Choosing between them

Chobe or Moremi? Botswana's two top-tier parks compared

Name: Chobe National Park
Address: Botswana

Chobe and Moremi are the only two Category A parks in Botswana, they share a tariff, and a sand track through Savuti and Khwai joins them. We run the independent guides to both, so we can put them side by side without a thumb on the scale. They are two different rivers, reached from two different towns.

If you only want the answer

Pick Chobe if you want the river and the easy start: elephant herds and boat cruises on the Chobe from Kasane, an airport 10 minutes from the gate, tar to the Riverfront and beds in town from about US$60. Pick Moremi if the Okavango is the point: mokoro and boats on the flood, leopard on 77 percent of trips against 58 at Chobe, and wild dog odds more than twice as good, at the price of deep sand from Maun and a booked campsite before the gate will let you in. Entry is P270 a day in both, but a foreign car pays P115 at Chobe against P75 in Moremi. The two join through Savuti and Khwai, about 106 km of sand, and the classic Botswana self-drive does both.

Best for big game MoremiBest for birding ChobeBest for on the water ChobeBest for self-drive ChobeBest for low budget ChobeBest for families ChobeBest for a first safari ChobeBest for wilderness Moremi

Tap a row label to see the reasoning behind a rating.

Only show differences

Compare	ChobeAbout 11,700 km² (BTO); 11,000 km² reported to WDPA	Moremi3,900–5,000 km²
	4Jun to Oct	5Jul to Oct
	4Jun to OctElephants in the park: 15,404 (2018 survey); Northern Botswana: 126,114 (2018 survey); Botswana's part of KAZA: 131,909 (2022 survey)	5bestJul to OctMammal species (Delta): 130; Wild dog (Okavango): ±500, a world stronghold; Red lechwe (Delta): 30,000–90,000
Elephant	Guaranteed	Guaranteed
Lion	Likely	Likely
Leopard	Fair chance	Likely
Buffalo	Likely	Likely
Wild dog	Rare	Fair chance
Cheetah	Rare	Rare
Hippo	Likely	Guaranteed
Giraffe	Guaranteed	Likely
	4best450 speciesAbout 450 bird species listed on the wildlife page.	3400 speciesAbout 400 bird species listed on the wildlife page.
	5Water	4Water
	2The national parks regulations ban walking inside Chobe and no designated walking area has been published; guided walks run in the Linyanti concessions and the Chobe Enclave next door.	2Walking safaris are not permitted inside the reserve; walks happen in the surrounding private and community concessions such as Khwai.
	2Driving between sunset and sunrise is banned inside the park and no night-drive area has been published for Chobe; the Linyanti concessions run night drives legally.	2Night drives are not permitted in the reserve, Chief's Island included; Khwai and the private concessions run them legally.
	5bestThe riverfront boat cruise is the activity Chobe is known for: three-hour trips from Kasane's jetties past Sedudu Island from BWP 498, electric boats from Chobe Game Lodge and houseboats on the Namibian bank; no mokoro or fishing inside the park.	4Motorboat cruises from Xakanaxa to the Gcodikwe heronry, mokoro trips from Mboma when water allows, and boats year-round on the permanent lagoons, best May to Sep.
	4Any car reaches Sedudu Gate on 7 km of tar from Kasane and a Riverfront day visit needs no booking, but a high-clearance 4x4 is essential beyond the gate and Savuti is 165 km and 4 to 5 h, about 70 km of it deep sand.	4Self-driving is the main activity on the sand tracks, 92 km and about 2 h from Maun to South Gate, but a high-clearance 4x4 is essential and the four public campsites sell out 6 to 8 months ahead for June to October.
	$50cheapest bed	$30cheapest bed
