Chobe National Park Day Trip from Victoria Falls: What I Wish I Had Known Before I Booked (and you should know too)

A Chobe National Park day trip from Victoria Falls is one of those additions to an itinerary that sounds like a nice extra and turns out to be one of the highlights of the entire trip.

You are already at Victoria Falls. Botswana is less than an hour away. Chobe National Park sits right there on the other side of the border and inside it is one of the largest elephant populations on Earth. Not doing it would be a genuine mistake. For me, it was non-negotiable to take this trip, especially that other national parks near Victoria Falls were not as abundant in wildlife.

We did the Chobe day trip from Victoria Falls during our four days on the Zambian side and it was the right call, but it works similarly from Zimbabwe Victoria Falls side too. Here is everything you need to know before you book.

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Why you should do Chobe National Park day trip from victoria falls

Chobe is one of Africa’s great wildlife destinations and it has a particular claim to fame that justifies the trip on its own: it is home to the world’s largest elephant population, with an estimated 50,000 elephants in the park (although I read in some sources that it is around 120000). And since it lies only an hour away, it is a perfect opportunity to make Chobe National Park a day trip from Victoria Falls.

With such a big population, we though that we would not spot the occasional elephant in the distance here, but encounter herds of them at close range, in the water, on the riverbanks, crossing the road in front of your vehicle as if you are the inconvenience rather than the other way around. This did not happen. Yes, we saw some elephants, maybe 30 in total, but it was after hours of driving and boat cruising. But as the guide said: the elephants are not stuck or contained there, they move between borders of surrounding countries. So set your expectations right.

The park is also home to large herds of buffalo and zebra, significant lion prides (but we only saw one lioness), and over 460 bird species. For the first couple of hours, all we saw were birds – I really thought it is a birdwatching destination rather than an elephant park. But honestly, while I was never interested in birds, ever since my last trip to Iguazu, I am hooked to take pictures of them. So Chobe was an excellent place for me.

Add hippos, crocodiles, giraffes and the general abundance of wildlife that comes with a healthy, well-managed national park and you have a full day of game viewing before you have even thought about lunch.

The other thing worth knowing about Chobe: the Chobe River is one of the only rivers in the world that flows in both directions. During the dry season it flows east. During the rainy season the volume of the Zambezi pushes upstream and makes it flow west. It is a small detail but the kind of thing that makes you look at a landscape differently once you know it.

How the Chobe National Park Day Trip from Victoria Falls Actually Works

Let me be honest about how our day started, because it is useful to know before you book.

We had been told our pick up from Avani hotel in Livingston will be at 6:40. We were ready on time, having rushed through breakfast at 6:30am to make sure we would not be the ones holding anyone up. We were not the ones who held anyone up.

The driver collected us first and then went to pick up a family of five. They were not ready. They were still eating breakfast, taking their time, entirely unbothered by the fact that several other people were sitting in a minivan outside waiting. When they finally appeared, the driver assessed the situation and concluded that fitting them into the vehicle was not going to work. So we had to leave from the minivan and wait for another vehicle to arrive to collect us, while the family took the van. By the time everyone was moving in the same direction the morning had already lost a chunk of itself.

This is the reality of a shared day trip and it is worth knowing before you book. Shared tours are significantly cheaper than private ones; private Chobe day trips are possible but the price difference is considerable, and the trade-off is exactly this kind of delay. You are at the mercy of the group and the group is not always ready at the agreed time. If your time at Victoria Falls is limited and you want the day to run on your schedule, a private tour is worth the extra cost. Or better yet, stay overnight (but this would mean a different visa type). If you are flexible and the price difference matters, go shared but manage your expectations around timing from the start.

The drive to the Kazungula border crossing takes around 45 minutes to an hour. The border formalities themselves were quicker than most people expect- ours took around 20 minutes in total for both the Zimbabwe exit and the Botswana entry. What adds time is waiting for the rest of your group to get through, particularly if some members are slower or less organised with their documents than others. Our family of five arrived late to the border too.

Once across into Botswana you are handed over to a local tour operator who manages the rest of the day. This is another layer of the logistics worth understanding — the company you booked with in Victoria Falls is not the same company running the game drive and boat cruise in Botswana. You are passed between operators, which works perfectly well when communication between them is good and less smoothly when it is not. Confirm all the details of your day, including exactly what is included and what the sequence of activities will be, before you leave Victoria Falls rather than assuming everything will be explained on arrival in Botswana.

Once the logistics settle, the day itself follows a clear and well-organised structure: a morning boat cruise on the Chobe River, lunch at a riverside lodge, and an afternoon game drive in open safari vehicles through the national park. You are back at your hotel in Victoria Falls by early evening. The actual safari time runs to around six to eight hours, which is genuinely enough to see a significant amount, but in my opinion, the game drive was a bit rushed. I would have to to stay longer.

