Sitatunga Private Island

It is two legs and the second one is not optional. A light aircraft brings you to the Duba airstrip, about thirty five minutes from Maun or an hour and twenty from Kasane on the camp's own transfer schedule, and a helicopter then lifts you across to the island. There is no road to replace it, so the helicopter is part of the route rather than an upgrade, and it is included at no additional charge for guests arriving on the scheduled aircraft. Anyone in the party who would genuinely rather not board a helicopter should be planning a different Delta camp, and we would say so early.

The helicopters in normal use are a Robinson R44 or a Bell 407, with a four-seat Bell 505 available on request, and passengers over about ninety kilograms may need a second seat, a lower threshold than the light aircraft applies. Luggage runs to twenty kilograms a person in a soft bag, hand baggage and camera equipment included. We can also arrange a private charter into Duba, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, which frees the day from the scheduled timetable, though the last few minutes are still flown by helicopter.

Both official sources treat the northern Delta as malaria country. The CDC names the Okavango and Ngamiland districts among the parts of Botswana for which it recommends prescription medicine to prevent malaria. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, puts it seasonally: high risk from October to May in the northern half of the country including the Okavango Delta area, with antimalarial tablets recommended for those months, and low risk across the rest of the year, when it advises awareness of risk and bite avoidance. Low risk is not the same as no risk.

We do not make medical recommendations. That is a conversation between you and your own doctor or a travel clinic, who know your history and can weigh it properly. We are travel planners, not medical professionals, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise.

Six is the minimum age, and what a child can join depends on the craft. Powered boating and walking on the island are open from six with a parent or guardian alongside. The poled mokoro, which is the slowest and lowest way to travel here, starts at eight. The camp manager takes the final decision on any particular outing, judged on ability and safety rather than by age alone.

The sharing rules are worth settling early on an island of three suites. In a one-bedroom suite, child rates cover one child of fifteen or under sharing with two adults, and from sixteen a young adult pays the adult rate and needs a suite of their own, which is a real constraint when there are only three. The two-bedroom suite is sold on an exclusive-use basis only, takes four adults or up to five where children are in the party, and child rates do not apply to it because the whole suite is booked as one. There is no childminding, the island is unfenced and elephants and hippos move across it, so children remain a parent's responsibility at all times.

Yes, in the suites. The camp puts the wifi in the suites and nowhere else, so the connection lives in the suite rather than on the dining deck, in the boats or at the firepit over the water.

On an island reached only by air or by boat, that is the whole of it, so treat it as a way to send word home rather than as an office. If someone in the party has to be contactable at a fixed hour, tell us and we will confirm with the camp what the link will carry on your dates before you commit to those dates.

Two nights is the working minimum, because the flights from Maun or Kasane only sit inside the nightly rate on a stay of at least two. A third night is what turns the island from a stop into a stay: one long morning on the water, one afternoon walking a neighbouring island, and a day with nothing on it at all. If fishing is part of the appeal, the tag and release season runs from March to December.

Taking the island whole is a different proposition from booking a suite in it. The two-bedroom suite comes with its own guide, boat and chef when it is booked exclusively, so the party sets the hours instead of fitting a camp routine, and a group filling all three suites gets that effect across the whole island. A direct helicopter hop of about fifteen minutes links the island to its sister camp at the southern end of the Selinda Spillway at no extra charge, so pairing water with walking country needs no return to Maun.

It covers the suite, all meals, the scheduled boating, mokoro and walking, laundry, and drinks including premium brand spirits and champagne. Each suite also carries binoculars and a professional camera body and lens kit for guests to use, with the photographs put onto a memory stick on departure. The flights from Maun or Kasane are inside the rate too, along with inter-camp flights from properties across the greater Okavango Delta and the Linyanti and Savuti areas, provided the stay runs to at least two nights; arriving by air from outside those areas brings a supplement.

Two things sit outside. Spa treatments are charged separately, which we will flag rather than fold in. The conservation and community contribution is mandatory, charged per person per night for every guest whatever their age, and goes to the camp's conservation foundation rather than to the camp, so we build it into your quote and the figure you agree is the figure. Comprehensive travel and medical insurance is a condition of confirmation and of travel rather than a recommendation.