	$20International adult per day ({'name': 'DWNP fee structure for national parks and game reserves, 2022 First Schedule to the National Parks and Game Reserves Regulations, in force since 1 April 2022 (checked 4 Oct 2026)', 'url': 'https://www.bwana.de/images/2022/New_fees_2022_DWNP_2022.pdf'}, 2026-10-04).	$20International adult per day ({'name': 'Government of Botswana national parks tariff (Ministry of Finance Savingram, December 2025) and DWNP', 'url': 'https://www.christourszambian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Botswana-Park-Fee-Updates.pdf'}, 2026-10-04).
	$50Lowest listed rate per person per night across 54 places; 9 are budget tier.	$30bestLowest listed rate per person per night across 35 places; 7 are budget tier.
	$607bestMedian of 31 priced places; top end $2,250.	$718Median of 31 priced places; top end $2,889.
	3Cheapest listed bed $50, 9 of 54 places in the budget tier, park fee $20 a day.	3Cheapest listed bed $30, 7 of 35 places in the budget tier, park fee $20 a day.
	$1,635mid-range	$2,610mid-range
	$495bestBudget one: self-drive camping at Ihaha on the Riverfront	$570Budget one: self-drive camping, the classic Maun loop
	$1,635bestBudget two: a Kasane lodge, with boat cruises and game drives bought in town	$2,610Budget two: mid-range at Sango Safari Camp
	$4,440bestBudget three: fly-in to Savute Safari Lodge	$18,200Budget three: fly-in to Mombo Camp
	Kasane (BBK)nearest airport	Maun (MUB)nearest airport
	Kasane (BBK), 5.6 km from town and ±10 min from Sedudu GateFrom the getting-there and flights pages.	Maun (MUB), 92 km and ±2 h to South Gate; 30 to 45 min by light aircraftFrom the getting-there and flights pages.
	Any car to Sedudu, 4x4 beyondFrom the getting-there page.	Essential, no exceptionsFrom the getting-there page.
	Jun to Octpeak game viewing	Jul to Octpeak game viewing
	Jun to OctFrom the best-time page.	Jul to OctFrom the best-time page.
	No published wet-season closure; a storm can close a Savuti track overnightFrom the best-time page.	Open all year; occasional wet-season closures (6 Mar to 13 Apr 2026)From the best-time page.
	High Oct–Maymalaria	High Oct to Maymalaria
	High Oct–May, low Jun–Sep (NaTHNaC)From the health page.	High Oct to May, low Jun to Sep (NaTHNaC)From the health page.
	Not publishedNo current statement from Botswana's veterinary services or NaTHNaC says whether tsetse are present in or absent from the park; control spraying targeted the Kwando and Linyanti rivers in 2006.	Not publishedOnly the history page discusses tsetse, as the shifting fly belts of old Ngamiland; the health page is silent.
	October, 35.8°C mean daily maxMean daily maximum of the hottest month, from the health page.	October, 36.5°C mean daily maxMean daily maximum of the hottest month, from the health page.
	Kasane Primary Hospital, ±7 km from Sedudu GateAir evacuation: Insurance cover essential.	Maun, ±2 h from South GateFrom the health page.
	5First safari	5First safari
	4Kasane Primary Hospital is about 7 km from Sedudu Gate and Chobe Game Lodge takes children of all ages in its family suites; malaria risk is high from October to May and every public campsite is unfenced.	4Malaria risk is low Jun to Sep, the best all-round months, and Sandibe, Gomoti Plains, Kiri and Monachira take all ages; campsites are unfenced and the nearest hospitals are in Maun, ±2 h from South Gate.
	5Elephant and giraffe are guaranteed on 99 per cent of trips and lion and buffalo likely on 91, and Airlink flies daily to Kasane, ten minutes from the park gate.	5Hippo on 100 per cent of reported trips and elephant on 99, lion 91 and leopard 77, with 30 to 45 min light-aircraft hops from Maun's scheduled airport.
	3About 11,700 km² in four areas: the Riverfront sits 7 km from Kasane, while Linyanti is the remotest and Nogatsaa the quiet alternative for pans and no crowd.	4bestProtected core country with no off-road driving, three vehicles per campsite and Chief's Island reachable only by air; the Khwai strip is the busiest in the area.

Compare all of Botswana's parks on the comparison page. The article below goes into the detail.

