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Okavango Delta, Botswana

Wilderness Jao

Price per night from$7,660.00

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD7,660.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Wilderness Jao Photos

Style

Eyes on the pride

Setting

All systems (Okavan)go

Explore

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Set on the Okavango Delta, Wilderness Jao is the alpha of safari stays. All-inclusive ease — elevated dining is effortlessly arranged around game drives and guided hikes — means your only focus is wet-and-wild views, lion- and elephant-gazing outings, and star-crowned sleep-outs. Silence is interrupted by nature’s soundtrack on seasonal boat trips, at the palm-veiled spa or Delta-edge pool. And animated chatter is the score around your villa’s fire pit or at the camp’s wine cellar. Jao’s tune is as melodious as it is catchy.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A locally crafted souvenir gift (worth around $50)

Facilities

Photos Wilderness Jao facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Seven, including two villas.

Check–Out

10am, and check-in is at 2pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates include all meals, drinks (apart from some premium alcohol), nature drives, guided hikes and some excursions. Extras to pay for include travel between camps, specialist excursions and spa treatments.

Also

Unfortunately this remote camp is not suitable for guests with limited mobility.

At the hotel

Gym, wine cellar, boma, library, gallery, boutique, laundry service and WiFi in main lodge and suites. In rooms: air-conditioning and ceiling fan, two-way radio, coffee- and tea-making kit, minibar, free bottled water, yoga mats and weights, hairdryer and Healing Earth bath products.

Our favourite rooms

'Staking out the bush' takes on a very different tone at Wilderness Jao: you won’t find any element-worn tents, instead you’ll hunker down in view-blessed villas and suites, clad in recycled materials, such as wood, thatch and glass. A plunge pool and day-bed decorates each room’s terrace, and stargazing feels extra romantic in the made-for-two Guest Rooms.

Poolside

Follow a wooden walkway that’s embraced by unfurling palms, and you’ll come to an opening, showcasing the green-and-blue floodplain that this Delta is so known for. However, this expanse is slightly different: a nest-like domed pergola shelters a circular turquoise pool — your watering hole for post-drive dips and sundowners. It’s open from 7am to 6pm for cooling off.

Spa

Continue your into-the-wild immersion at the bamboo-clad spa, a trio of palm-bordered treatment rooms. Signature therapies nod to your African locale and weave in traditional botanicals, such as baobab and kigelia. Its wellness offerings include a couple’s ritual with a romantic soak, clay-mask facials, a menu of massages (including one for little Smiths) and pampering mani-pedis.

Packing tips

A yearning for the great outdoors, which you can soak up from your suite, the spa and on safari.

Also

For some activities, such as sleep-outs and canoeing, guests need to be at least 13 years old. Most excursions are subject to weather conditions and water levels, so you’ll have to Okavan-go with the flow (sorry) for your itinerary.

Children

Over-sixes are welcome; if you’ve got under-12s in tow, you’ll need to reserve a private safari vehicle (extra charges apply). The villas are family-friendly; a kids’ menu is available. By prior arrangement, a staff member can supervise children.

Sustainability efforts

Wilderness takes a threefold approach to sustainability, aiming to protect (with sensitive management between people and wildlife), empower (by investing in the local community) and educate (supporting pathways out of poverty). In total, its camps help to protect six million acres of land, highlighting conservation and bringing tourism to rural areas across the African continent. Each camp treads lightly following a set of strict standards that apply to the construction and operation of each stay. Standards cover water and energy consumption; monitoring of waste and recycling, and supply chain management. Camps are audited twice yearly and must comply with at least 85 per cent of the requirements. Any shortfalls are targeted to be addressed before the next audit. Wilderness Jao is 100 per cent solar powered.

Food and Drink

Photos Wilderness Jao food and drink

Top Table

There are no dud tables at this camp. Villa stays include at-home meals; book the ‘star bed’ for a night and request a romantic dinner à deux in the wild.

Dress Code

In your safari garb for early breakfasts and out-and-about meals; you’ll want to don something smarter for main-lodge dinners.