The Game Drive

The order of activities depends on your operator — some do the game drive in the morning and the boat cruise in the afternoon, others flip it. We did the game drive first, starting around 9am, and I will be honest: it was a little underwhelming compared to what I had expected given Chobe’s reputation.

The timing is the main reason. A 9am start for a game drive is not ideal. Animals are most active in the very early morning and by the time you factor in the drive from Victoria Falls, the border crossing and the handover to the local operator, the best hours of the day are already behind you. When I visited Madikwe in South Africa, we would always start before sunrise. If the game drive started at 8am it would be a completely different experience, which would mean leaving Victoria Falls at around 6am – not impossible but not what most day trip operators are set up to offer.

We saw animals. Elephants, birds, some antelope. But not in the numbers or the variety that the park’s reputation had led me to expect. That said, one game drive on one morning is a very small sample of what Chobe has to offer and wildlife sighting always depends on the day, the season and a significant amount of luck. People who have done multiple drives here consistently report extraordinary sightings. We just did not happen to be one of those days.

The boast cruise

The boat cruise in the afternoon was a completely different story and more than made up for the quieter morning. Watching elephants bathing in the Chobe River from a boat drifting alongside them was the highlight of the entire day and one of the most extraordinary wildlife moments of the whole Victoria Falls trip. They were in the water, rolling, splashing, playing – completely unbothered by our presence and clearly having a significantly better time than anyone on board the boat. Crocodiles lined the banks. Birds appeared constantly in species and numbers that had the birdwatchers on board quietly losing their minds. Hippos surfaced nearby. The light on the river in the late afternoon was extraordinary.

The boat cruise alone is enough to justify the day trip. I loved it! And honestly, it was one of the most memorable safari moments, and I’ve done a few. If you go to Chobe and come back having seen elephants bathing in the river from the water, the day has delivered on its promise regardless of what the game drive produced.

Visas and Border Crossing

You will need your passport for the Kazungula border crossing. Most nationalities do not require a visa for Botswana for short visits but verify your specific requirements before you travel.

If you are visiting both Zimbabwe and Zambia during your Victoria Falls trip, the KAZA Univisa is worth considering. This is what we got at the airport the moment we landed in Zambia. It covers entry to both countries and also includes Botswana day trips, which makes the border crossing considerably simpler and avoids the cost of purchasing separate visas on each crossing. The visa costs USD 50 and is available on arrival at major border crossings and airports in the region. Verify current availability and pricing before your trip as visa policies change as this is something I am unable to verify for you.

When to Go

The dry season between May and October is the optimal time for wildlife viewing in Chobe, as animals concentrate around the permanent water sources of the river making sightings more reliable and more frequent. The riverbanks during this period are extraordinary, the combination of animals coming to drink and the low water levels making the banks more accessible produces the kind of game viewing that Chobe is famous for. I loved visiting Victoria Falls in May because they are still very powerful, but for Chobe, I imagine, from July would be much better. While the Chobe river was absolutely beautiful, when the water goes a bit more down in July, you can see more hippos.

The green season between November and April brings lush landscapes and exceptional birdwatching as migratory species arrive. Wildlife is more dispersed but the park is less crowded and the scenery is dramatically different. Both seasons have genuine merit depending on what you are looking for.

Practical Tips for chobe national park day trip from victoria falls

• Start early — pickup is between 7am and 7:30am for good reason. The border crossing takes time and the morning light on the river is at its best early. Do not be late for your pickup.
• Bring your passport — without it you are not crossing the border and the day is over before it starts. Check the night before.
• Carry USD cash — park entry fees are paid separately and in cash. It was $25 per person and the guide asked for it at the beginning of our trip. Bring more than you think you need as there are limited facilities for card payments at the border and in the park, although we didn’t need any. Maybe you could use some during lunch as some drinks are not included in the cost.
• Dress in layers — it can be cold in the morning on the river, particularly during the dry season winter months between May and August. A warm layer for the boat cruise and lighter clothes for the afternoon game drive covers both halves of the day.
• Bring sun protection — the afternoon game drive in an open vehicle or a boat under a Botswana sun requires sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses. The shade of the boat in the morning gives a false sense of security. We did an afternoon boat drive and the sun was really strong.
• Camera and binoculars — the wildlife in Chobe is abundant but a good zoom lens and a pair of binoculars add considerably to what you can see and photograph from the boat and the vehicle. I have a camera with a 300 zoom, but some people had a really serious ones. With mine, I did not always manage.
• Book in advance — particularly during peak season between July and October when the best operators fill up quickly. Day trips are popular and the best guides get booked first.

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