Botswana & Namibia

by Alan Murphy, Alan Murphy, Anthony Ham

Lonely The world's leading travel guide publisher

Lonely Planet Botswana & Namibia is your passport to all the most relevant and up-to-date advice on what to see, what to skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Watch the wildlife gather in Etosha National Park, feel the soft sand of the Sossusvlei red dunes, or drift through the waters of Okavango; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Botswana and Namibia and begin your journey now!

Inside Lonely Planet Botswana & Namibia Travel



Colour maps and images throughout

Highlights and itineraries show you the simplest way to tailor your trip to your own personal needs and interests

Insider tips save you time and money and help you get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots

Essential info at your fingertips - including hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, and prices

Honest reviews for all budgets - including eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss

Cultural insights give you a richer and more rewarding travel experience - including customs, history, art, literature, poetry, cinema, music, dance, architecture, politics, wildlife, and cuisine

Over 53 local maps

Useful features - including Top Experiences, Month-by-Month (annual festival calendar), and Planning a Safari

Coverage of Windhoek, Gaborone, Victoria Falls, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kasane, the Okavango Delta, Kalahari, Damaraland, the Caprivi Strip, Swakopmund, Sossusvlei, Luderitz, Fish River Canyon, Tsodilo Hills, Skeleton Coast, and more
eBook (Best viewed on tablet devices)



Zoom-in maps and images bring it all up close and in greater detail

Downloadable PDF and offline maps let you stay offline to avoid roaming and data charges

Seamlessly flip between pages

Easily navigate and jump effortlessly between maps and reviews

Speedy search capabilities get you to what you need and want to see

Use bookmarks to help you shoot back to key pages in a flash

Visit the websites of our recommendations by touching embedded links

Adding notes with the tap of a finger offers a way to personalise your guidebook experience

Inbuilt dictionary to translate unfamiliar languages and decode site-specific local terms
The Perfect Lonely Planet Botswana & Namibia, our most comprehensive guide to Botswana and Namibia, is perfect for those planning to both explore the top sights and take the road less travelled.

Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet's Southern Africa Guide for a comprehensive look at all the region has to offer. Written and researched by Lonely Planet, Alan Murphy, Anthony Ham, Trent Holden, and Kate Morgan.

About Lonely Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in.

Genres: Travel, Africa, Nonfiction, Namibia, Botswana, Guidebook

416 pages, ebook

First published February 1, 2007

Reviews

[Addie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lonely Planet is one of my least favourite travelling guide series. Main reason?



It’s a travel guide! How can there barely be any pictures??

Yes, yes, there is a lot of information. Lists, tips, history, etc etc, But a travel guide should inspire you to go see something new. Watch! Look! Gaze! Observe! View!

I am going to Namibia for three weeks in September, and it would be nice to at least be able to look at some of the stunning places I am reading about. I mean – look at this country!!



















The only reason I bought this book was that my usual travel guide series (DK Eyewitness) does not have one for Namibia. Hopefully this will be my last ever need for Lonely Planet.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needs an update... but for Africa, this is still one of the best countries to visit and best guides.

[Lisa Hanson]

Not gonna rate this until we can actually travel there. Hoping everyone stays home to help that be sooner rather than later.

[Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book before a recent book to Botswana and then reviewed it again after returning. Excellent travel book and advice written by people who understand the region.

[Buchdoktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Als langjähriger Fan der Reise-Knowhow-Reihe z. B.: Namibia war ich bisher jedesmal enttäuscht, wenn ich mir einmal einen anderen Reiseführer gekauft habe. Trotz anfänglicher Bedenken (warum ein Reiseführer für zwei Länder?) ist die deutsche Ausgabe des Lonely Planet in der 1. Auflage von 2007 bisher das erste "Fremdfabrikat", das mich rundrum überzeugt hat. Kurz und bündig stellen die Autoren in zwei getrennten Bereichen Namibia und Botswana mit Geschichte, Kultur, möglichen Reiserouten und regionalen Eigenheiten vor. Der eigentliche Text fällt ausgesprochen kurz aus, regt jedoch mit einer Fülle von Querverweisen am Rand des Textes an, sich auf Webseiten, in Foren und mit weiterführender Literatur intensiver zu informieren. Genauer gesagt, man kann gar nicht anders, als Hardy/Firestones Aufforderung zu folgen, sich tiefer mit den beiden Ländern zu beschäftigen. Prägnant und kritisch schildern die Autoren die koloniale Vergangenheit und daraus resultierende vergangene und aktuelle politische Konflikte. Sie scheuen sich nicht vor brisanten Themen wie Landreform, den (bisher kargen) staatlichen Instrumentarien, Arbeitsplätze für die Bevölkerung zu schaffen, Spannungen zwischen den einzelnen ethnischen Gruppen und nicht zuletzt Auswirkungen der erschreckend hohen Aids-Infektionsraten, die in Botswana zu einer durchschnittlichen Lebenserwartung von gerade einmal 30 Jahren führten. Die Auswirkungen des Tourismus auf die Natur und Detailfragen zum Natur- und Tierschutz werden ähnlich kritisch geschildert.

