Zimbabwe starts at the Falls.
The rainforest walk and the sunset cruise at Victoria Falls, elephants at Hwange and Chobe, granite and rhino tracks above Bulawayo. What each one is like, what it costs, where to book it.
If you only book seven things.
A first trip here rarely needs more than this: thirteen minutes over the curtain in a helicopter, a game drive in Zambezi National Park before the heat, the long day west to Chobe, and dinner moving downriver while the light goes.
Boma Dinner and Drum Show
Victoria Falls Boma Dinner and Drum Show: chitenge welcome, game-food feast, interactive djembe drumming, dancing, and a cappella for 4 hours.
From $60 per person
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★ 4.8One to bookHelicopter Tour with Hotel PickupFrom $180371 reviews
★ 5.0Quietly excellentHelicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 25-27 Minutes GameFrom $265286 reviews
★ 4.6No fussChobe Day Trip from Victoria Falls, ZimbabweFrom $170250 reviews
★ 4.6Fair priceLivingstone Island Tour & Devils PoolFrom $230235 reviews
★ 4.7Runs year-roundVictoria Falls Scenic Day Tour with Lunch & Helicopter TourFrom $265188 reviews
★ 5.0Hard to faultDinner Cruise on the Zambezi River, Victoria FallsFrom $90162 reviews
Most of the curtain faces Zimbabwe.
The rainforest path runs sixteen viewpoints, from Devil’s Cataract at one end to Danger Point at the other, and between February and May you will be soaked at every one of them. Take the raincoat they hand you at the gate, go in early while the light is still low, and come back in the afternoon when the rainbow moves.
Walk it, cruise it, or fly it?
Nobody sees the Falls one way and feels finished. The path gets you wet, the boat puts you on the river that feeds it, the helicopter shows you the shape of the gorges. Pick where to start; the other two fit around it in a day and a half.
On foot
Walk the rainforest
6 hours · from $63 · 263 reviews
Through the gate on the Zimbabwe side and along sixteen viewpoints of spray, with a guide who can tell you which one is worth standing at in which month. Two hours, mostly flat, wet through in high water and half-dry by October. The cheapest way to spend real time with the Falls.
Compare the guided walks →
On the water
Cruise the upper river
3 hours · from $110 · 925 reviews
The Zambezi above the lip is wide, slow and full of hippo. Boats push off around four and turn back as the sun drops behind the spray; drinks are usually included, elephants cross between the islands often enough that nobody promises it. Two hours, and the best-value evening in town.
See the sunset cruises →
From the air
Fly the Flight of Angels
from $135 · 1,391 reviews
Thirteen minutes is the standard loop and it is enough: the whole 1,700-metre curtain, then the zigzag gorges the river has cut behind it. The 25-minute version adds a run over Zambezi National Park. This is the only way to understand the shape of the place.
See the helicopter flights →
The river empties, the drums start.
Dusk on the Zambezi runs about two hours: hippo surfacing off the bow, elephant crossing between the islands, the sun going down behind the spray column. Then town, and a fire at the Boma, where the game meat comes off the grill and the drums get handed round the room before the night is over.
Chobe holds the elephants.
One of the densest elephant populations in Africa sits two hours west, over the Kazungula border, and the day trip out of Victoria Falls gets you a boat through the middle of it and back for dinner. Closer to home, Zambezi National Park runs morning and afternoon drives fifteen minutes from town, and Hwange is a couple of hours down the Bulawayo road.
The gorge does the rest.
One hundred and eleven metres off the Victoria Falls Bridge, a zip line strung the width of the canyon, and rapids below with names like Stairway to Heaven and Oblivion. Low water from August opens the full run down the gorge; high water shortens it and makes it heavier. Book the season, not just the tour.
The country south of the river.
Granite balanced on granite in the Matobo Hills, where Rhodes is buried on a bare dome and the rhino tracking is done on foot. Bulawayo’s wide streets below it. And further east, Great Zimbabwe: dry-stone walls eleven metres high, laid without a drop of mortar, that gave the country its name. It is a long way from the Falls and it is the reason to stay longer.
Pick the part of the country.
Victoria Falls for the water and the noise. Hwange for the elephant herds. Matobo for granite and rhino on foot. Great Zimbabwe for the walls that gave the country its name.
Twelve ways to fill a morning.
Twelve ways to spend a morning or an afternoon here, from thirteen minutes in a helicopter to five days on the road. Every one of them is priced, rated and written up.
Back before the sun goes.
Almost nothing worth seeing from Victoria Falls is more than a morning’s drive. Chobe is across two borders and still a day trip. Hwange is a couple of hours down the Bulawayo road. Livingstone Island sits in the middle of the river, and the village at Chinotimba is barely outside town.
Day one at the Falls, day three at Chobe.
Three days is the right length at the Falls unless you are heading deep into a park afterwards. Do the walk on your first morning while you are still fresh, keep the flight for a clear sky, and leave the long drive for last.
Day 1
The rainforest and the bridge
Through the gate at eight, sixteen viewpoints, soaked by the time you reach Danger Point. Dry off over lunch, then walk out to the bridge and watch somebody else jump off it.
Plan day one →
Day 2
Game drive, then the river
Zambezi National Park opens for morning drives fifteen minutes from town. Sleep the afternoon off, then take a boat out at four and count hippo until the light goes.
Plan day two →
Day 3
West to Chobe
Out at seven for Chobe: two border posts, a boat through the elephant herds, lunch on the Botswana side and back at Victoria Falls before dinner. Carry the passport.
Plan the Chobe day →
What went up this week.
★ 4.5Zambezi River Sunset Cruise Plus Potjie Dinner Experience (Combo)From $1028 reviews
★ 4.5Zambezi River Standard Sunset CruiseFrom $708 reviews
★ 5.0Victoria Falls Airport TransferFrom $408 reviews
★ 4.0The Boma Dinner, Dance And Drum Show In Victoria FallsFrom $1008 reviews
★ 5.0Sunset Cruise & Guided Falls Tour ComboFrom $1208 reviews
★ 5.0Luxury Sunset River Cruise on the ZambeziFrom $1008 reviews
★ 4.5Victoria Falls Guided Tour with Hotel PickupFrom $208 reviews
★ 5.0Chobe Botswana Day Trip River and Land Safari from Victoria FallsFrom $1958 reviews