Hotel restaurant

There’s nothing as formal in camp as a restaurant in the traditional sense: meals are tailored to fit with the day’s scheduled activities, but evenings are often a chance to come together with other guests and staff over drinks before sitting down to an à-la-carte menu that’s guided by regional ingredients and seasonal crops. There’s plenty of scope for alfresco and amid-nature meals, too: hippo-ogling sunrise breakfasts, lagoon-side lunches and star-canopied dinners out in the bush. If you’re staying in the two-bedroom villa, you can dine chez vous or in the communal dining room. Guided outings, whatever the time, are always accompanied with on-location drinks and/or nibbles. 

Hotel bar

Sundowners, apéritifs and drinks around the fire pit may well become part of your daily routine at Wilderness Jao, and you’re unlikely to go thirsty with staff on hand to take your order for drinks — hot, cold or something a little stronger. The camp’s bottle-stocked cellar hosts wine and gin tastings, too.

Last orders

Banish any expectations of set dining hours and embrace the fact that food and drink will be seamlessly integrated into your day just when you want it.

Room service

A minibar in your suite is stocked with soft drinks and low-alcohol options. When hunger strikes, wander over to the lodge, where staff will be happy to help.

Location

Photos Wilderness Jao location
Address
Wilderness Jao
Jao Camp
Okavango Delta
Botswana

Wrapped by forest and floodplains, Wilderness Jao sits in the heart of the Okavango Delta, close to Hunda Island and the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana’s north.

Planes

Fly into Kasane or Maun’s international airports; Wilderness will then arrange a small-plane or helicopter charter for an extra cost to Jao Airstrip, which is a 10-minute drive from the camp.

Automobiles

It’s charter flights only as there’s no self-drive access to the camp.

Other

Once you’ve booked your safari stays, the Wilderness team will be in touch to arrange travel between camps — usually scheduled or private charter flights or helicopter transfers.

Worth getting out of bed for

The rains — and dry spells — are blessed down in Delta-set Wilderness Jao. All-hours game drives trail lions and red lechwe, and can conclude with a picnic on Hunda Island. In wetter months, boat safaris or mokoro canoe trips cruise you past elephants and hippos. Guided nature walks, riverside fishing and scenic helicopter flights give you a different perspective of Botswana’s wildlife, and you can sleep under the stars on the reserve’s outdoor bed (with dinner on request). You can also get hands-on in the camp’s conservation and community projects.

Wilderness has a bounty of camps across Botswana, starting with two flagship stays: best-in-class Wilderness Mombo is in a wildlife-rich spot where the Delta splits into its primary channels, and this secluded stay, Wilderness Jao, has stellar year-round game viewing and seasonal water safaris. Further north, Wilderness Vumbura Plains has year-round boat trips and concludes this proposed Delta trifecta. If you’re looking to extend your adventure, Wilderness Chitabe has a superpower in the diversity of habitats that surround it; Wilderness DumaTau sits on a panoramic plateau, flanked by storied elephant crossings, and Wilderness Mokete is a remote, lighter-weight stay that’s relatively new.

Local restaurants

All meals and snacks are included with your stay — whether back at the lodge for dinner or out in the bush for a mid-drive pitstop. 

Reviews

Photos Wilderness Jao reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this safari camp in Botswana and unpacked their binoculars and botanical bath products, a full account of their nature-swathed break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Wilderness Jao in the Okavango Delta…

Stellar Wilderness Jao takes cues from its wet Okavango Delta locale and puts pride of place on water: a plunge pool adorns each suite and villa’s terrace, plus a communal circular pool sits on the fringes of the reserve. 

While you’ll find these watering holes at the camp year round, the Delta’s floodplains and rivers change with the seasons. Summer months bring peak water levels, when days are awash with motorboat and mokoro canoe trips, abundant birdlife and excellent visibility thanks to leafless shrubs and cool, drier days.

As autumn creeps in, so does lush vegetation, migratory birds, calving antelopes and accompanying predators. The Delta is vibrant with colour, light and wildlife in these liminal months — a win for any snap-happy safari goers.

But Wilderness Jao remains photogenic at all times with its all-natural spa, fresh local dining and sustainable design. Put your cameras down though, real connection is your reward — with nature, guides and other guests.

Book now

Price per night from $7,660.00

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