Resort to Research
On Benguerra, join scientists from the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies at sea to observe the archipelago's marine life.
Delta to the Indian Ocean
Six nights in Botswana's wild north, then five on a Mozambique island.
- 12 nights
- Four stays
- Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique
- Safari, beach, wellness
The elephants of Savute and the waterways of the Okavango Delta come first, with drives, walks, long hours at the watering hole and, weather permitting, a night in a treehouse above the floodplains. Then a night in Johannesburg, in the suite where Nelson Mandela edited Long Walk to Freedom, and five days on Benguerra Island, going out with the scientists who study the Bazaruto Archipelago.
- Length
- 12 nights
- Pace
- Four stays
- Style
- Safari, beach, wellness
- Route
- Savute to Moremi Game Reserve to Johannesburg to Benguerra Island
- SavuteThree nights
- Moremi Game ReserveThree nights
- JohannesburgOne night
- Benguerra IslandFive nights
01
Days 1 to 4 · three nights
Savute
A 40-minute flight from Kasane to the Savute Channel in Chobe National Park. At least two game drives a day, long spells in the hide over the watering hole as elephants come to drink, bush dinners and sundowners, and the paintings the San left in the rocks of the nearby hills more than 2,000 years ago.
Where you stay
Savute Elephant Lodge, A Belmond Safari
Savute Elephant Lodge stands in the heart of the Savute Channel in Chobe National Park, with a permanent watering hole directly in front and a lookout hide over it. Its 12 tented rooms are raised on bamboo platforms with four-poster beds, and there is a heated pool, a spa tent and dining in the bush.
02
Days 4 to 7 · three nights
Moremi Game Reserve
A short flight into the Okavango Delta for drives twice a day and guided walks, a glass-bottomed mokoro through the channels and a sundowner taken with your feet in the water. Weather permitting, the Baobab, a sculpted treehouse a kilometre from the lodge, can be kept for dinner and a night's sleep-out high above the floodplains.
Where you stay
Xigera Safari Lodge
Xigera is set deep in the Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta, almost hidden under a canopy of indigenous trees, and runs on solar power. Its 12 suites and a two-bedroom family suite are each designed individually, with copper fireplaces and sculptural furniture, and contemporary art fills the lodge.
03
Days 7 to 8 · one night
Johannesburg
A light aircraft to Maun and a scheduled flight to Johannesburg, for one night on the way to the coast. Ask for the Nelson Mandela Platinum Suite, the room where Mandela edited his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.
Where you stay
Saxon Hotel, Villas & Spa
In Sandhurst, a tree-lined suburb of Johannesburg, the Saxon sits in 10 acres of indigenous gardens, with suites in the main hotel, more private villa suites and the Nelson Mandela Platinum Suite. Dinner is at Qunu, and the spa is built around water features, a fireplace, copper and Himalayan salts.
04
Days 8 to 13 · five nights
Benguerra Island
A two-hour flight to Vilanculos and 10 minutes by light aircraft to the island. Paddleboard yoga, snorkelling on the house reefs, a sail on the Kisawa fishing dhow, hikes over the dunes and a private beach. Through its Resort to Research programme, guests join scientists from the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies to observe the marine life; from July to October humpback whales calve in the Mozambique Channel, and boats go out to Bazaruto, Paradise and Magaruque islands in search of dugong. An island outing can be arranged to the dunes and lakes of the north, the village and its church, and the Centro Comunitário Kanhe Kwedo, where women make beadwork and men run conservation projects, ending with sundowners on the dunes. Then home the same way.
Where you stay
Kisawa Sanctuary
Kisawa is a 300-hectare sanctuary of forest, beach and dunes on the southern tip of Benguerra Island, 14 kilometres off the Mozambique coast in the Bazaruto Archipelago. Guests stay in residences of one to three bedrooms with their own day areas, built by island artisans alongside 3D printing to tread lightly.
Arranged on request
Humpback whales and their calves
From July to October the Mozambique Channel is a breeding and nursing ground for humpback whales, with up to 100 breaching and tail-slapping in a day at the peak of the season.
In search of dugong
A boat to Bazaruto, Paradise or Magaruque islands to look for one of the 200 or so dugong left in the region.
The Mandela suite
At the Saxon in Johannesburg, the Nelson Mandela Platinum Suite is the room where Mandela edited his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.
The Baobab at Xigera
A treehouse shaped after a Pierneef painting, a kilometre from the lodge, for dinner and a sleep-out above the floodplains, subject to availability and weather.
The beadworkers of Kanhe Kwedo
On Benguerra, an outing can be arranged to the Centro Comunitário Kanhe Kwedo, where women make beadwork and men run conservation projects, with the dunes and lakes of the north and sundowners on the dunes.
Subject to availability.
Ways to make it yours
- Three nights at Wilderness Mombo on Chief's Island in place of Xigera.
- Diving on Kisawa's Dive Like a Scientist programme with the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies.
- A second night in Johannesburg, for a four-hour visit with a specialist guide to the fossil-bearing Sterkfontein caves in the Cradle of Humankind, their underground lake and the Robert Broom Museum.
This is a sample. The hotels, the pace and the order are where we start, not where we finish: every journey is designed around the people taking it.
Made around you
Most travel is bought. This is designed.
Before anything is booked, we talk: who is travelling, how you like to spend a morning, and the hotel preferences below the obvious, from the kind of bath you like to the time you wake and how much daylight you need in a room. You see options where options matter and clean recommendations where they don't.
The same person remains your point of contact from the first reply to the trip after next. No handovers. No team.
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