Two parks, one tariff, two different rivers

Chobe is the bigger park by far, about 11,700 km² on Botswana Tourism's figure, proclaimed a game reserve in 1960 and a national park in 1968. Its four areas behave like separate parks: the Riverfront at Kasane, the Savuti marsh in the south-west, the Linyanti swamps on the north-western edge and the Nogatsaa pans in the dry interior. Moremi, 3,900 to 5,000 km² depending on where you draw the flood line, is the protected core of the Okavango Delta, proclaimed by the Batawana people in 1963.

The engines differ. The Chobe floodplain floods from about March to May, when the Zambezi backs up and pushes water up the Chobe (Burke, Pricope and Blum, 2016), and the Riverfront's big elephant season comes later, as the inland pans dry from about May or June until the rains return in November or December. Moremi's flood is Angolan rain arriving months late: it spreads through the Delta from May to August and peaks in July and August, in the middle of the dry winter.

Botswana treats the two as a pair. They are the only Category A parks, charged the same entry fee, and two of the same companies run their campsites. The rest of this page is about where they part ways, starting with the numbers.

Chobe and Moremi side by side

The whole choice in one table, with every figure dated. Chobe figures come from the dossiers behind this guide, Moremi figures from our sister guide's pages.

	Chobe	Moremi
Size	About 11,700 km² (BTO); 11,000 km² reported to WDPA	3,900–5,000 km², the Delta's protected core
Protected since	Game reserve 1960, national park 1968	1963, proclaimed by the Batawana
Entry fee, non-resident	P270 (±$20) per day, since 1 April 2022	P270 (±$20) per day, same Category A tariff
Vehicle fee, foreign car under 3,500 kg	P115 per day, a Chobe-only rate	P75 per day
Vehicle fee, Botswana-registered or hired	P30 per day	P20 per day
Public camping	±$40–80 pp: Ihaha, Savuti, Linyanti, Nogatsaa (2025–2026)	±$40 pp at the Kwalate sites, $50 at North Gate, P561 (±$42) at Third Bridge
Booking to enter	Day visits need none; any night inside needs a booking	Campsite or lodge booking needed to enter at all
Hub and road	Kasane: Sedudu Gate 7 km on tar; Savuti 165 km, 70 km of it sand	Maun: South Gate 92 km, ±2 h, 4x4, sand after Shorobe
Airport	Kasane (BBK), Airlink daily from Johannesburg	Maun (MUB), Airlink, CemAir and Air Botswana
On the water	Boat cruises on the Chobe; no mokoro inside the park	Mokoro and boat trips on the Delta flood
Night drives and walking	Neither inside; both in the Linyanti and Kwando concessions	Neither inside; night drives in the Khwai concessions
October mean daily max	35.8°C	36.5°C

Tariff from the 2022 First Schedule to the National Parks and Game Reserves Regulations, in force on 4 October 2026 after the April 2026 rise was postponed. Climate figures are Open-Meteo 1991 to 2020 normals for each park. Moremi camping figures as published on moremipark.com, September 2026.

Fees: the same entry, a different vehicle bill

On the person, the two parks cost exactly the same. A non-resident pays P270 a day, about US$20, a Botswana or SADC resident P205 and a citizen P30, under the schedule in force since 1 April 2022, and both parks count every calendar day including the day you leave. A rise to P500 for non-residents was approved for April 2026 and then postponed, with the minister reported in May 2026 as saying by two years.

The car is where they differ. The 2022 schedule gives Chobe its own vehicle column: a foreign-registered car under 3,500 kg pays P115 a day there against P75 in Moremi, a Botswana-registered or hired car P30 against P20, and a foreign trailer P60 against P40. For two adults in a foreign 4x4 on a two-night trip, that is P1,965 in entry and vehicle fees at Chobe against P1,845 in Moremi, a gap of P120, about US$9.

Camping is close too. Chobe's public sites run from about US$40 to US$80 a person a night in 2025 and 2026, with Nogatsaa's own 2026 sheet at the top, while Moremi's run from about $40 at the Kwalate sites to $50 at North Gate, and Third Bridge's P561 on its 2023/24 card is about $42. The cheapest night inside either park costs about the same, and the dearest public pitch in either is Chobe's Nogatsaa.

