Take a look at our Okavango Delta Shopping Guide below for details about the shopping scene in the Okavango Delta region. Visiting the market places you can try the local cuisine in Okavango Delta. Our Botswana Shopping Guide provides shopping details for your shopping in Botswana.

Okavango Delta Shopping Guide

Local handicrafts

Traditional and handicraft items, available in the local markets of Botswana, make for some good mementoes and souvenirs, besides being worthy additions to one's personal collections.

Botswana's speciality is its assorted handicrafts and visitors can expect some good bargains. Some must-buys are hand-woven baskets made from the fronds of Hyphaene petersiana, the real fan palm and other handicrafts of the San, like ostrich eggshell jewellery. There is a wide difference in prices between the pieces bought directly from the producers, the simpler outlets and the stylish, well-located Okavango Delta shops that often display the best stuff at high prices.

Maun Supermarket

The giant South African supermarket chain, Shoprite, took over Maun's original supermarket, 'Maun Fresh Produce' around 1997. Located in the same place, towards the west side of Riley's, Shoprite has expanded considerably and today, it is the town's largest supermarket for making bulk purchases of food stuff. It is open from 0800 hrs to1900 hrs during the week, from 0800 hrs to 1700 hrs on Saturday and between 0800 hrs to1300 hrs on Sunday. It is closed on public holidays.

Local Markets

The main local market is located opposite Shoprite on Tsaro Street. Small stalls and local sellers line the streets of this colourful, bustling area. Check out the odd pile of vegetables and fruits, offbeat foods like seasonal mopane worms, second-hand items and an assorted range of bootleg tapes.

Curios

While passing through Livingstone, don't miss the curio stalls located near the border post to Victoria Falls that sell the best carvings of the region (though you will have to haggle hard here). Besides these outlets, many lodges, especially in Maun, have small Okavango Delta shops that sell curios. The town also has plenty of well-stocked shops at the more upscale end of the spectrum.

Supplies

Besides Shoprite in Maun, there are large supermarkets in the main towns of Francistown and Kasane that offer a wide range of imported food of high quality. However, Shoprite is the best store in this region, stocking several daily use foodstuff varieties familiar to visitors, as well as a whole range of other products. The only shortcoming, when compared to the supermarkets of other countries, is the vegetable and fresh food section, which offers less choice than one would expect, due to logistics issues.

It is best to buy and stock up food from these main centres, especially while travelling in the region, because not much is available in other places. Villages generally have small shops that sell staples like rice and bread along with a few tinned and packaged foods. Besides these shops, there are bottle stalls that sell popular cool drinks (often excluding ‘diet' drinks). Nothing is refrigerated. Shopping hours are from 0800 hrs to 1800 hrs (Monday through Friday) and from 0830 hrs to 1300 hrs on Saturday.