Luxury Hotels Atlas / The Maison / Wilderness

Wilderness hotels

Remote African concessions connect through small camps, local guides and a dedicated safari airline.

Wilderness makes safari travel a way to support the landscapes and communities guests come to experience. Colin Bell and Chris McIntyre founded the company in Botswana in 1983 with their guiding savings and a secondhand Land Rover, establishing a conservation-minded approach that grew into camps across several African countries.

21 Wilderness hotels in 5 countries on the Luxury Hotels Atlas, each placed on the six LHA Tiers.

• Listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange
• Worldwide: Roughly 20 to 40 camps and lodges across Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Zambia, Kenya, and other African countries
• On the atlas: 1 Apex Luxury, 8 Grand Luxury, 11 High Luxury, 1 Core Luxury

History

Colin Bell and Chris McIntyre established Wilderness as a Botswana company and built a locally trained team. That decision linked the business to the country hosting the wildlife from the beginning. Later camps repeated the emphasis on local employment and conservation as the collection reached other African landscapes.

Timeline

• 1983 — Colin Bell and Chris McIntyre found Okavango Wilderness Safaris in Maun, Botswana, the first photographic-tourism operator of its kind registered as a local company rather than run by expatriate-owned, South Africa-based firms.
• 1985 — The company opens its first two permanent tented camps, Xigera in the heart of the Okavango Delta and Xaro in the Okavango Panhandle, moving beyond mobile safaris into fixed-site lodges.
• 1987 — Jedibe opens in the permanent swamp area of the northern Delta.
• 1990 — Wilderness takes over Mombo, then a little-known camp on the boundary of the Moremi Game Reserve, which becomes one of Africa's most celebrated wildlife-viewing lodges.
• 1996 — Damaraland Camp and the Kulala Desert Lodge / Little Kulala pair open in Namibia, extending the company beyond Botswana into the Namib Desert.
• 2002 — The Wilderness Wildlife Trust is formally registered, institutionalizing the conservation funding model the founders had informally run for years.
• 2008–2017 — Expansion into Rwanda begins, with Sabyinyo (2008) and Bisate (2017) opening near Volcanoes National Park to support mountain gorilla tourism.
• 2024–2025 — Wilderness Mokete opens in Botswana's Mababe region and Wilderness Magashi Peninsula opens in Rwanda's Akagera National Park, continuing the company's expansion into new conservation areas.

The houses to know

1. Wilderness Bisate, Ruhengeri, Rwanda — Six thatched domes on a volcanic slope at Volcanoes National Park, opened in 2017.
2. Little Mombo, Okavango Delta, Botswana — Three tents beside Mombo on Chief's Island, rebuilt in 2018.
3. Wilderness Mombo, Okavango Delta, Botswana — The camp Bell and McIntyre took over in 1990, on Chief's Island in Moremi.
4. Wilderness Magashi Peninsula, Akagera National Park, Rwanda — Four rooms on a private concession in Akagera, opened in September 2025.
5. Wilderness DumaTau, Linyanti Wildlife Reserve, Botswana — Eight tents where the Kwando bends into the Linyanti, rebuilt in 2021.
6. Wilderness Jao Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana — A 1999 island camp in a private concession, rebuilt on stilts in 2019.
7. Wilderness Sabyinyo, Kinigi, Rwanda — Rwanda's first community-owned lodge, opened in 2008 under the volcano whose name means old man's teeth.
8. Wilderness Serra Cafema, Marienfluss Conservancy (Hartmann's Valley), Namibia — Eight rooms on the Kunene, founded in 2003 with the Himba-owned Marienfluss Conservancy.
9. Wilderness Vumbura Plains, Okavango Delta, Botswana — Twin camps, North and South, seven suites each, over the Kwedi Reserve.

Newest openings

• Wilderness Magashi Peninsula — Akagera National Park, Rwanda — opened 2025 — 4 rooms.
• Wilderness Mokete — Mababe, Botswana — opened 2024 — 6 rooms.

Opening next

• No future openings were confirmed in the sources reviewed. Magashi Peninsula opened in September 2025, following Mokete in 2024.

Every Wilderness hotel on the atlas

Botswana

• Little Mombo — Okavango Delta · Grand Luxury
• Wilderness DumaTau — Linyanti Wildlife Reserve · Grand Luxury
• Wilderness Jao Camp — Okavango Delta · Grand Luxury
• Wilderness Mombo — Okavango Delta · Grand Luxury
• Wilderness Vumbura Plains — Okavango Delta · Grand Luxury
• Little DumaTau — Linyanti · High Luxury
• Wilderness Chitabe — Okavango Delta · High Luxury
• Wilderness Mokete — Mababe · High Luxury

Namibia

• Wilderness Serra Cafema — Marienfluss Conservancy (Hartmann's Valley) · Grand Luxury
• Wilderness Damaraland Camp — Khorixas · High Luxury
• Wilderness Desert Rhino Camp — Palmwag · High Luxury
• Wilderness Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp — Sesfontein (nearest town/conservancy area) · High Luxury
• Wilderness Little Kulala — Sossusvlei · High Luxury
• Wilderness Kulala Desert Lodge — Sossusvlei · Core Luxury

Rwanda

• Wilderness Bisate — Ruhengeri · Apex Luxury
• Wilderness Magashi Peninsula — Akagera National Park · Grand Luxury
• Wilderness Sabyinyo — Kinigi · Grand Luxury

Zimbabwe

• Little Ruckomechi — Mana Pools · High Luxury
• Wilderness Linkwasha — Hwange National Park · High Luxury
• Wilderness Ruckomechi — Mana Pools National Park · High Luxury

Zambia

• Wilderness Shumba — Kafue National Park · High Luxury

Open The Maison in the atlas for Wilderness's full dossier, with prices and maps.

Every house in The Maison

How the six LHA Tiers work