johan rebel

Depending mainly on how you choose to define "better", that may or may not be the case.

First of all, the game viewing in Chobe is focused on the eponymous river, which attracts more game in the dry season. Kruger, simply by virtue of its size, but also due to a happy accident of geology, offers far greater diversity.

Botswana is admittedly chock-a-block with elephants, but seeing hundred of them in Kruger is not that big a challenge. When it comes to most other species I would say that it is pretty much a toss-up, although I think Kruger has the edge when it comes to leopard sightings.

Johan

gspurr

Good point on "better" (I should have qualified this use of the word), but I actually went to Chobe in the wet season (January) and saw far more animals (in addition to elephants) than I did in Kruger in the dry season. You are probably right that the likelihood of seeing certain animals is greater in Kruger. I saw far more lions, leopards and Zebra in Kruger, but did see a small number of lions and leopards in Chobe and quite a few Zebra. As said, I saw far more elephants in Chobe as well as more Hippos, Crocs, Cape Buffalo, Giraffes, warthogs and birds. The number and variety of antelope were about the same. The OP stated that they only have time for 2 or 3 days worth of safari so I recommended Chobe because of its location to VF and the certainty of seeing a large number and variety of animals.

TWA44

Thanks @gspurr and @johan for your posts above.

I realize we may be disappointed safari-wise given that we are going to be in southern Africa for the month of Feb. 2016.

The very tentative itinerary I posted above @ post 14 of http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24723852-post14.html has room for us to consider including Chobe, Kruger and Etosha. Given the season, maybe we should indeed do that.

Any other ideas of how we can make the best of it, given the fact that we will be there Feb 3-27? Thanks.

susiesan

I agree with gspurr about Chobe vs Kruger for game viewing at this time of year. My trip was April 5-22.

The nice thing about Chobe is the animals come to you to drink at the river. It is not difficult to spot them at all. We saw all of the big 5 there except the leopard. Viewing the riverbank from the river on a small boat is an amazing experience. The animals at Chobe seemed more tolerant or used to the safari trucks so we were able to get fairly close to them.

At the private reserve near Kruger, Klasserie, on some of the game drives we wouldn't see anything for over an hour. We did finally see a leopard on the last evening for less than a minute.

Keep in mind if you go to Zambia side of the falls you will need a yellow fever shot. Plus the visa costs more than Zimbabwe's. The best views of the falls are from the Zimbabwe side anyways.

gspurr

There is now a $50 uni ZIM/ZAM visa good for 30 days that allows you to cross back and forth as many times as you want. It is worth buying even if you are only going to one country as it is cheaper than the single visa for citizens of most countries. http://www.victoriafalls-guide.net/u...we-zambia.html

I went to both sides of the falls and agree that overall the ZIM side has the best views of the Falls, but I found the Zambian side interesting as well as there was a good hike down to the bottom of the gorge that gave you a great view of the bridge.

rollthere

I would also like to go to the Victoria falls area in the near future and have heard that the views from the Zimbabwe side are better/wider and that the views from the Zambia side are of a much drier area of the falls. I suppose everything depends on the wet/dry season though.

What is the real difference between flying into and staying in Victoria falls, Zimbabwe (VFA) and a Livingstone, Zambia (LVI)? Does either city/town have anything more to offer than the other? Doing some brief research on Livingstone it looks like it has a bit more to offer, however, I don't think I would plan on staying in the falls area for more than two or three days.

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

gspurr

There really isn't much of an advantage of flying into either LVI or VFA except, of course, you should fly into the airport of the country of which you are staying. Livingstone does have a bit more in terms of a city than VF--more shopping, parks, etc, but both cities are pretty equal in terms of outdoor activities. Keep in mind that if you are flying back to South Africa and you have been to Zambia you will need to get a yellow fever vaccination.

As I said in an earlier post, I highly recommend viewing the falls from both sides as you get different perspectives. If you are there two or three days (I would not recommend more) you will have plenty of time to see both sides. However, if you are only going to go to one country I would recommend the ZIM side as you get a more expansive view of the falls from there.