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Okavango Delta, Botswana

Wilderness Vumbura Plains

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 Vumbura Plains Photos

Style

Wildly refined

Setting

Big Five frontier

Explore

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In the beating heart of the Okavango Delta’s Kwedi Concession, Wilderness Vumbura Plains welcomes year-round wonder, offering a rare and enviable mix of land and water safaris. This Earth-kind camp puts conservation at its core, protecting vast grasslands and their wildlife; and you’re kept in clover, too. However post-safari soothing looks for you — fireside sundowners, in-room massages, private-pool soaks or just a really sound sleep — you’re all set to be as laidback as the lagoon’s lounging residents.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A locally crafted souvenir gift (worth around $50)

Facilities

Photos Wilderness Vumbura Plains facilities

Need to know

Rooms

14 suites, including two for families.

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

Bomas, sunken fire pit, stargazing telescope, elevated wooden walkways, reading area with books to borrow, boutique, laundry service and WiFi in main lodge and suites. In rooms: ceiling fans, coffee- and tea-making kit, minibar, free bottled water, yoga mats and weights, hairdryer and Healing Earth bath products.

Our favourite rooms

All’s fair at Wilderness Vumbura Plains, where each polished suite comes with its very own plunge pool, sweeping views of the plains and plenty of space to settle in. Interiors pay masterful homage to your surroundings through blue and green palettes and adorning accents, designed to replicate the Delta’s famed lilies. If you’re travelling with your clan, the two-bedroom family suites make for an all-welcome pick.

Poolside

Each suite comes with its own plunge pool, where private soaks are made all the more seductive with boundless Delta views and shading canopies.

Spa

Masseurs can bring their magic and healing herbs to your room, on request and for an additional charge.

Packing tips

A guide to constellations for star-blanketed evenings around the fire pit.

Also

For hot-air ballooning, passengers need to be at least seven years old, and you’ll need to allow at least three nights for your stay to secure the best chances of finding the right conditions.

Children

Little Smiths aged six or older are welcome in the camp’s two Family Rooms. By prior arrangement, a dedicated staff member can supervise children and you’ll need to reserve a private safari vehicle if you're with under-13s (additional charges apply).

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 Vumbura Plains is 100 per cent solar powered.

Food and Drink

Photos Wilderness Vumbura Plains food and drink

Top Table

If you’d rather dine as a duo, private dinners can be set up around camp.

Dress Code

Straight from safari is suitable during the day, but bring your best for evenings.

Hotel restaurant

In true Wilderness nature, dining at Vumbura Plains doesn’t follow a formal schedule. Meals are tailored to fit with the day’s scheduled activities, and during the evenings, you’ll have 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. If you’re up and out early, expect a basic breakfast at camp, bolstered by drinks and snacks on the trail, before returning to an early lunch or brunch. Similarly, guided afternoon outings are always accompanied with on-location drinks and nibbles.

Hotel bar

Sundowners, apéritifs and drinks around the fire pit may well become part of your daily routine at Wilderness Vumbura Plains, and you’re unlikely to go thirsty with staff on hand to take your order for drinks — hot, cold or something a little stronger. 

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 Vumbura Plains location
Address
Wilderness Vumbura Plains
Vumbura Plains Camp
Okavango Delta
Botswana

In the northern pocket of Botswana’s Okavango Delta, Wilderness Vumbura Plains stretches across a 148,000-acre private natural area in the Kwedi Concession.

Planes

International flights touch down in Maun or Kasane, where a chartered Wilderness Air plane will take you on to the Vumbura Airstrip. From there, it’s a 45-minute drive to camp.

Automobiles

This remote retreat is only accessible via plane and scheduled transfers.

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

With over 148,000 acres of private concession to explore, and the Okavango Delta as your backyard, the main attraction is this reserve’s roaming residents. If you’re hoping to find the Big Five, game drives have you covered. There are dedicated night safaris for nocturnal animal sightings, too, while guided walks and birding bring focus to Kwedi’s 600 smaller species. Being by the Delta’s channels also puts aquatic thrills — including traditional mokoro canoeing, boating and catch-and-release fishing — firmly on agendas. For striking snapshot perspectives, helicopter rides can be arranged on request.

Wilderness has a bounty of other camps across Botswana, too. Best-in-class Wilderness Mombo is in a wildlife-rich spot where the Delta splits into its primary channels, and Wilderness Jao sits on a remote island, with stellar game viewing all year round and seasonal water safaris. For reasons of style and geography, Mombo and Jao both pair well with a stay at Wilderness Vumbura Plains. Rebuilt for the 21st century, Delta stalwart Wilderness Chitabe has a superpower in the diversity of habitats that surround it. The sextet wraps up with two camps that are a little different for Botswana: Wilderness DumaTau sits on a panoramic plateau, flanked by storied elephant crossings. Helicopter into Wilderness Mokete — a remote, lighter-weight stay that’s relatively new; if you’re heading here, make it your first stop.

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 Vumbura Plains 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 sustainably minded camp in Botswana and unpacked their once-in-a-lifetime memories, a full account of their captivating break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Wilderness Vumbura Plains in the Okavango Delta…

Safaris may be all about securing the sightings, but at Wilderness Vumbura Plains — in the Okavango Delta’s northeastern corner — creature comforts are (almost) as important as the creatures themselves. 

Its suites come polished with private pools, above-the-Delta decks and interiors that nod to nature as much as they do modernity. Water lilies are found in your room’s artwork and in flavour-filled meals, plus sunken fire pits are your guiding lights for star-studded nightcaps.

Don’t get us wrong, days are still focused on game drives, forays by boat and safari walks, bringing all sorts of ambling animals — lions, giraffes, impalas, zebras — into camera-catching distance. There’s mokoro canoeing and fishing, too, for those who prefer their pastimes be on the water.

But it’s not all for show: this revered retreat also has some serious conservation cred. Staff come from five local villages (many are even family), making that sense of community authentic, with insider knowledge that’s as valuable as any Big Five sighting.

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Price per night from $7,660.00

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