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Main Mall, Botswana - Things to Do in Main Mall

Things to Do in Main Mall

Main Mall, Botswana - Complete Travel Guide

Main Mall isn't a mall in the shopping-centre sense, which trips up most first-time visitors to Gaborone. It's a pedestrianised commercial strip running through the centre of the capital. Low-slung concrete buildings line it. Scattered jacaranda trees too. The flow of office workers, government employees, and street traders gives the place its particular rhythm. The smell of grilled boerewors drifts from corner braai stands around lunchtime, mingling with diesel fumes from the kombis idling on adjacent streets and the faint dust that seems to settle on everything in Gaborone's dry months. What strikes you about Main Mall is how unselfconsciously functional it is. You'll find women in tailored office wear cutting through the crowd alongside vendors selling phone cases laid out on bedsheets, men playing morabaraba on overturned crates near the Three Dikgosi Monument, and the soft clack-clack of bottle-tops being moved across hand-drawn boards. Lunchtime gets crowded. The pavement fills up between noon and two, then empties out after five when the civil servants head home and the strip turns quieter than you'd expect for a national capital. Main Mall is less about ticking off attractions and more about absorbing how Botswana's capital works day to day. The Three Dikgosi Monument anchors the eastern end. The National Museum's a short walk. The surrounding streets host the ministries that run the country. As you'd expect from Gaborone, things tend to be orderly, low-key, and a bit understated.

Top Things to Do in Main Mall

Three Dikgosi Monument

Three bronze statues of the chiefs who travelled to London in 1895 to petition Queen Victoria against incorporation into Rhodesia. They stand roughly nine metres tall on a raised plinth. The figures gaze out over the mall with what feels like quiet stubbornness. The plaza around them has become an informal meeting spot. School groups gather here. Photographers too. The occasional political gathering shows up.

Booking Tip: No booking needed. But timing matters. Early morning light hits the bronze beautifully. You'll have the plaza almost to yourself before the office crowd arrives around 8am.

Botswana National Museum

A short walk north of Main Mall along Independence Avenue. The museum holds ethnographic collections covering the San, Tswana, and Herero peoples. There's also a surprisingly engaging natural history wing. The galleries are modest in scale. Displays feel a bit dated. But the curatorial notes are detailed. The attached art gallery often shows contemporary Batswana painters worth a look.

Booking Tip: Closed Mondays. The cafe situation is unreliable. Eat before you go or bring water. Allow ninety minutes, though art-curious visitors will want longer.

Street food and braai stalls

Around lunchtime the southern end of Main Mall fills with vendors grilling boerewors, seswaa (slow-cooked shredded beef), and pap over open coals. The smoke is thick. Queues move fast. Conversations around the plastic stools are mostly in Setswana with English drifting in and out.

Booking Tip: Bring small pula notes with you. Vendors rarely have change for larger denominations. Card machines simply don't exist in this context. Stick to stalls with visible turnover.

Craft and curio shopping

Scattered along the mall and in the adjacent side streets, you'll find shops selling Botswana baskets woven in the Okavango tradition, ostrich-egg jewellery, and printed shweshwe fabric. Quality varies considerably. Some stalls carry genuine artisan pieces from up north. Others stock the same mass-produced curios you see across southern Africa.

Booking Tip: Haggling is mild here compared to Marrakech or Bangkok. A 10 to 15 percent reduction is realistic. Anything more and you're being rude. Ask where baskets come from. Etsha and Gumare are the genuine production villages.

Parliament and government quarter walk

Walking east from Main Mall toward the Parliament buildings gives you a sense of how compact Gaborone's civic core is. The architecture is mostly low-rise 1960s and 70s government modernism. Austere stuff. The National Assembly building itself is a fairly austere brick structure that you can photograph from the perimeter.

Booking Tip: Don't photograph the State House or anything that looks military. It's not technically illegal. But the guards take a dim view and the conversation that follows is tedious. Weekday mornings have the most foot traffic if you want context.

Getting There

Most international visitors arrive at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, about 14 kilometres north of the city. A metered taxi or pre-arranged hotel transfer to Main Mall takes around twenty minutes outside of rush hour. Morning commute adds time. There's no airport rail link. The public combis don't run a direct route, so taxi or rideshare (Yango operates in Gaborone) is the realistic option. From South Africa, the Intercape and Greyhound coaches run from Johannesburg to Gaborone's main bus rank. That's roughly a fifteen-minute walk or short taxi ride from Main Mall.

Getting Around

Main Mall itself is pedestrianised. You'll cover it on foot. For getting between Main Mall and other parts of Gaborone, the combi system (white minibuses with destination signs in the windscreen) is cheap and reliable if you know the routes. Ask your hotel reception to write down the route number you need. Yango rideshare works well and tends to be more affordable than metered taxis, which often quote inflated prices to foreigners. Walking between Main Mall, the National Museum, and the government quarter is pleasant in the cooler months. Midday heat is brutal. October through March makes longer walks unwise.

Where to Stay

Main Mall itself - limited accommodation but central for civic-focused trips

CBD around the Square - newer business hotels, walking distance to Main Mall

Phakalane - upmarket northern suburb with golf estate, twenty minutes by car

Extension 9 and 10 - leafy residential areas with mid-range guesthouses

Broadhurst - more affordable, mix of guesthouses and small hotels

Riverwalk area - shopping-mall adjacent, modern hotels and serviced apartments

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Food & Dining

Main Mall's dining scene runs on weekday lunches, feeding civil servants and office workers. It mostly shuts by early evening. Weekends go quiet too. For Botswana staples like seswaa, bogobe (sorghum porridge), and morogo (wild spinach), the lunch counters along the southern end of the mall deliver honest plates at budget-friendly prices. The Embassy area just east has a handful of mid-range sit-down spots leaning toward Indian and South African menus. Bull and Bush is a long-running steakhouse that locals use rather than just tourists. Want dinner or something more ambitious? Head over to Riverwalk Mall or the CBD, where the restaurant cluster around the Square stays open later. Coffee culture is thin on the ground in Main Mall itself. That said, Mokolodi-roasted beans show up at a few cafes if you hunt for them.

When to Visit

May through August is the dry, cool season. Daytime temperatures sit in the low twenties Celsius. Mornings can be properly cold. The air is clear and dust-free. This is the most comfortable window for walking Main Mall and pairing the city with a side trip to the Okavango Delta or Mokolodi Game Reserve. October through March brings heat and the summer rains. These tend to fall as heavy late-afternoon thunderstorms rather than all-day drizzle. Workable, but the midday sun on the mall's exposed concrete is punishing. Botswana's independence holiday on 30 September brings closures and celebrations in equal measure. Worth experiencing if your timing aligns. Plan around government office shutdowns.

Insider Tips

Main Mall ATMs reliably dispense pula. They often run dry on Friday afternoons, when civil servants are paid. Withdraw earlier in the week if you can.
The benches near the Three Dikgosi Monument double as unofficial information exchanges. Sit there with a map looking uncertain, and someone will almost certainly offer directions. The advice tends to be accurate.
Saturday mornings see the mall come partially alive with informal traders. Most formal shops keep limited hours. So plan administrative tasks like SIM cards or bank visits for weekday mornings.

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Itineraries

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Getting Around

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Where to Stay

Accommodation guide for Main Mall

Budget Guide

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