Pluspunkte dieses Reiseführers:
+ Begriffe, Orte, Karten und Fotos sind in einem gemeinsamen Register zusammengestellt, das ganz hinten im Buch und damit schnell zu greifen ist
+ das gedruckte Daumenregister am Rand des Textes
+ die realistische Einstellung der Autoren (nehmen Sie sich nicht zu viel in zu kurzer Zeit vor, bleiben sie auch einmal mehr als eine Nacht an einem Ort)
+ sehr vernünftige Anmerkungen zur den Fahrkünsten der Besuchern in ungewohntem Gelände, zu Gesundheitsgefahren und für uns ungewöhnlichen Tieren - englische Autoren scheinen in Gesundheitsfragen generell sehr vorsichtig zu sein
+ zahlreiche Pläne und Detailkarten
+ interessante Zusatzinformation in separaten Kästen (z. B. die rechtliche und moralische Beurteilung, wem Erträge aus der Anwendung der Hoodia-Pflanze zustehen, die ein traditionelles Heilmittel der San ist)
+ die Auswahl an Restaurants und Übernachtungsmöglichkeiten von rustikal bis elegant ist vielfältig und berücksichtigt unterschiedlich dicke Geldbeutel. Über weitere Unterkünfte sollte man sich im Netz und in Where to Stay oder Trummis Liste informieren
+ die allgemeinen Reiseinformationen umfassen auch die Nachbarländer Simbabwe und Sambia (sinnvoll, wenn man vorhat, die Victoriafälle zu besuchen)
+ gefallen hat mir besonders die kritische, realistische Darstellung Botswanas, das die Autoren nicht nur als großes Naturschutzgebiet mit vielen Tieren betrachten
+ beiden Ländern steht rechnerisch im Buch der gleiche Platz von circa 230 Seiten zur Verfügung
+ Buschfliegerfreundliches Gewicht von 365 Gramm

- verbesserungswürdig ist der Druck der an sich sehr detail- und informationsreichen Karten, die durch die Abbildung in Grautönen weniger gut zur Geltung kommen

Ein gelungener Reisefüher nicht nur für Rucksacktouristen, sondern ebenso für Selbstfahrer, die ihre endgültige Reiseroute erst vor Ort festlegen und sich gern über die reinen Sehenswürdigkeiten hinaus über ihr Reiseland informieren wollen.

[David Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book I read to research this post was Lonely Planet Botswana And Namibia which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. Both these countries have only become independent relatively recently. Botswana has more head of elephants than any other country in the world and is the best place to see them in the wild. The nature reserves in both these countries are the size of small countries. Probably the most impressive sight is the Victoria Falls the most impressive waterfall in the world. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. The spray from the gushing water can be seen for miles around. There is also the Okivango Delta where you can spot crocodiles among other things. There is also the Chobe River Nature Reserve where the river has carved an impressive valley into the rock on a similar scale to the Grand Canyon. Among the cities you can visit and most of them aren't that big is Windhoek the capital of Namibia. There is also Gaborone the capital of Botswana. If you visit Swakopmund it has interesting german colonial architecture. Walvis Bay which is a major port also has some nice beaches. It is also famed for the Skeleton Coast where many a ship lost members of their crew hence the name and was really inhospitable in times past. Most people visiting these areas fly first to Johannesburg and then get a connecting flight. A friend of mine who visited Namibia told me the connecting flight was as costly as the flight from London to Johannesburg. Namibia has the oldest desert in the world and is the driest country in the world south of the Sahara. There has been controversy over the San people being resettled away from their homeland the Kalahari Desert. Diamonds were discovered there in large deposits and even though the Supreme Court ruled in favour of letting them return the government has been slow to respond. Namibia with all its mineral deposits is quite wealthy for an African country although there is no minimum wage and the poor are extremely poor and exploited in terms of wages. I enjoyed reading this book and they do look like interesting countries.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have travelled in the past using little else but my Lonely Planet guide and common sense. This time around, I was a bit disappointed. This guide, moreso than ones I've utilized in the past, seemed to cater to one specific type of tourist (in this case, the north country, safari-going tourist, which, unfortunately, I was not) rather than provide thorough coverage of all that the country had to offer. The section on the capital city Gaborone, where I spent most of my time, was weak. In its defense, I only went to Botswana, so anyone who went to Namibia may have found the book to be a solid reference. I also was not a fan of the way LP has designed the layout of the book. Important, overall health information is located in the back, unlike before.

[Mojca · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 ½ stars