Border Hop · Botswana
Four days across the border. A city that runs on its own quiet confidence, and a morning spent walking after white rhino instead of driving past them.
47 days until departure
Read this before you book
Border hops travel overnight. That is the whole reason this trip only costs you a couple of days of leave — you sleep on the bus instead of spending a working day on the road.
Boarding is Thursday 1 October, from 9pm, at Greenfields Mall in Harare. We aim to roll out at midnight, and sometimes earlier — anywhere from 9pm — if the border or the road calls for it. Your exact time comes through in the group chat a few days before.
The poster says 2–5 October. That is the trip itself, starting Friday 2 October. The bus leaves the night before that, which is why boarding is Thursday 1 October. Put that evening in your diary, not the following morning — we won't be there in the morning.
Why a border hop works
You leave on the Thursday night, straight from work, and you are home on the Monday. Only the Friday and the Monday come out of your leave.
Thu 1
After work
Fri 2
Leave day
Sat 3
Weekend
Sun 4
Weekend
Mon 5
Leave day
2 days off work · 5 days away
No flights, no car of your own on a 1,100km road, and no queueing at a border counter working out which form you were supposed to fill in first.
The reason to go
Fifteen minutes outside Gaborone, Mokolodi Nature Reserve runs thirty square kilometres of bush with a white rhino breeding programme in it. We spend Saturday there.
Straight answer before you ask: there are no lion and no leopard at Mokolodi. If you have done Hwange and you are expecting the Big Five, this is not that. What it is instead is one of the few places in Southern Africa where you climb out of the vehicle and follow rhino on foot behind someone who does it for a living. Giraffe, zebra, kudu, wildebeest and warthog come with it.
Optional upgrade
A guided game drive at Mokolodi is included in your $365. Rhino tracking is a separate, longer experience booked through the reserve: into the bush by game viewer, then on foot with their trackers. Three to five hours, early departure, reservation only, minimum age twelve. It is the best money you will spend on this trip and there are a limited number of spots on each departure.
The package
Both columns, because the second one is where trips go wrong.
Day by day
You travel overnight so the days themselves stay yours. Five days away, two days of leave.
Real trips, real photos
From Lake Malawi and Lusaka — same crew, same bus, same format. Gaborone photos land here after this departure.
Money
$365
per person sharing · $100 deposit secures your seat · payment plans available
Pay the deposit and your seat is held. The balance is due before departure, and if you would rather spread it, message us and we will set up instalments. The bus has a fixed number of seats and this one goes out over a long weekend — the deposit is what holds a seat, not a message saying you are keen.
If you can't make it: tell us early and we'll try to move your seat to someone else first, free of charge. If that isn't possible, what you've paid moves to another trip on our calendar. And if it's a death or hospitalisation in the family, there's no charge at all — that's the law and we apply it. Full terms are on our terms page.
Before you ask
Thursday 1 October, from 9pm. The poster dates are the trip itself, which starts Friday 2 October. Because we travel overnight and leave at midnight, boarding always falls on the evening before. Departure can be brought forward to as early as 9pm if the border or the road calls for it, and your exact time comes through in the group chat a few days out. Assume midnight, be there from 9pm, and don't plan anything else for that evening.
Private return transport from Greenfields Mall, a private apartment with a pool at two people per room, breakfast and dinner daily, the city tour, and entry plus an afternoon game drive at Mokolodi with a bush braai buffet dinner. Lunches, drinks, the rhino tracking upgrade and your shopping are on you.
No, and we would rather tell you now than have you find out at the gate. Mokolodi has no resident predators. It has white rhino, giraffe, zebra, kudu and wildebeest — and it lets you walk after the rhino, which most reserves will not.
You ride into the bush on a game viewer, then carry on on foot with the reserve's own trackers. Three to five hours, early departure, reservation only, minimum age twelve. Say yes when you book your seat and we will arrange it — it cannot be added on the day.
Two — Friday 2 and Monday 5. We leave Thursday night straight from work, so the Thursday costs you nothing, and the Saturday and Sunday in the middle are the weekend you already had.
Tell us as early as you can and we work through it in order. First, send someone in your place — free, up to five days before departure. Second, if that isn't possible, what you've paid moves to another trip on our calendar, valid twelve months. And if you can't travel because of the death or hospitalisation of the traveller or an immediate family member, there is no cancellation charge at all — that's your right under Zimbabwe's Consumer Protection Act and we're not going to argue about it. Full terms are on our terms page.
A private apartment with a pool area, two people per room. Tell us who you are sharing with when you book, and if you are travelling alone we will pair you up with someone from the group.
Breakfast and dinner every day, including the bush braai buffet at Mokolodi on the Saturday. Lunches and drinks are on you.
About 1,100km each way, via Bulawayo, Plumtree and Francistown. A full day in each direction. That is why days one and four are travel days — we would rather set that expectation than sell you a fantasy about arriving fresh.
Sunday afternoon is set aside for Game City and Riverwalk. A good number of people book this trip partly for the shopping and we plan for it rather than pretending otherwise.
Yes, valid for at least six months past the travel date. Entry requirements for Botswana depend on your nationality — message us and we will confirm what applies to your passport before you pay.
Most people book alone or in twos. The group caps small on purpose and everyone knows each other by the Bulawayo fuel stop.
