Great Zimbabwe Tour
Safari Information
- Departure; Scheduled and tailor-made departure dates
- Duration; 11 Days / 10 Nights
- Lodging; Lodges and Hotels
- Group Size; Minimum 2
- Note: Travel insurance is compulsory for all safaris
11-Day Zimbabwe Safari: Nyanga National Park, Great Zimbabwe Ruins, Matopos National Park, Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls
Have you ever wanted to go on a Zimbabwe Safari and wanted to keep costs to a minimum?
Well, now is your chance! On this Great Zimbabwe Tour, you'll explore Nyanga National Park, Great Zimbabwe Ruins, Matopos National Park, Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls - all in 11 amazing days. You'll see an abundance of wildlife and experience the beauty of Zimbabwe first-hand.
Imagine yourself exploring the legendary Nyanga National Park or standing in front of the awe-inspiring Great Zimbabwe Ruins. With this tour, you can make your safari dreams a reality.
Day 1: Harare
- On arrival at the Harare International Airport, you will be met by a warm and friendly representative and will proceed through Zimbabwe's Capital City with its wide-open thoroughfares, fascinating history and quaint mix of traditional and modern buildings before you reach your hotel.
- Relax at the hotel and spend the afternoon lazing in the sparkling pool, have a drink at the mirrored bar or book the optional Harare City afternoon tour with your guide (for your own account).
- This tour exposes an impeccably clean city, bustling with busy shops, wide-open streets, and warm hospitable people.
- Accommodation: Monomotapa Hotel or Similar
Day 2: Nyanga
- After an early breakfast, we leave Harare and head through the diverse scenery of farmlands, rocky outcrops and into the magnificent mountainous area of the Eastern Highlands, also known as "The Little England" of Zimbabwe.
- Mount Inyangani is the tallest mountain in Zimbabwe, deeply shrouded in local folklore; this mountain forms a stunning backdrop to the resort.
- Arrive in time for lunch (own account) and settle into your room, see the fire lit in 1951 that has never been extinguished but continues to offer a warm welcome to each guest and take some time to soak in the beautiful calm views and serene settings.
- (Optional activities are available – horse riding, golf, fishing, for own account)
- Accommodation: Troutbeck Resort or similar
Day 3: Nyanga
- The day is yours to explore or relax.
- Curl up in the lounge with a book, and take in the panoramic view or stroll down to the dam to watch the rainbow trout diving through the waters.
- Optional activities are available at the resort as well as a full day Nyanga National Park tour (for your own account).
- Here you will experience a village from the stone ages known as Pit Huts, a Rainbow Trout hatchery set in the natural pools of the sparkling river.
- Scramble down the mountainside to view exceptional views of the local falls.
- Accommodation: Troutbeck Resort or similar
Day 4: Great Zimbabwe
- This morning after breakfast, we depart for Masvingo, The Ancient City, where we will be inspired by the Ruins of Great Zimbabwe built in 1200AD, which was first discovered by the Settlers in 1888.
- The Ruined City of Great Zimbabwe is the largest and most significant ancient monument south of the Sahara and only second to the Egyptian pyramids.
- Here your guide will take you through the Acropolis, the Great Enclosure, and the Conical Tower.
- Accommodation: Lodge at the Ancient City or similar
Day 5: Matopos
- After a hearty breakfast, we depart Masvingo for Bulawayo, where we arrive around midday (lunch for your own account).
- This is the second-largest city in Zimbabwe with wide tree-lined streets and is surrounded by beautiful parks, a legacy of Cecil John Rhodes.
- Within the city are many examples of early Victorian buildings which are maintained by the Bulawayo City council and landlords as heritage sites.
- We learn more about this beautiful country by visiting the Bulawayo National Museum before checking into our hotel.
- Accommodation: Holiday Inn Bulawayo or similar
Day 6: Matopos
- The Matopo Hills has long been recognized as an area of exceptional beauty with a rich, colourful and mythical history.
- A full day will be spent exploring the area and some highlights include cave paintings, panoramas of the countryside at "View of the World", where Cecil Rhodes is buried.
- We hope to catch a glimpse of black rhino and plains game, but this area is famous for its dense concentrations of birds of prey.
