Chobe Game Lodge

Chobe Game Lodge hired its first female guide, Florence Kagiso, in 2004, at a time when barely five women worked as safari guides anywhere in Botswana. By 2012 every guide at the lodge was a woman, with the moniker of the Chobe Angels, Africa's first and still only all-female safari guiding team. More than 60 of the 80 female guides now working across the country trained here first.

The lodge is the only permanent property inside Chobe National Park, on the banks of the Chobe River, with 40 rooms and four suites, each with a water-facing plunge pool. Since 2014 Chobe Game Lodge's game drives and boat safaris have run entirely on electric vehicles and solar-powered boats, another first of its kind in the region.

Being the sole lodge with a concession inside the park gives the perk of being out on the water or the floodplain up to an hour before other operators arrive, catching what guides call the 'golden hour' while tracks are still wet from the night before. The Chobe River holds one of the highest densities of elephants anywhere in Africa, alongside lion prides, buffalo herds and African wild dog.