Getting there: Kasane's tar against Maun's sand

Chobe's Riverfront is the easier of Botswana's two Category A parks to reach. Airlink lands in Kasane from Johannesburg at 13:40 every day on its November 2026 schedule, the airport is 5.6 km from town, and Sedudu Gate is 7 km from the centre on tar, so an ordinary car reaches the gate and a day visit needs no booking. Victoria Falls is about 95 km away by road. Past the gate the Riverfront tracks have deep sand near Ihaha, so a 4x4 is still the tool for the park itself.

Moremi is a 4x4 commitment from the first hour. From Maun it is 92 km and about two hours to South Gate, tar for 40 km and then dirt and sand after the Shorobe veterinary fence, and you will not be admitted without a confirmed campsite or lodge booking. Most lodge guests skip the road and fly from Maun to the Delta airstrips in 30 to 45 minutes.

Savuti evens the score. From Kasane it is about 165 km and four to five hours, 93 km of tar and about 70 km of deep sand through Ghoha Gate; from Maun it is about 200 km and six to seven hours via Mababe Gate. Anyone who wants Chobe's interior is in Moremi-style country anyway, and the light aircraft to the Savuti camps fly from both Kasane and Maun.

On the water: Chobe boat cruises against Okavango mokoro

Chobe's signature is the boat. Kasane operators run three-hour cruises into the park's waters, typically in the morning from about 09:30 and in the afternoon from 15:00 to 18:00, and a Kasane booking agent lists a 2026 sunset cruise at BWP 498 a person plus the P190 park fee charged to tour clients. Chobe Game Lodge runs electric boats from inside the park, and Pangolin Photo Safaris runs photographic boats with camera mounts from Kasane. The houseboats that cruise opposite the park are moored on the Namibian bank.

There is no mokoro inside Chobe National Park. The concession camps west of the park's Linyanti section offer seasonal mokoro trips, outside the boundary. Moremi is the Delta, and mokoro and boat safaris on the flood are the reason many people come; our sister guide puts their prime from May to September, when the water is highest.

The difference in feel is real. A Chobe cruise is a wide river with elephant herds drinking and crossing on the banks, especially from July to October; a Moremi mokoro is a poled dugout moving through the Delta's channels at water level. If the boat is the point, Chobe gives you more of it for less effort; if the mokoro is the point, only the Delta has it.

Where to sleep in each park, and what it costs

Chobe's great advantage is Kasane. The town outside the gate has rooms from about US$60 a person sharing at Water Lily Lodge and bed and breakfast from about US$211 a person at Kubu Lodge (both own sites, 2026), with reseller packages at Chobe Safari Lodge from about US$500 a person including activities. A Riverfront safari can therefore be done from a town bed with day entries, something Moremi's geography makes poor value: Maun is two hours from the nearest gate, and the cheapest solid roof on Moremi's edge, Khwai Guest House, starts at about $166 a person.

Inside the parks the pictures converge. Chobe's public campsites cost about US$50 to US$80 a person on the operators' sheets; its lodges inside start at US$607 a person at Nogatsaa Pans, with Camp Savuti from US$655, Savute Safari Lodge from US$690 and Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge from US$1,014 on 2026 rates, and Chobe Game Lodge, the only permanent lodge on the Riverfront inside the park, from US$1,090 through a reseller. Moremi's campsites run from about $40 to P561, and its inside lodges start at $690 at Camp Moremi and Camp Xakanaxa.

At the very top Moremi climbs higher inside its boundary, with Mombo at $2,889 and Xigera at $2,750 a person a night in 2026. Chobe's most expensive beds are outside the park, in the private Linyanti concession, where Wilderness DumaTau publishes up to US$4,327 a person a night from June to October 2026. Both top ends are fly-in country.

The animals, one by one

Both guides carry species verdicts built from sighting data and habitat, and the percentages below come from the same source for both parks, Expert Africa's traveller survey, which makes them comparable. Chobe's figures are park-wide and mix Riverfront and Savuti trips. The pattern is clear: Chobe is the elephant, buffalo and antelope park, with Botswana's only puku; Moremi is the predator and water-game park, stronger on leopard, wild dog and red lechwe.

