Gaborone, Botswana - Travel Guide

Located in Botswana, Gaborone is one of the most prosperous cities in Southern Africa and it is also the capital city of the country. Plans to have Gaborone serve as the national capital started way back during colonial era and was bestowed the status in 1966 after the country became independent. With a population of just about 250, 000 people, Gaborone city is one of the most sprawling cities in the country. It is generally lively, functioning, safe and absolutely very clean. Numerous shopping malls appear dotted all over the city. However, most tourists agree that the nomenclature of the city really confuses most of them. 

Unlike what you would accept in a typical city, driving in Gaborone is to the left side and as such, tourists are advised to cross the streets and drive cautiously. Despite being such a well developed city, Gaborone doesn’t have much to offer in terms of tourist resources and tourists are advised not to travel there with great expectations. Nevertheless, one of the places that you should surely not miss is Kgale Hill as hill climbing at this hill is always a pleasant activity. 

With a height of about 100m, this is the largest hill in Botswana and climbing at the top will give you a pleasant view of the entire city and the surrounding regions. However, you should be a little careful as baboons can give you a rather hard time especially if you get astray. Unfortunately, there are no tour guides and you should only get in together with other tourists for safety purposes as well. 

The Gaborone Cycling Club offers mountain biking and not a cycling as its name seems to suggest. A half an hour drive from Gaborone is the Otse village and home to Mannyelanong Game Reserve that was established with its main aim being to protect the endangered vultures. The Gaborone Stables has some crocodiles that are definitely worthy seeing. The Mokolodi Game Reserve serves as the highlight of most visitors and most people go here to pet cheetahs. 

Game drives are offered at the reserve where you can see many animals such as balloons, wart hogs, giraffe, hippo, elephant and zebras among others. You will be shown around by very nice and lovely tour guides. Gaborone Game Reserve is known for being quite small and most visitors prefer driving themselves around the reserve in their cars. It is well known for bird watching even though some wild animals can also be sighted. It has several picnic spots even though you must be cautious about ostriches and monkeys.

Cinemas in Gaborone are many such as the New Capital Cinema and Gaborone Film Club which feature multi screens theatres where you can enjoy watching big name films and movie trailers. While there are many shopping malls in Gaborone, items here are quite expensive, something largely attributed to price fixing activities by the local retailers. There are many clubs in the city such as Bull and Bush as well as the Cigar Lounge that makes night life in Gaborone very lively and enjoyable.