Money, honestly

What a visit to Chobe National Park actually costs

Name: Chobe National Park
Address: Botswana

Two of you, your own foreign-registered 4x4, three nights at Ihaha on the Chobe Riverfront: about P6,670 in fees and pitch, roughly $495 at 2026 rates. Chobe bills in pula, charges every calendar day including the day you leave, and needs a campsite booking before you can stay the night. This page shows where each pula goes, then prices the same three nights at a Kasane lodge with boat cruises and game drives, and at a fly-in lodge in Savuti.

If you only want the answer

For two people self-driving, three nights at Ihaha come to about P6,670, roughly $495 at 2026 rates: P2,160 in park entry over four fee-days, P460 for a foreign-registered vehicle and about $300 to Kwalate Safaris for the pitch, before fuel and food. Three nights bed and breakfast at Kubu Lodge in Kasane, with two game drives and two boat cruises bought in town, come to about $1,635. Three nights at Savute Safari Lodge in Savuti cost about $4,440 for two in the 2027 low season, before the light aircraft.

Budget one: self-drive camping at Ihaha on the Riverfront

About P6,670 for two people over three nights, roughly $495. Park entry is P270 per person per day for non-residents, Chobe being one of Botswana's two Category A parks, under the April 2022 DWNP schedule that is still in force because the 2026 increase was postponed. The vehicle line is P115 a day, the rate the 2022 schedule sets for a foreign-registered car under 3,500 kg at Chobe only. Kwalate Safaris, which runs Ihaha's ten sites about 35 km west of Kasane, publishes no rate; booking guides gave US$40 in July 2025 and US$50 in July 2026, and we use the higher figure.

Fees run on calendar days, so three nights means four fee-days for entry and the vehicle, and three nights for the pitch. A car hired in Kasane is Botswana-registered and pays P30 a day instead of P115, which takes P340 off the total. Fuel is not in this budget: Ihaha is about 35 to 43 km from Kasane along the Riverfront tracks, there is no fuel inside the park, and Kasane's pumps on President Avenue are the place to fill up.

Line item	How it is charged	3 nights (2 people)
Park entry, non-resident, Category A (2022 schedule, in force 2026)	2 × P270 × 4 fee-days	P2,160 (±$160)
Foreign-registered vehicle under 3,500 kg (Chobe rate, 2022 schedule)	P115 × 4 fee-days	P460 (±$34)
Ihaha campsite, Kwalate Safaris (booking-guide figure, July 2026)	2 × $50 × 3 nights	$300 (±P4,050)
DWNP camping fee, only if collected separately (not confirmed)	2 × P60 × 3 nights	+P360 (±$27), not in total
Total	3 nights, 4 fee-days	±P6,670 (±$495)

Savuti instead of Ihaha: SKL's 14 sites cost about US$70 per person per night on 2026 booking-guide figures (SKL's own US$50 table predates April 2022), plus SKL's P10 bed levy per person per day. With the same fees that comes to about $620 for the three nights, and the drive is longer: about 165 km from Kasane, 93 km of tar to Kachikau and roughly 70 km of deep sand through Ghoha Gate.

Budget two: a Kasane lodge, with boat cruises and game drives bought in town

About $1,635 for two people over three nights. Kubu Lodge, eleven thatched units on the river at the Kazungula end of Kasane and owner-managed since 1986, publishes its own 2026 rates: $422 per chalet per night for two on bed and breakfast. Add two afternoon game drives and two sunset boat cruises and you have the classic Kasane stay, out on the water and the Riverfront tracks without driving yourself.

The activity prices are the published ones we could read. Kalahari Holiday Tours, a Kasane operator, quoted P730 for two adults on a joined three-hour afternoon game drive for 6 October 2026, park fees excluded. A Kasane booking agent sells a three-hour sunset cruise at BWP 498 per person for 2026, also without park fees. Each operator then collects the park fee at the tour-operator client rate of P190 per person, and if you book two operators on the same day you may pay it twice, so we count it per activity.

Line item	How it is charged	3 nights (2 people)
Kubu Lodge, bed and breakfast (own 2026 rate)	$422 per chalet × 3 nights	$1,266
Joined afternoon game drive, Kalahari Holiday Tours (quoted for 6 Oct 2026)	2 drives × 2 × P365	P1,460 (±$108)
Three-hour sunset boat cruise, Kasane booking agent (2026)	2 cruises × 2 × BWP 498	P1,992 (±$148)
Park fee as a tour operator's client (2022 schedule)	4 activities × 2 × P190	P1,520 (±$113)
Total, before lunch, dinner and drinks	3 nights	±$1,635

The one-price alternative: Kubu's own full-board rate is $1,025 per chalet per night for two, with three meals, two activities a day, the daily park fee and Kasane airport transfers, or $3,075 for three nights. A Botswana booking site sells Chobe Safari Lodge in town as a package at $550 per person per night from April to December 2026, with meals, one game drive and one cruise a night, and park fees.

