salt pans lies adjacent to the rather inconsequential junction town of Nata in central Botswana, and is a region frequently missed en-route either to the Okavango Delta or to the four corners of northern Botswana. These are flat lands with very little visible, above-ground feature, but hidden behind that anonymity lies one of the great natural spectacles of southern Africa.

The Pans

The Makadikadi region is in fact another of those uniquely unusual habitats that makes Botswana such an unforgettable safari destination. It almost goes without saying that no matter what the natural topography might be the area simply teems with wildlife. Technically this is the largest salt pan complex in the world, covering an area of 16 000km², and part of the ancient lake complex that includes the Okavango and Lake Ngami. It is in fact not one single pan but two large expanses interspersed with savannah plains and woodland, and punctuated over a vast area by individual pans that can vary from a few meters to several miles across. There is everywhere a rich quintessence of Africa. A scattering of baobab trees and Ilala palms interpose vast areas of open grassland that offer grazing for antelope herds. Here is to be found the largest concentrations of Zebra in Africa, and much more besides.

In the dry season between April and October the environment is unforgiving, and the pans dry out and bake under a relentless cobalt sky. Wildlife congregates around areas of permanent water, and the pans offer a bleakly compelling image that is startling in the day time and eerily beautiful at night. During the rainy season from late November to late February the pans flood to a shallow depth providing habitat for migrating flocks of flamingos, pelicans and many other wetland species.

The Pans are very easy to access, and lie south and southeast of Nata, with a network of bush tracks and gravel roads accessing the edges. To really penetrate the region a good four-wheel drive vehicle is a minimum requirement, with the best results being achieved with a mobile camp system that allows for remote camping in many parts of the park and surrounds. The most effective and rewarding way to see the region, however, and to get the best of the local lore and customs, is to check in at one of the many local lodges and wilderness camps. These all have unique access, and typically a resident expert who can be relied upon to know the country backwards.

The Wildlife

The Makadikadi National Park is reputed to host the largest zebra herd in the world, and certainly these animals are ubiquitous, as are huge herds of wildebeest and springbok. Others such as gemsbok and buffalo are also common. A striking diversity of bird life also characterises the region, with the seasonal influx of wetland and other mixed bird species augmenting a limited number of perennials that brave the long dry season. Some of the more visible examples are Kohraan, Kori Bustards, Ostriches, Secretary Birds, but look out also for the signature Lilac Breasted Roller, colourful Bee-eaters and the congregationalist nest weavers.

Also frequently seen are Black-Backed Jackal, Red-Hartebeeste, Steenbok, Kudu, Brown and Spotted Hyena, Lion, Cheetah, Wild-Dog, Meerkat, Bat-Eared Fox, Ardvark, Porcupine, Pangolin, Ardwolf and occasionally even Elephant.

In keeping with desert conditions snakes and reptiles are common.

Facilities

These consist mainly of private lodges and remote tented camps, and of these there is absolutely no shortage. Mobile camp facilities are also available, and most lodges will offer a night out on or close to the edge of the pans. A computer search will throw up a bewildering variety of options, and in keeping with the high standards of tourism in Botswana, and with the influx of South African lifestyle investors, standards on the whole are very high and prices not far behind.

What To Do

Game viewing, wilderness four-tracking and remote camping are all on the menu for a couple of days in the pans. Sundowners on a camp chair looking out across a sun drenched infinity, quad biking across a sea of white clay, moonlight walks, bird-watching, horse riding and indulging in splendid accommodation in the heart of wild Africa, these are all ways to drink in the ubiquitous natural beauty of the Makadikadi.

Don’t look for too much more than this. Lodge décor is exclusively wild Africa, and bar conversation is all about the bush and what lives in and around it. It is bush, bush and more bush. This is a bush destination.

When To Go

Botswana is hot, and in summer it is hotter. There is a brief respite during the winter months between June and September, but by October the heat is rising and the bush is parched. Winter nights can be very cold. In November the annual rain arrived and for a few months the heat is accompanied by oppressive humidity.

For those wanting to enjoy the dun coloured expanses of African wilderness, with wildlife massed around permanent water, then the winter is the optimum time to visit. For those who want to see the pans in flood, and the influx of bird life, then the wet months between November and March are the best.

How To Go

Botswana is mainly a drive destination. The main trunk roads are excellent, and access to the pans from Nata or the main road is usually quite straightforward. You can fly into Maun or Gabarone from Johannesburg, Harare or Windhoek on scheduled flights, but many tour operators offer direct fly-in safaris from many of the surrounding countries. The Botswana road system is very good, so driving in from Namibia, South Africa or Zimbabwe is easy. Coming down from Angola is less easy.