I booked our trip through &Beyond and I highly recommend them. If you have thought about booking your own safari they take care of all the details and your trip would be seamless. Since they are an African company, should anything go wrong (we never had any issues), you are calling a local company, not a TA in N. America. The lodges we stayed at in Botswana were Sandibe (4 nights) and Nxabega (3 nights). We LOVED Sandibe -- it is were we saw elephants on our path to breakfast a few times (you have to stay in your cottage until they pass by) and a mom and baby super close to us at breakfast on one morning. It is Nxabega where we had the spiders and it is a tented camp on the Okavango Delta, which is a "must do" (in retrospect I'm not sure why). We did a dug-out wood canoe safari with picnic that was probably a once-in-a-lifetime adventure and saw many families of elephants in the Delta playing in the river. We never saw any other vehicles in Botswana, which was amazing and really added to our experience. Now I'm talking myself into wanting to go back lol.
Botswana is incredibly remote -- you have to fly to all lodges. I hired a private driver with &Beyond (we have had some interesting experiences with fellow travelers in vehicles, so I paid for a private guide and &Beyond sent the same guide with us between lodges which was amazing). We combined our Botswana safari with 5 nights at Londolozi (Founders Lodge, which is family friendly), which I HIGHLY recommend, especially if you want to see leopards (Sabi Sands is renowned for their healthy leopard population). I can't say enough good things about Londolozi; we will definitely be back.
We also stayed with &Beyond at Phinda Forest Lodge in Kwa Zulu Natal and it was lovely. I will mention that I am particular about accomodations, especially on safari where you spend a bit more time in your room than you would on a city-based trip. All of the lodges that we stayed at in 2018 were either recently renovated or new and gorgeous. If you're not fussy about your room then you will have plenty of options.
I can tell you that we booked our June, 2018 trip in August, 2017 and a few of the lodges on my radar were fully booked. One of my criteria for our safaris is that lodges have open reserves (not fenced); not sure if this matters to you or not, but it is something to look into.
If Botswana is on your radar, then you should definitely go. I am SO glad that we did -- looking through my pictures is bringing back great memories.
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