Budget three: fly-in to Savute Safari Lodge

About $4,440 for two people over three nights in the 2027 low season, before the flight. Savute Safari Lodge is Desert & Delta's lodge on the Savute Channel, twelve timber chalets on the site of the old Lloyd's Camp, and it sits inside the national park. Desert & Delta publishes no rates; a Botswana booking site lists $740 per person per night from January to March 2027, $1,080 in April and in November and December, and $1,410 from 1 May to 31 October 2027. The lodge closes from 25 January to 8 February 2027.

The flight is the line nobody publishes. Mack Air, based in Maun and Kasane, lists the Savute airstrips among its destinations but gives seat rates only on request, and its luggage limit is 20 kg per person including hand luggage, in soft bags. If you want a published rate with park fees written into it, Camp Savuti, SKL's five-tent camp in the same area, lists its own rate from $655 per person per night for 1 December 2025 to 30 November 2026, all meals, drinks, activities and park fees included.

Line item	How it is charged	3 nights (2 people)
Savute Safari Lodge, low season (reseller rate, January to March 2027)	2 × $740 × 3 nights	$4,440
Same lodge, November and December 2026 (reseller rate)	2 × $990 × 3 nights	$5,940
Same lodge, peak season (reseller rate, 1 May to 31 Oct 2027)	2 × $1,410 × 3 nights	$8,460
Light aircraft Kasane or Maun to Savute, return	seat rate on request	not published
Total before flights, low season 2027	3 nights	±$4,440

The reseller describes the rate as fully inclusive of accommodation, meals and select drinks, but does not itemise park fees. Ask Desert & Delta whether they are included; if not, add P190 per person per day as an operator's client, P1,520 for two over four fee-days. Wilderness Savuti, upstream on the Savute Channel, is in the private Linyanti concession, outside the park, from USD 1,043 per person per night in early 2027.

Three nights is four fee-days

Chobe charges entry and vehicle fees every calendar day you are in the park, including the day you leave. A three-night stay bills as four days: arrival, two full days, departure. For two non-residents that is 2 × P270 × 4, P2,160, rather than the P1,620 that counting nights gives you, and a foreign vehicle runs to P460 rather than P345.

Camping is charged per night, so that line stays at three. The same rule makes a single Riverfront day easy to price: two non-residents in a foreign-registered car pay P655 at Sedudu Gate, about $49, or P570 in a car hired in Kasane. Whether leaving and re-entering on the same day is charged twice is not set out in any published rule, so keep your gate receipt.

Pula, dollars and the postponed increase

Every official fee is set in pula. The dollar figures on this page use about P13.5 to the US dollar, the mid-market rate of 14 September 2026, so P270 is about $20 and P115 about $9. If the pula moves, the pula figures are the ones the gate charges.

Pay in pula, in cash, at the gate, ideally in small notes drawn in Kasane the day before; card machines at the payment points are widely reported as unreliable. One dated warning for anyone budgeting ahead: Cabinet approved a rise to P500 a day for non-residents from 1 April 2026, and the ministry postponed it on 31 March 2026. The minister was reported in May 2026 as saying the delay would run two years, but no new date has been published, so recheck the tariff before you fix a 2027 budget.

Where the money surprises people

Three nights is four fee-days: two non-residents pay P2,160 in entry for a three-night stay, not P1,620 (2022 schedule, in force 2026).
The foreign-vehicle fee at Chobe is P115 a day, higher than the P75 at Moremi and every other Botswana park. A car hired in Kasane or Maun pays P30.
A Kasane boat cruise carries the P190 park fee on top of the ticket, and a morning self-drive followed by an afternoon cruise can mean paying the park fee twice unless you show your gate receipt.
Travelling as a licensed operator's client cuts entry from P270 to P190 per person per day, a saving of P640 per couple over four fee-days.
Campsite rates are the soft number: Kwalate publishes none for Ihaha, and SKL's online table for Savuti and Linyanti predates April 2022. The reply to your booking email is the real figure.
DWNP's own camping fee of P60 per person per night appears in the national tariff, but neither DWNP nor the campsite operators say whether it is collected on top. Ask, and carry enough pula in case it is.
Nogatsaa is the only public campsite with a dated 2026 rate on its operator's own sheet: US$80 per person per night, children from 5 to 15 paying the same.
The postponed increase would take non-resident entry to P500 a day. It was delayed on 31 March 2026, not cancelled.
Children under 8 enter free and older children pay half, but DWNP publishes no current upper age; sources give 15, 17 or 18.