What a visitor's money does in Botswana: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Botswana Pula (BWP) · 1 EUR = 16.2 BWP · 1 USD = 13.9 BWP
Botswana charges every non-SADC visitor a $30 tourism development levy on arrival, payable by card at the border or airport — have it ready. Camps are priced in dollars and settled by card; pula is for Maun, tips and the odd shop. This is the most expensive safari country in Africa by design: the policy is high-value, low-volume, and the prices are the policy.
Avoid: looking for a machine in the delta — there are none, and nothing to spend it on either
Use: Barclays, Standard Chartered, FNB — in Maun before you fly in
Have a card ready at the border for the $30 tourism levy. Tips for guides and polers are cash, in pula or dollars.
From the airport: Maun airport to the town P80–150; the lodges collect you
Camp catering, and at these prices it is generally excellent — three meals and high tea, cooked in the bush. Botswana beef is famous and deserves it. Seswaa, slow-pounded meat with pap, is the national dish and you will more likely meet it in Maun than in a camp.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
