Gaborone - Post Report Question and Answers
What is your home city/country? How long is the trip to post from there, with what connections? How easy/difficult is it to travel to this city/country?
Florida, but we traveled from DC. Most people fly through Johannesburg, but if you have pets you'll probably need to travel through Addis Ababa. Chaotic and incredibly stressful, do not recommend, and our cat didn't enjoy the experience either! Despite booking a "pet ticket" on Ethiopian Air, the check in desk agents couldn't find any record of our pet in their system and they nearly didn't allow us to board. You'll also need detailed pet paperwork that will have to be completed within a week or two of departure. Plan accordingly. Though they didn't end up even looking at our pet documents at customs here in Gabs. - Aug 2024
Washington, DC It is a long trip because there are very few direct flights into Gaborone; you have transit via Addis Ababa or Johannesburg, so including layovers and excluding rest stops, the trip is about 35 hours. You can cut the time by a few hours by taking the direct flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg, but that's a 17 hour flight and you would still need to clear customs in Johannesburg and then check in again. - Dec 2023
My hometown is St. Paul, MN. Everyone flies through Johannesburg and from there I would take the Delta flight to Atlanta then on to Minneapolis or Washington DC depending on where I needed to go. It usually took 25-30 hours. - Jul 2019
I'm from Los Angeles, California. Many people take the 16+ hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. I did that once and swore that I would never do it again. I prefer to fly LA to Frankfurt, overnight there, and fly the next day from Frankfurt to Johannesburg. From Joburg to Gaborone the flight is only 55 minutes long and there are 12 or 13 flights daily. - Apr 2017
We are from California. We normally fly from Atlanta to Johannesburg - which is 14.5 hours there, 16.5 coming back to the U.S.! Add another hour to Gaborone. It's dreadful. - Jul 2016
Washington, DC area - it takes about 30 hours total from DC to ATL to Johannesburg (16 hours) to Gaborone. - Mar 2015
Florida. Trip is horrible - 23 + hours. You need to account for 2 days of travel. Our route goes FL to Atlanta, Atlanta - Joburg, Joburg - Gaborone. There are no direct flights to Gaborone. When you want to fly anywhere, you need to go from Gaborone to Joburg (SA) and from there route were you want to go...This makes flying anywhere expensive. - Oct 2014
My most common flight home was the Delta flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to Atlanta, Georgia. The flight from Gaborone to Johannesburg is about an hour and relatively cheap (US$100 - $150). The Johannesburg to Atlanta flight is 17 hours. There are also some Washington, DC to Johannesburg that goes through Senegal as a fuel stop. - Nov 2013
Washington, D.C. to Atlanta then a 16-hour direct flight on Delta to Johannesburg, then a 1 hour (or 30 min., depending on the size of the jet) flight to Gaborone. - Jul 2013
US - 17 hours from Atlanta to Johannesburg non-stop, then an hour up to Gaborone. I found this flight to be much better than the DC flight that stops in West Africa. - Apr 2013
Home is Chicago. It takes 24-30 hours to travel from Chicago to Botswana. You may either travel from Chicago to Europe (Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, or Paris) to Johannesburg and then connect to Botswana, or fly direct from Washington, DC or Atlanta to Johannesburg. There are no direct flights to Gaborone from the U.S. or Europe. Generally all travelers connect through Johannesburg. Many flights from the United States arrive in Jo'burg during the evening and are too late to make the last connection to Gaborone (around 7pm).Therefore, many travelers are forced to overnight near the airport in Johannesburg and finish their journey to Gaborone the following morning. - Jun 2010