Elephant numbers need care. The 2018 dry-season aerial survey counted about 15,400 elephants within Chobe National Park's survey strata, and the 2022 KAZA survey found about 132,000 in Botswana's part of the survey area; elephants move between the parks, the forest reserves and Namibia within a season, so no single park figure tells the whole story.

Species	Chobe	Moremi
Elephant	Guaranteed, 99%; the Riverfront's dry-season herds	Guaranteed, 99%
Lion	Very likely, 91%; Savuti prides hunt young elephants August to November	Very likely, 91%
Leopard	Good chance, 58%	Very likely, 77%
Wild dog	Takes luck, 24% (better in the Linyanti concessions)	Good chance, 65%
Buffalo	Very likely, 91%; Riverfront herds in the dry season	Very likely, 78%
Hippo	Guaranteed on a boat cruise	Guaranteed, 100%
Giraffe	Very likely; 99% of surveyed trips, but scarce on the Riverfront in December	Very likely, 93%
Cheetah	Takes luck, 14%	Takes luck, 16%
Puku	Riverfront floodplains only; Botswana's only population	Not here
Red lechwe	Present; far more numerous on the Linyanti side	Guaranteed; the Delta's signature antelope
Sable antelope	Good chance, 48%	Good chance, 34%
Roan antelope	Good chance, 39%	Takes luck, 24%
Brown hyaena	Takes luck, 15%	Not here
Zebra migration	Savuti and Mababe herds head for Nxai Pan from about December	Resident zebra, no migration

Percentages are per-trip sighting rates from Expert Africa's traveller surveys, read 4 October 2026 for Chobe and compiled July 2026 for Moremi. Puku range from O'Shaughnessy, Cain and Owen-Smith (2014); the zebra route from Naidoo et al. (Oryx, 2014); the Savuti lion behaviour from Power and Compion (2009).

When each park is at its best

Both parks peak in the dry winter: every Chobe lodge with a published rate table charges its highest rates from July to October, and our Moremi guide gives July to October as its best game viewing too. The reasons differ. On the Chobe the game comes to the river as the inland pans dry; in Moremi the Angolan flood arrives as the land dries and pulls game to its edges.

The wet season splits them more sharply. Chobe's Riverfront has no published wet-season closure, its boat cruises run through the year, and the March to May flood makes the river wide and full; the problem is Savuti, where the black-cotton clay around the marsh turns slippery and parts of the Marsh Road can become impassable, and the Nogatsaa Pans lodge closes from January to March. Moremi's green season carries real closure risk: record flooding shut the whole reserve from about 6 March to 13 April 2026.

If you must travel in October, the two are close: 35.8°C mean daily maximum in Chobe against 36.5°C in Moremi on the 1991 to 2020 normals, with late dry-season afternoons regularly reaching 35 to 40°C. Malaria risk is the same in both, high from October to May and low from June to September on NaTHNaC's map.

Savuti, the hinge between the two parks

Savuti is the part of Chobe that feels most like Moremi's country, and it sits on the road between them. The marsh lies in the clay sump of an old lake system, which peer-reviewed work identifies as a critical wet-season range for the zebra that collar studies followed south from the Chobe to Nxai Pan from December (Naidoo et al., 2014). In the late dry season, from August to November, Savuti's lions are documented switching to young elephants as prey.

The Savuti Channel flows only in some years, fed by the Linyanti system rather than local rain. Operator records put it dry from the early 1980s, with water returning in 2008, reaching the marsh in 2010, flowing strongly from 2013 to about 2015 and drying again from 2016; Wilderness reported water entering the upper channel in June 2026, and whether that water has reached the marsh inside the park is not yet reported. Without it, Savuti's dry-season game depends on pumped waterholes.

For a self-driver the practical facts are a 14-site public campsite run by SKL, the Gubatsa Hills rock paintings that lodges visit, and two gates: Ghoha towards Kasane and Mababe towards Maun and Moremi. SKL also runs Moremi's North Gate campsite, so one operator can book both ends of the link.

