Five questions, and the first one matters more than the other four

1. On my exact dates, what will the activities be?

Not what the camp offers — what your week will contain. A camp website lists everything it can ever do; the water level on your dates decides which of those you get.

Ask for it in writing. It is the difference between arriving expecting a mokoro and arriving to find a game drive, and it is the commonest Botswana disappointment by a wide margin.

2. Is this camp on a concession, or in Moremi?

A tenure question, and it decides whether night drives, off-road driving and walking are available at all.

Moremi Game Reserve is public land under statutory rules: on the track, in daylight, no cap on vehicles at a sighting. The concessions operate under leases and permit a great deal more. The price does not reliably tell you which you are looking at.

The follow-up matters too: where do the activities actually happen? Some camps near the reserve boundary run their drives into it, which returns the day to park rules however the bed was booked.

3. How many tents, and how many vehicles or boats?

A camp of eight or nine tents can bend around its guests — an early start is a conversation at dinner. The vehicle and boat count tells you how much sharing to expect.

On a concession the number of vehicles that can reach any sighting is limited by how few beds exist nearby, which is most of what you are paying for.

4. Is the vehicle or boat private, or shared?

The single largest difference between two Delta quotes that look alike, and frequently unstated in a summary.

On the water it matters as much as it does on land: a private boat means going where you want, staying as long as you want and stopping when the light is right.

5. What is included, and what is charged?

Park and concession fees, certain activities, premium drinks and any scenic flight all sit on different sides of the line depending on the camp. A helicopter transfer or a scenic flight over the Delta is usually extra and usually worth it, but it should not be a surprise.

What not to choose on

• Interiors. The rooms are lovely everywhere in this price bracket. It is the variable that matters least.
• A famous name, which tells you about the marketing budget rather than the land.
• The nightly rate alone, which correlates with hospitality far more than with what you are permitted to do.
• A photograph of a mokoro, unless somebody has confirmed there will be water on your dates.

The shape that works

Two Delta camps of different types, three nights each, at least one of them on concession land, with the activity mix confirmed in writing for your dates.

Add a dry region outside the Delta if the trip runs to ten nights or more, and the contrast will do more for it than a third Delta camp would.