Money, honestly
What a visit to Moremi actually costs
Two of you, your own or hired 4x4 with a rooftop tent, three nights inside the reserve: about P7,650 all-in from Maun at 2026 rates, roughly $570. Moremi bills everything in pula, charges every calendar day including the day you leave, and will not let you through the gate without a campsite booking. This page walks through where every pula goes, then prices the same three nights at a mid-range Khwai camp and at a Chief's Island fly-in camp.
If you only want the answer
For two people self-driving with a rooftop tent, three nights at Third Bridge comes to roughly P7,650 at 2026 rates, about $570: P2,160 in park entry over four fee-days, P300 for a foreign vehicle, P360 in DWNP camping fees, P3,366 to the campsite concessionaire and about P1,465 of diesel from Maun. That is before food, water and the vehicle itself, which is not priced here. The same three nights run to about $2,610 at Sango Safari Camp on the Khwai at low-season rates, and about $17,330 before flights at Mombo Camp on Chief's Island.
Budget one: self-drive camping, the classic Maun loop
About P7,650 for two people over three nights, roughly $570, and here is the arithmetic. Park entry is P270 per person per day for non-residents, Moremi being one of Botswana's two Category A parks, from the national tariff in force after the April 2026 increase was postponed. The vehicle line uses P75 per day for a foreign-registered 4x4 under 3,500 kg, the best-supported current figure, though it remains officially unverified and some 2026 sources report P115, so carry cash for either. Camping comes in two layers: the DWNP fee of P60 per person per night, plus the private concessionaire's own rate on top. We price the concession layer at Third Bridge, where the Xomae Group's published 2023/24 card says P561 per person per night for non-residents, flagged as possibly risen since.
We count four fee-days for the three-night trip, because Moremi charges entry and vehicle fees every calendar day including your departure day; the fee-day section below walks through it. This budget deliberately excludes the vehicle itself. A fully equipped rental 4x4 out of Maun is a large and variable cost that deserves its own comparison, so the figures here are what the park and the road take from a rig you already have.
| Line item | How it is charged | 3 nights (2 people) |
|---|---|---|
| Park entry, non-resident, Category A (2026 tariff) | 2 × P270 × 4 fee-days | P2,160 (±$160) |
| Foreign vehicle under 3,500 kg (working figure, unverified) | P75 × 4 fee-days | P300 (±$22) |
| DWNP camping fee, non-resident (2026 tariff) | 2 × P60 × 3 nights | P360 (±$27) |
| Third Bridge campsite, Xomae concession rate (2023/24 card, may have risen) | 2 × P561 × 3 nights | P3,366 (±$249) |
| Diesel from Maun, ±400 km total (price of 7 Sep 2026) | ±70 litres at P20.93/l | ±P1,465 (±$109) |
| Total | 3 nights, 4 fee-days | ±P7,650 (±$570) |
Two caveats on the campsite line. First, the Third Bridge area stayed closed after the record 2026 floods and we have found no confirmation it has reopened, so call Xomae before you build the loop around it; Xakanaxa or South Gate with Kwalate Safaris run around $40 per person per night on enquiry, close enough that the total barely moves. Second, food, drinking water and recovery gear are yours on top, and the only shop inside the reserve is the basic one at Third Bridge. Buy everything in Maun.
Budget two: mid-range at Sango Safari Camp
About $2,610 for two people over three nights at low-season rates. The honest mid-range pick near Moremi is Sango Safari Camp, a six-tent classic camp in the Khwai community concession within walking distance of Khwai village, run by Maun-based Bush Ways. Its published rates run $435 per person per night in low season to $760 in high season, among the best value of any full-service camp in the Khwai area; the same three nights in high season come to $4,560 for two.
