African Bush Camps and Atzaró Group Ready Atzaro Okavango in The Heart of Botswana for March 2024 Debut
Wildly Luxurious Camp in the Okavango Delta offers a perfect balance of sustainable living and opulent comfort for safari enthusiasts
Lush palm islands, vibrant vegetation, and the iconic wildlife of Southern Africa create the backdrop for Atzaró Okavango, the 18th and newest safari destination from African Bush Camps in partnership with Atzaró Group. Designated by ABC as an “Icon” camp for the ultra-luxurious, wildly indulgent safari experience it offers amid savanna and delta landscapes, Atzaró Okavango is set to debut in March 2024. Celebrating sustainable luxury in the heart of the Okavango Delta of Botswana, the camp offers travelers a harmonious integration in a breathtaking environment and immersion in authentic local culture amidst the UNESCO World Heritage wilderness.
Long enamored with the Okavango region, Beks Ndlovu, a veteran professional guide who founded African Bush Camps in 2006, developed the property jointly with Ibiza-based Atzaró Group. Atzaró desired to launch a remote, nature-based camp in Africa for years. When mutual friends introduced the partners, they realized they shared similar values and a common dream. Beks suggested a specific piece of pristine and undeveloped land rich in wildlife that offers opportunities for ABC and Atzaró to provide employment and financial independence to the local community, which, in turn, is dedicated to protecting the area.
Spread across 60 acres next to a river and overlooking a lagoon in the Okavango Delta, Atzaró Okavango Camp will welcome travelers with 12 luxury air-conditioned suites, including 2 double luxury family suites. Each room has a private plunge pool, ‘star beds’ for dreamy sky views at night, indoor/outdoor shower, and a private deck under a grass-topped roof overlooking a majestic lagoon and wildlife-filled waterways. All suites have air conditioning and heating for chilly mornings.
The design of the camp’s suites will be elegant, with a soothing palette of beige, wicker, and overstuffed leather furniture, canopied bedding, parquet flooring, mid-century furnishings and antiques, woven rugs, and flowing draperies on floor-to-ceiling windows to maximize views. Interiors will be further outfitted for comfort and connection with a well-stocked minibar, reliable Wi-Fi, fans, and mosquito nets.
Atzaró Okavango is powered by solar energy for the perfect balance of sustainable living and opulent comfort. Strict recycling procedures, reusable water bottles and refilling stations, and wastewater treatment plants are part of each ABC operation. Hiring local community members and their opportunity to grow and advance within the African Bush Camps organization is vital to the ABC philosophy. The company’s Foundation, ABCF, launched a new education program in Maun to benefit 15 students of the region and installed a water system in the same school to support an essential learning environment.
An onsite wellness spa will offer a soothing range of treatments, and personal fitness routines will be easy to maintain in a fully equipped gym, classes held on the yoga deck, or with laps and dips in an expansive 65-foot pool surrounded by a wooden deck topped with comfortable loungers and shading umbrellas.
A wine bar will be the destination for dining, African-inspired sundowners, and a selection of wines. An ancestral boma will also be available for outdoor dining and gatherings.
There will be no shortage of adventure opportunities to thrill and edify travelers at Atzaró Okavango. The region is rich in wildlife, such as elephants, buffalo, lions, leopards, giraffes, lechwe, and hippos, making it an ideal destination for safari enthusiasts and nature lovers. Activities will include daily game drives, walking safaris, and mokoro explorations in the iconic ‘African gondola’ of the Okavango Delta, all led by African Bush Camps’ professional guides. Night drives, bird-watching excursions, and catch-and-release fishing will also be ready options, as will helicopter rides for guests staying three days or more, and cultural visits to nearby communities to provide locals with opportunities for self-sustainability and to share their knowledge and traditions.
About African Bush Camps
African Bush Camps (ABC) is an owner-operated African-based safari company designed to delight adventure travelers with authentic safari experiences amid untamed wilderness across Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Operations are always focused on the guests, with 18 luxury tented bush camps and lodges, offering seamless safari experiences with internal flights, food, drinks, and activities included. African Bush Camps promotes and influences travel to Africa on a global scale while operating with a strong focus on conservation and an environmentally sustainable footprint that celebrates the culture of communities in the areas in which it operates. ABC has been awarded the Green Tourism Gold Certification, ranked in Condé Nast Traveler 2023 Readers’ Choice Awards as one of the Best Resorts in the World, and was named Africa’s Leading Luxury Safari Company by the 2023 World Travel Awards. At the World Luxury Travel Awards 2022, ABC secured the award for Best Safari Destination. Beks Ndlovu, ABC’s CEO, and African Bush Camps are also the recipient of the Robb Report’s Best of the Best Awards 2021.
The African Bush Camps Foundation is a nonprofit organization that funds community empowerment, education, human-wildlife conflict resolution, and conservation. Launched in 2006, the Foundation operates through a multi-faceted partnership with African Bush Camps. At least $10 of every bed night of ABC’s revenue goes towards the Foundation. Since its inception, the Foundation has spearheaded 72 community projects across Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia; 42 of those projects are currently in operation under the Foundation’s wing.
African Bush Camps was founded in 2006 by Beks Ndlovu, a professional safari guide born and raised in the village of Lupane on the outskirts of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. From the start of operations, Ndlovu’s mission has been to operate a portfolio of luxury tented camps and lodges across Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia that reincarnate the fantasy of ‘Old Untouched Africa’ while treating guests to authentic, adventurous, and professionally guide-led experiences and bespoke safaris that can only be found in the bush. In 2005 Ndlovu founded the Conservation and Wildlife Fund, a nonprofit organization funded by the contributions of safari operators in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. Beks Ndlovu is a leading voice in the tourism and conservation spheres, advocating for tourism to be used as a vehicle to transform African communities.
About Atzaró Group
Atzaró Group has gone from strength to strength in recent years, from Atzaró Agroturismo Hotel, the luxury rural estate hotel in Ibiza, that opened in 2004, to Atzaró Beach a beach club and restaurant and Aubergine by Atzaró the country-chic restaurant favorite place to eat. With its expansion into Indonesia, Atzaró Group launched their super-yacht, Prana by Atzaró a traditional but luxurious phinisi, heralded the biggest and most luxurious in the world, available for charters in the marine reserves of the Komodo National Park, The Spice Islands and Raja Ampat. The group also recently opened Atzaró Cape Town, a magnificent 7-suite villa at the foot of Table Mountain and the national park, with 360 mountain and sea views.