Francistown

Francistown is a city in the east of Botswana, near the border with Zimbabwe. In our division of Botswana into regions, it is in Southeast Botswana.

Get in
Francistown is a major transportation hub in Northeastern Botswana and is the gateway to northern Botswana.

By car
A1: Connects Francistown to Gaborone in the south and to Zimbabwe in the north.

A3: Connects Francistown to Nata and Maun to the west.

By bus
Buses about every hour to/from Gaborone and the trip takes 5-7 hours. Buses to/from Kasane via Nata.

Because it is a transportation hub, Francistown connects to most other villages and towns in the northern part of the country. Direct buses travel to tourist destinations like Maun and Kasane.

There are also several buses that arrive daily from Bulawayo and Harare in Zimbabwe.

Khanda Express bus services to/from Francistown to Johannesburg in South Africa via Martins Drift border post.

By plane
Francistown has its own international airport which is undergoing a P500 million expansion.

The airport is only served commercially by Air Botswana.

Air Botswana offers two daily flights from Gaborone, and flights from Johannesburg, South Africa on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

By train
Trains run nightly from Lobate, near the border with South Africa, via the capital Gaborone. Journey time is about 10 hours, arriving in Francistown early next morning. The formerly daily cross-border train from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe ended in 2020. Botswana Railways offers timetables and online booking. UPDATE (as of Mar 2024) all passenger services in country are suspended!

Get around
There is a daily night train each way between Francistown and Lobatse using refurbished trains from South Africa.

Buy
Prices are comparable to the U.S.
 * The "Hype" store and "Game" are similar to a Sam's Club or Costco and Wal-Mart.

Sleep
Camping with your own tent is the most low-cost way.