Because Sango sits on community land outside the reserve, its everyday game drives run day and night on the concession without Moremi's park fees. If the camp takes you into the reserve proper for a day, you pay Moremi entry at the operator-client rate of P190 per person per day, about $14 each, one of the quiet advantages of visiting as a licensed operator's client rather than at the P270 self-drive rate. You reach camp by 4x4 from Maun via the Khwai road, or by light aircraft to the Khwai airstrip at the published guideline of $210 to $240 per person each way.
| Line item | How it is charged | 3 nights (2 people) |
|---|---|---|
| Sango Safari Camp, low season (published rates, gathered Jul 2026) | 2 × $435 × 3 nights | $2,610 |
| Same camp in high season, for comparison | 2 × $760 × 3 nights | $4,560 |
| Moremi day entry, if the camp takes you in (operator-client rate, 2026 tariff) | 2 × P190 per day | P380/day (±$28) |
| Light aircraft Maun to Khwai, optional (guideline, 2026) | 2 × $210–240 each way | ±$840–960 return |
| Total, low season, before getting there | 3 nights | ±$2,610 |
Confirm what the rate includes when you book; Bush Ways publishes the rate but not a full inclusions list for every season. Its sister property Khwai Guest House, thatched bungalows in the village itself from around $166 per person, is the escape hatch if Sango stretches the budget.
Budget three: fly-in to Mombo Camp
About $17,330 for two people over three nights at low-season rates, before flights. If you are flying in, the camp that defines the top of the Moremi market is Wilderness's Mombo Camp on the northern tip of Chief's Island, reachable only by air: published 2026 rates run $2,889 per person per night in low season to $5,043 in high season, fully inclusive. Three high-season nights for two come to $30,258. The light aircraft from Maun runs on the published guideline of $210 to $240 per person each way, so call it $840 to $960 for two, return.
Be clear about what that money buys, because it is mostly not a different Moremi. Your fees, meals, drinks and drives are all inside the rate; what you are really paying for is the air transfer to an island no road reaches, and the near-private use of Chief's Island's game density, which you would otherwise share with nobody so much as a self-driver, since none can get there. Know the rules too: Mombo sits inside the reserve, so there are no night drives and no off-road driving at any price. If those freedoms matter more than the island, the concession camps around the reserve sell them for less. Chief's Camp, the island's other option, publishes third-party rates from $2,400, and Xigera in the watery west from $2,750.
| Line item | How it is charged | 3 nights (2 people) |
|---|---|---|
| Mombo Camp, fully inclusive, low season (published 2026 rates) | 2 × $2,889 × 3 nights | $17,334 |
| Same camp in high season, for comparison | 2 × $5,043 × 3 nights | $30,258 |
| Light aircraft Maun to Mombo, return (guideline, 2026) | 2 × $210–240 each way | ±$840–960 |
| Total before international flights, low season | 3 nights, all found | ±$18,200 |
Whether Moremi's daily park fees sit inside Mombo's fully inclusive rate is not spelled out on the published rate summaries we used; some operators, such as &Beyond at Sandibe, state park fees are included, so ask Wilderness the same question when you book. Pack soft bags: the light aircraft limit is 20 kg per person including hand luggage and camera gear.
No campsite booking, no entry
This is the trap that catches more self-drivers than any fee: a confirmed campsite reservation is required to enter Moremi at all. Turn up at South Gate without one and the gate turns you around, whatever cash you are holding. And you cannot fix it at the gate, because the four public campsites inside the reserve are DWNP-owned but privately run, and none of them can be booked through DWNP: Third Bridge belongs to the Xomae Group, Xakanaxa and South Gate to Kwalate Safaris, North Gate to SKL Camps. Three different companies, three separate bookings, none of them the parks department.
The calendar is the other half of the trap. Availability opens about 12 months out, and Xakanaxa and North Gate sell out 6 to 8 months ahead for the June to October season. So the booking order for a Moremi self-drive is fixed: campsite first, with the concessionaire, then flights and everything else around the dates you actually secured. Do it the other way and you own plane tickets to a park you cannot enter.
Three nights is four fee-days
Moremi charges its entry, vehicle and per-day fees every calendar day you are inside the reserve, including the day you leave. A three-night stay therefore bills as four days: arrival day, two full days, departure day. For two non-residents that is 2 × P270 × 4, or P2,160 in entry fees before you have slept anywhere, not the P1,620 that night-based arithmetic gives you, and the vehicle clocks up P300 rather than P225 the same way.
