- Best first photo safari: Victoria Falls & Chobe — 7 days from around US$4,595pp
- Best for elephants at eye level: The Best of the Chobe camera boat — 7 days from around US$5,950pp
- Best for water & big cats together: Chobe & Okavango Delta — 8 days from around US$10,850pp
- Best for the river crossings: The Great Migration, Masai Mara — 8 days from around US$13,450pp
- Best all-Botswana trip: Chobe, Delta & Kalahari — 10 days from around US$15,345pp
- Every departure runs with a resident Photo Host and the Pangolin camera boats and vehicles
- Booked, flighted and looked after by Beyond Africa Safaris from Cape Town — your approved Pangolin supplier
There is one name that photographers say first when the talk turns to the Chobe, and it is Pangolin. For years they have run the finest hosted photo safaris in this part of Africa — their own camera boats low on the river, a resident Photo Host shooting alongside you, and their own hotel on the Chobe bank so the best light is a two-minute walk from your room. The pictures that come off those boats win competitions. The hosting is what makes them come off at all.
We are an approved supplier for the full Pangolin line-up. That means you book the exact same hosted departures through us, at the same published price, and you get a Cape Town team who handles your international flights, your transfers, the days either side and the whole plan from the moment you enquire to the moment you land home. You travel with the best photographic operator on the Chobe, and you have us behind you the whole way. Below are their best photo safari tours for 2026 and 2027, ranked by the trip most people should start with, each with real prices and departure months.
These are hosted, photographer-led trips — a different thing from a standard game drive. For how the regions compare by subject, our guide to the best African photographic safaris and our African photographic safari packages go deeper on the planning. This page is about the hosted departures themselves — what they cost, who hosts them and how to pick the right one.
Why a Hosted Photo Safari — and Why Through Us
A hosted photo safari solves the two things that quietly ruin most photographic trips: the platform and the teaching. The platform here is the Pangolin camera boat and the sole-use vehicles — low, stable, fitted with swivel seats, beanbag rails, gimbals and charging, built by photographers for photographers. The teaching is the Photo Host, a resident guide who shoots with you all day, sets the boat for the light, talks you through settings in the field and sits with you each evening over the day's take. You come home having learned something, not just having been driven about.
Booking through Beyond Africa Safaris adds the layer Pangolin do not: the trip around the trip. We build your flights from home, your transfers, your nights in Cape Town or at the Falls either side, your visas-and-paperwork checklist, and we stay on call from Cape Town throughout. We have arranged private travel across this continent since 2004 and run as a registered operator since 2008, with more than 200,000 travellers looked after and a 4.9 rating from over 5,700 reviews. You pay the published rate; our supplier arrangement sits behind the scenes.
1. Victoria Falls & Chobe Photo Safari — 7 Days
Best for: A first hosted photo safari — the Falls and the Chobe camera boat in one easy week.
This is where most people should start. Seven days that open at Victoria Falls, from the air and on the ground, then cross into Botswana for the Pangolin Chobe Hotel and the camera boats. You get two hosted cruises a day on the river in the best light, level with drinking elephant herds, hippo, buffalo and fishing eagles, plus land drives in Chobe National Park. The hotel sits right on the bank, so the Photo Host has you on the water the moment the light turns. It is the gentlest way in and still delivers the Chobe's signature frames.
Departures: regular, roughly April to November. Best for: First-timers, elephant and water-level shooters, Falls combinations. From: around US$4,595pp for seven days. A matching private version is on our Victoria Falls & Chobe page.
2. The Best of the Chobe Photo Safari — 7 Days
Best for: Going deep on the Chobe — more river time, two angles on the same water.
Where the first trip samples the Chobe, this one lives on it. Seven days built entirely around the river and its wildlife, splitting your time so you work the Chobe from two different bases and two different stretches of water. More hosted boat cruises, more land drives, more of the eye-level elephant and predator work the Chobe is known for — and more evenings with the Photo Host going through frames and planning the next session. If the Chobe is the reason you are coming, this is the trip that wrings everything out of it.
Departures: regular, roughly March to November. Best for: Dedicated Chobe shooters, elephant and bird photographers, repeat visitors. From: around US$5,950pp for seven days.
3. Chobe & Okavango Delta Photo Safari — 8 Days
Best for: The two best platforms in Botswana — the river boat and the Delta's water hides — in one trip.
