Editors' Picks

Sanctuary Chief’s Camp

Eco-resort, abundant wildlife, warm service

Ngamiland East, Botswana

At a Glance

Sanctuary Chief’s Camp offers an eco-focused home in one of the most highly concentrated game areas in the Okavango Delta.

Indagare Loves

  • The choir that awaits your arrival singing a typical Botswanan welcome and who fast become your friends, as the staff is especially warm and welcoming
  • An on-site spa facility, offering a full range of services with indoor and outdoor beds for guests to take in the wildlife and Delta scenery while enjoying their treatment
  • The “Children’s Retreat”, a tent dedicated to children 15 and under, where they can learn about the animals and nature around them, play foosball and more while their parents get some alone time

Review

Located on Chief’s Island, the largest landmass within the Okavango Delta, Sanctuary Retreats’ Chief’s Camp offers front-row seats to some of the best game viewing in the region. Moremi Game Reserve, also home to Mombo Camp, is the first protected area in Africa to be established by local people, and it is a rendezvous for animals that come to take advantage of the prey and ample water during the high season.

The ten guest accommodations and two-bedroom Geoffrey Kent luxury suite allow for an intimate game-viewing experience that is also pampering. The spacious pavilions boast enormous four-poster beds, air conditioning, indoor and outdoor showers, high thatched roofs and over 1,600-square-feet of living space including private decks with plunge pools that overlook the Piajo plains. The pavilions also offer WiFi.

Game drives are shared (although as with most camps, you can request a private vehicle at additional cost) and activities include both land- and water-based excursions (water level dependent). Between morning and evening activities, guests can take advantage of the pool, have rejuvenating massages or enjoy drinks on the boma, which extends over the flood plains.

Guests who wish to do so can get involved with the camp’s Rhino Conservation Project and one of the many eco-friendly initiatives the camp instituted when it was renovated in 2016. Due to the unique environment of Chief’s Island, white and black rhino have been released into the area as part of a conservation project and are monitored daily.

The service level the staff provides is excellent, and all, from the managers to the guides, make guests feel right at home. Chief’s Camp offers a wonderful introduction to Botswana to get a real sense of the conservation efforts and incredible wildlife and landscape of the Okavango Delta.

Who Should Stay

Those who want a comfortable, relaxed home base with a focus on conservation from which to explore one of the most predator-rich areas in Botswana.

Written by Lizzie Eberhart

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