Botswana recently received the accolade as the top country in the world for travelers in the year 2016 by the world’s most successful travel publisher, Lonely Planet. Lonely Planet prints over 120 million books in eleven languages and the country was featured in the highly anticipated collection of the world’s hottest trends, destinations and experiences for the year ahead.
According to the book, “Botswana is so full of life changing experiences it would be easier to list the things that aren’t remarkable. Here is a real wilderness that puts you in touch with palpable primitive thrills and fears, whether it’s being poled by an African gondolier in a mokoro past pods of sunbathing hippos in the Okavango Delta; or feeling the spirit of the first men in the thousand-year- beauty of Kubu Island’s ancient baobabs backlit by incandescent constellations in a vast night sky.”
Botswana takes the top spot thanks to being “a unique destination: an unusual combination of desert and delta that draws an immense concentration of wildlife”. The publication’s contributor, Tom Hall said, “Botswana has remained off the radar for most people, who believe it’s too expensive, too difficult to get to or doesn’t cater for families. But that isn’t true. Go now! Go in the green season or go in the dry season – at any time of year, this stunning country is just waiting to be explored.”
For his part the Chief Executive Officer of Botswana Tourism (BTO), Thabo Dithebe said, “As Botswana, we are very humbled by this award and we would like to inform the public that BTO will receive the award from Lonely Planet at the World Travel Market 2015 in London. The destinations featured in the book are selected because they meet certain criteria; it could be that something special is going on in the year ahead or there’s been recent development and a lot of buzz about the place, that it offers travellers new things to see or do, or that the Lonely Planet team of experts think it’s been overlooked and underrated and suggests travellers visit before the crowds do.”
Lonely Planet’s Best Travel in 2016 also contains 17 inspirational travel-themed lists, from the best value destinations for 2016, to the best animal adventures for families, the best places to seek silence and the best places to elope.