Zimbabwe & Botswana

05/30/09

Summary

I visited Zimbabwe and Botswana (2 nights) in May 2009 with two close friends as an extension to a visit to South Africa (see post). This leg was also facilitated by Roy (the owner) at African Wanderer Tours & Safaris. We flew directly to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe from Cape Town and stayed there both nights. One of the days we spent exploring the majestic Victoria Falls and surroundings and the other we drove to nearby Chobe National Park across the border in Botswana and did a full day safari. The Victoria Falls area feels separate from the rest of Zimbabwe and thus to us felt safe. It feels like the government knows this area is a big tourist draw (the airport was quite nice!) and does not want to disrupt this flow of visitors.

 

 

Accommodations


For this brief visit, we stayed at the Rainbow Hotel – it was simple and good-quality enough for 3 guys who just needed a place to sleep.

Select Favorites

    • Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls)
      • Dining: While in the Victoria Falls region, we enjoyed dinners at The Livingston Room and The Three Monkeys, and lunch at The Lookout Cafe
      • Activities: We spent a day at Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side (one can also see it in Zambia) and enjoyed the majestic and powerful experience of walking around the nearby rainforest and watching the falls. In the evening, we took a relaxing Sunset Cruise on the Zambezi River – a nice way to end the day – and saw all sorts of marine and land wildlife
    • Botswana (Chobe National Park):
      • Dining: Given our trip to Botswana was only to visit Chobe, we ended up dining at the Chobe Safari Lodge and had a wonderful, expansive buffet lunch while overlooking the Chobe River
      • Activities: The two main activities we did in the park were the Chobe River Cruise and the Chobe Park Safari. Both gave wonderfully close-up views of wildlife. The Chobe park was great to visit for land safaris because you can drive within the park lands (e.g. grasses, woods etc) which helped us see many animals in their natural settings (unlike in Kruger where much of our drives were done on roads due to park erosion).

 

Recommendation


As part of a broader trip to Southern Africa (or Africa in general), I would recommend a visit to Victoria Falls + Botswana. If we stayed on the Zimbabwe side again, I would likely look to stay at The Victoria Falls Hotel or The Elephant Camp. We would likely skip Zimbabwe on a future trip because Botswana has more to see (and we can visit the Falls for a day trip). We would likely select from among the Chobe Park Accommodations and add a Helicopter flight over the Okavango Delta and a general visit to the Delta as part of the trip. Given how erratic Zimbabwe’s currency is, and the fact that it is pegged to the US dollar, we were best served by bringing small USD bills to pay for incidentals while on the ground. Small bills help so you don’t accumulate change in local currency. Enjoy the trip!