The camping fees run on nights, so those two layers stay at three. Budget entry and vehicle on fee-days, camping on nights, and the arithmetic at South Gate will never surprise you. It also means an early exit saves nothing: leaving at 06:30 on day four costs the same P540 for the two of you as leaving at 18:00.
Pula, dollars and paying at the gate
Every official fee at Moremi is set in Botswana pula, and the dollar figures on this page are conversions at roughly P13.5 to the US dollar, the rate we use across our Botswana fee data in 2026. So the P270 entry fee is about $20, and the whole camping budget lands near $570; if the pula moves, the pula figures on the gate price list are the ones that hold.
Pay in pula, in cash, at the gate, or in advance by card at the DWNP office in Maun, which issues a voucher you show at the gate. Do not rely on card payment at the gates themselves. And one dated warning for anyone budgeting ahead: a large fee increase, taking non-resident entry to P500, was scheduled for 1 April 2026 and officially postponed on 31 March 2026 after industry consultation. It is delayed, not cancelled, and no new date has been announced, so recheck the tariff before you budget a 2027 trip on this page's numbers.
The fuel maths, dated
Botswana pump prices are regulated by BERA and move roughly monthly. At 7 September 2026 diesel stood at P20.93 per litre and octane-95 petrol at P18.21 per litre (GlobalPetrolPrices tracker, checked 12 September 2026); confirm the pump price in Maun the day you fill up.
Our estimate assumes about 400 km of driving: 92 km from Maun to South Gate, the loop up the Mopane Tongue to Third Bridge and the Mboma circuit, and the run back out. Moremi's deep sand pushes a loaded 4x4 to around 17 litres per 100 km, which is about 70 litres, or roughly P1,465 of diesel at the September 2026 price, call it $109. There is no fuel inside the reserve and none past Maun on the northern traverse until Kasane, so fill everything in Maun, jerry cans included; sand drinks more than the map suggests.
Where the money surprises people
- Three nights is four fee-days: Moremi bills every calendar day including departure day, so two people pay P2,160 in entry fees for a three-night stay, not P1,620 (2026 tariff).
- The camping fee is really two fees: the DWNP's P60 per person per night is the small one, and the private concessionaire's rate on top is nearly ten times it at Third Bridge, P561 per person per night on Xomae's 2023/24 card, which may have risen since.
- You cannot enter without a confirmed campsite booking, and the campsites sell out 6 to 8 months ahead for June to October. The booking, not the money, is the real constraint.
- Travelling as a licensed Botswana operator's client cuts entry from P270 to P190 per person per day (2026 tariff), a saving of P640 per couple over four fee-days that most people never hear about.
- The vehicle fee has no verifiable official figure: P75 per day for a foreign 4x4 is the best-supported number, some 2026 sources say P115, and trailers are quoted at P15 to P60. Carry enough cash for the worst case.
- The postponed fee increase would take non-resident entry to P500 per day. It was delayed on 31 March 2026, not cancelled, so a 2027 budget built on P270 is a gamble.
- Third Bridge's status is genuinely uncertain: the area stayed closed after the record 2026 floods and we found no confirmation of reopening (checked September 2026). Confirm with Xomae before routing through it.
- Fuel is a real line item: about P1,465 of diesel for the modest loop at September 2026 prices, with nothing but the basic Third Bridge shop for sale inside the reserve and no fuel past Maun until Kasane.
- This page does not price the rental 4x4, and that omission cuts both ways: a fully equipped Maun rental is expensive enough that a guided mobile safari is often comparable value, with the operator-client fee discount thrown in.
- Children 8 to 15 pay half and under-8s go free on the national tariff, but some campsite concessionaires apply an 8 to 17 bracket instead, so a family should confirm both layers before budgeting.
Sources
- Government of Botswana national parks tariff, Ministry of Finance Savingram, December 2025 (checked 26 Jul 2026)
- Xomae Group: Third Bridge campsite rates, 2023/24 card (checked Jul 2026)
- Bush Ways Botswana: Sango Safari Camp rates (gathered Jul 2026)
- Wilderness: Mombo Camp published 2026 rates (gathered Jul 2026)
- GlobalPetrolPrices: Botswana diesel and petrol, prices of 7 Sep 2026 (checked 12 Sep 2026)