This is the classic Botswana photographic pairing. You start on the Chobe with the camera boats, then fly into the Okavango Delta, where the pictures change entirely — reflections and mirror dawns from a mokoro, elephant and buffalo coming to drink above a sunken hide, and the Delta's strong lion, leopard and painted-wolf packs on private island drives. Eight days gives you the river's eye-level work and the Delta's quiet, graphic water work back to back, both hosted, both on the right platforms.
Departures: regular, roughly March to November. Best for: Photographers who want water and big cats in one trip, reflection and hide work. From: around US$10,850pp for eight days. A private Delta leg is on our Okavango Delta page, with planning in our best photographic safaris in Africa guide.
4. The Great Migration Photo Safari, Masai Mara — 8 Days
Best for: The river crossings — the single most dramatic sequence in African wildlife, hosted and shot right.
A wildebeest crossing is the hardest thing to photograph well in Africa and the most rewarding when it comes off. This eight-day hosted departure puts you in the Masai Mara in the crossing months with a Photo Host who knows the crossing points and the light, and enough days at the river to be there when a crossing finally breaks rather than one anxious afternoon hoping for luck. Between crossings you have the Mara's big cats and the vast layered herds that carry the scale of the thing. It is a photographer-designed trip, built around action, patience and position.
Departures: peak crossing season, around September 2027. Best for: Action and herd shooters, big-cat photographers, once-in-a-lifetime trips. From: around US$13,450pp for eight days. A private Serengeti-and-Mara version is on our Great Migration page.
5. Chobe, Delta & Kalahari Photo Safari — 10 Days
Best for: The complete Botswana photographic trip — river, delta and desert in one hosted route.
Ten days and three entirely different landscapes, hosted throughout. You open on the Chobe with the camera boats, fly into the Okavango Delta for the water and the cats, then finish in the Kalahari for its big skies, black-maned lions, meerkats and the stark desert light that photographs like nowhere else in the country. It is the trip for a photographer who wants the full range of what Botswana can give a camera, with the platforms and the hosting handled at each stop. Long enough to work each place properly rather than skim it.
Departures: regular, roughly March to November. Best for: Photographers who want the full Botswana sweep, variety of subject and landscape. From: around US$15,345pp for ten days.
6. Chobe & Kafue Photo Safari, Zambia — 9 Days
Best for: Pairing the Chobe boat with Zambia's wild, uncrowded Kafue.
Nine days that start on the familiar Chobe and then cross into Zambia's Kafue — one of the largest and least-visited parks in Africa, where the Busanga Plains flood and fill with lechwe, lion and open-country game under enormous skies. It is a trip for a photographer who has shot the Chobe and wants somewhere genuinely wild and quiet to go next, with the hosting and the platforms carried through. Few vehicles, big space, and a landscape that still feels unworked by cameras.
Departures: set departure, around October 2027. Best for: Return photographers, wild-and-quiet seekers, open-plain work. From: around US$11,950pp sharing for nine days.
7. Two Rivers — Chobe & Lower Zambezi Photo Safari — 9 Days
Best for: Two great rivers back to back — the Chobe and the Lower Zambezi — from the water.
This nine-day hosted trip is built on two of the finest river systems in Africa. You work the Chobe first, then move to the Lower Zambezi in Zambia, where elephants wade the channels between islands, carmine bee-eaters nest in the banks and the game comes down to the water against a backdrop of the escarpment. Canoe, boat and vehicle all come into play, and the light on the Zambezi in the dry months is some of the best on the continent. Two rivers, two angles, one hosted route.
Departures: set departure, around April to August 2028. Best for: River and water-level shooters, canoe photography, bird work. From: around US$13,500pp sharing for nine days.
8. Epic Kenya Photo Safari — 12 Days
Best for: The grand East African trip — the Mara, the Rift Valley lakes and Amboseli's elephants under Kilimanjaro.
Twelve days across Kenya's greatest photographic country, hosted from start to finish. The Masai Mara for big cats and, in season, the crossings; the Rift Valley lakes for flamingo and birdlife; and Amboseli for its huge tuskers framed against Kilimanjaro — one of the defining images of Africa. It is a longer, richer trip for a photographer who wants range and depth in one journey, with the Photo Host and the right vehicles throughout. Flights between the parks keep the travel short and the shooting time long.