Combining Chobe and Moremi: Kasane, Savuti, Khwai, Maun

The classic Botswana self-drive links the two parks through Savuti and the Khwai community area. Driven from Kasane, it runs to Savuti through Ghoha Gate, south to Mababe Gate, west to Khwai and Moremi's North Gate, through Moremi to South Gate, and out to Maun: about 393 km by the sum of the legs below, plus the run from Khwai village to North Gate, for which no distance is published, and most of it sand. It works just as well in reverse.

Plan the sand legs as separate days. No time is published for Savuti to Mababe Gate or Mababe Gate to Khwai, the gates close at 18:30 from April to September and 19:00 from October to March, and you must be inside a booked campsite by then. There is no fuel inside either park; fill up in Kasane or Maun, and treat the informal fuel our Moremi guide reports at Khwai as a rescue, not a plan.

Book every night before you set off. Moremi will not admit you without a reservation, Savuti and Linyanti admit nobody without SKL's voucher, and two operators span both parks: SKL holds Savuti, Linyanti and Moremi's North Gate, and Kwalate holds Ihaha and Moremi's South Gate and Xakanaxa. Each park charges its own fees for each day you spend in it. If you would rather skip the sand, the tar road via Nata is about 610 km and six to seven hours, and aggregators show Air Botswana flying Kasane to Maun four times a week in October 2026.

Leg	Distance	Time	Notes
Kasane to Savuti (via Kachikau and Ghoha Gate)	165 km	4–5 h	93 km tar, about 70 km deep sand
Savuti to Mababe Gate	66 km	No published time	Sand Ridge Road or Marsh Road, as gate staff advise
Mababe Gate to Khwai village	40 km	No published time	Sand; Moremi's North Gate campsite is at the Khwai River bridge
North Gate to South Gate (Moremi cutline)	30 km	45–60 min	Straight through mopane woodland
North Gate to Xakanaxa (Moremi)	45 km	Half a day	Scenic Delta-edge route, instead of the cutline
South Gate to Maun	92 km	±2 h	52 km dirt and sand to Shorobe, then 40 km tar
Kasane to Maun on tar (via Nata), for comparison	610 km	6–7 h	No park fees, no sand

Chobe legs routed on OpenStreetMap (4 October 2026) with sand times from Ostrich Trails; Moremi legs from moremipark.com's getting-there page. The 393 km total is our sum of the first four legs and South Gate to Maun; it leaves out the Khwai village to North Gate stretch.

The verdict: choose Chobe if, choose Moremi if

There is no winner, only a sorting. If you can spare the days, do both; the order matters less than the bookings.

Choose Chobe if you want the easiest start: a daily jet to Kasane, tar to the gate, and Riverfront day visits with no booking.
Choose Chobe if the budget is tight: Kasane beds from about US$60 a person and Riverfront day entries mean you never have to pay for a night inside.
Choose Chobe if the river is the point: boat cruises among elephant herds, buffalo on the floodplain and Botswana's only puku.
Choose Chobe if you are coming from Victoria Falls: Kasane is about 95 km away by tar.
Choose Moremi if the Okavango itself is the trip: mokoro and boats on a flood that peaks in midwinter.
Choose Moremi if predators top your list: leopard on 77 percent of trips and wild dog on 65 percent, against 58 and 24 at Chobe.
Choose Moremi if the top end is in budget: Mombo and Xigera sit inside the reserve, where Chobe's priciest camps are in the concessions outside.
Choose both if you have a 4x4 and a week or more: Kasane, Savuti, Khwai, Moremi and Maun is one of Africa's great self-drives, as long as every campsite is booked before you leave.

Something this page does not answer?

Every Chobe and Moremi trip is a different mix of river, sand and budget. If yours does not fit either column, ask.

Ask us. We answer questions about the park itself, and we can usually tell you which camps work on one route and who to write to. If what you want is a trip someone else arranges, we will say so and hand you to an operator we know, and we earn a commission if that becomes a booking.

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