Departures: set departure, around February 2027. Best for: Serious shooters, big-cat and landscape range, once-in-a-lifetime East Africa. From: around US$17,450pp for twelve days.
9. Gorilla Trekking Uganda Photo Safari — 9 Days
Best for: Mountain gorillas and chimpanzees up close, hosted, in Uganda's forests.
Some of the most powerful wildlife photography on earth happens in the forest, a metre from a silverback. This nine-day hosted trip takes you into Uganda for mountain gorilla trekking in Bwindi, chimpanzee tracking in Kibale, and the open savannah and boat work of Queen Elizabeth National Park for a change of pace and subject. Forest photography is its own discipline — low light, fast focus, tight quarters — and having a Photo Host who has done it many times is the difference between frames you keep and frames you wish you had. Gorilla permits are arranged as part of the trip.
Departures: set departure, around September 2027. Best for: Primate and forest photographers, great apes at close range, varied subjects. From: around US$14,450pp sharing for nine days.
10. Bespoke Hosted Photo Safari — Built to Your Dates
Best for: Photographers who want the hosted platforms and Photo Host, on their own dates and route.
If the set departures do not line up with your calendar, or you want a private party, a particular combination or a longer run, we build it. The same camera boats, the same Photo Hosts, the same vehicles and hides — arranged privately for you, on your dates, with a route drawn around your subjects and skill level. A private Chobe-and-Delta build, a longer Zambia river trip, a family-friendly version, or a workshop for a small group of friends. You tell us the frames on your wish list; we put the platforms, the hosting and the logistics around them, and look after the whole thing from Cape Town.
Departures: any dates, private. Best for: Private parties, specific date or subject needs, small workshops. From: quoted to your exact build — see our photography safari expedition for a starting framework.
African Photo Safari Tour Prices 2026-2027
The table below shows the published per-person price for each hosted departure, on a sharing basis, covering accommodation, meals, the hosted boat cruises and game activities, park fees and the Photo Host on the ground. International flights, visas, insurance, premium drinks, gratuities and optional camera hire sit outside the rate. We book these for you at the published figure and handle everything around them.
| Hosted Departure | Days | From (USD pp) | Season / Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Victoria Falls & Chobe | 7 | ~US$4,595 | Apr–Nov |
| The Best of the Chobe | 7 | ~US$5,950 | Mar–Nov |
| Chobe & Okavango Delta | 8 | ~US$10,850 | Mar–Nov |
| Great Migration, Masai Mara | 8 | ~US$13,450 | Sep 2027 |
| Chobe, Delta & Kalahari | 10 | ~US$15,345 | Mar–Nov |
| Chobe & Kafue, Zambia | 9 | ~US$11,950 | Oct 2027 |
| Two Rivers — Chobe & Lower Zambezi | 9 | ~US$13,500 | Apr–Aug 2028 |
| Epic Kenya | 12 | ~US$17,450 | Feb 2027 |
| Gorilla Trekking Uganda | 9 | ~US$14,450 | Sep 2027 |
Prices are per person sharing and indicative, confirmed on enquiry against the live departure calendar. A South Luangwa hosted departure also runs in the line-up and is currently fully booked — we keep a waitlist and can place you on the next running or build a private version. Set-date trips and the small hosted groups fill early, so the Great Migration, Epic Kenya and the gorilla departure in particular should be booked well ahead.
How to Choose Your Photo Safari
Start with the subject and the time you have. For a first hosted trip, the Victoria Falls & Chobe week is the easiest and most rewarding way in. If the Chobe itself is the draw, The Best of the Chobe wrings everything from the river. Want water and big cats together — the Chobe & Okavango Delta. The full Botswana sweep — Chobe, Delta & Kalahari. For the river crossings, the Great Migration departure in the Mara. For somewhere wild and quiet, the Zambia river trips. And for the grand journeys, Epic Kenya and the Uganda gorillas. If none of the set dates fit, we build a private version on the same platforms.
Every one of these is a genuine Pangolin hosted departure, booked through Beyond Africa Safaris as an approved supplier and looked after by our team from Cape Town — your flights, your transfers, the days either side and someone on call throughout. Tell us what you shoot, your dates and your budget, and we will point you to the right departure and handle the rest. For the wider safari ranking beyond photography, see our best African safari tours and packages guide. Reach us on WhatsApp at +27 78 471 4852 or email res@privatetourscapetown.com to start planning your 2026 or 2027 photo safari.