- Accommodation: Holiday Inn Bulawayo or similar
Day 7: Hwange National Park
- After breakfast, we depart for Hwange National Park.
- This is one of Africa's finest havens for wildlife and is home to the herds of presidential elephants.
- It is also home to many predators and endangered species and seethes with varied birdlife.
- We transfer onto an open vehicle and proceed on a game drive transfer to our lodge.
- Once we have checked in we will enjoy lunch overlooking the beautiful plains, we will proceed on an afternoon game drive.
- After sundowners, a sumptuous dinner will be enjoyed to the sounds of the night.
- Accommodation: Makololo or similar
Day 8: Hwange National Park
- Dawn breaks with a morning game drive through the vast plains to experience the drama of the previous night.
- We hope to view more of the many species that live in the national park whilst exploring the magnificent landscape that includes desert sand to sparse woodland as well as grasslands and granite outcrops.
- We will return to the lodge for an afternoon siesta and later proceed on an evening game drive to view the nocturnal inhabitants of the Hwange National Park.
- Accommodation: Makololo or similar
Day 9: Victoria Falls
- An early rise accompanied by tea and coffee before we enjoy the last game drive transfer out of the National Park.
- Our first stop is at the Painted Dog Conservation Centre in Hwange, here we will learn more about Wild Dogs and the Centre's efforts to protect these beautiful animals from extinction.
- After this, we head for the town of Victoria Falls or as the Local people call it "Mosi-oa-Tunya" - the smoke that thunders.
- This quaint town offers a variety of activities and attractions both on land and on water.
- Your afternoon can be spent at leisure, or you can book one of many activities available, such as a Sunset Cruise on the mighty Zambezi River.
- Accommodation: The Kingdom Hotel or similar
Day 10: Victoria Falls
- This morning we visit a secluded and unexplored Zimbabwean Village where you will speak with a Traditional medicine healer and witness age-old customs and way of life.
- Afterwards, we enjoy a tour of Victoria Falls.
- These Falls constitute one of the most spectacular Natural Wonders of the World.
- You will stop at various vantage points to view the falls and walk through the rain forest whilst witnessing the rainbows and feeling the spray and thundering noise of water falling into the gorge.
- The rest of your afternoon will be spent at leisure, where you can book one of many activities with your guide.
- Accommodation: The Kingdom Hotel or similar
Day 11: Great Zimbabwe Tour Ends
- Enjoy a hearty breakfast before checking out and being transferred to the Victoria Falls airport.
- We bid you "Hamba kahle uphinde ubuye" – which means Go well and come back again soon!
Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity - enquire and book now!
This Safari is Tailor-made Rates On request
The Above Rates should be used as a guideline only.
- All rates are subject to availability
- Rates may vary according to season
- Lodging may change depending on your budget
- Vehicle type may change depending on your budget
- All rates may change without notice
- Single supplement may apply
- Commentary and professional guiding by highly qualified local guides
- Rooms with private facilities
- 10 nights accommodation
- 10 Dinners, 3 Lunches, 10 Breakfasts
- Transportation. Tour in air-conditioned sedan, mini or midi-buses (passenger numbers will determine vehicle size), and open game drive vehicles
- A full Guided Ruins tour in Great Zimbabwe
- A visit to the Bulawayo National Museum
- A full Matopo Hills tour including entrance to View of the World
- Open vehicle game drives in Hwange National Park
- A visit to the Painted Dog conservation centre
- A visit to a traditional healer's village
- Tour of the Victoria Falls
- Local Flights
- International flights
- Visas
- Items of a personal nature
- Meals not specified
- Insurance
Book Your Zimbabwe Safari Now
Zimbabwe Travel Topics
The Perfect Zimbabwe Honeymoon
Most honeymoons are an exercise in doing very little at considerable expense, and there is a great deal to be said for that. Zimbabwe simply arranges better company for it. Elephants come down to drink below the deck while you are still on your first coffee; the guide turns out to know which lion crossed the airstrip in the night; dinner happens on a Zambezi deck while the light goes orange and then goes altogether. Nobody puts Zimbabwe at the top of the shortlist — Kenya and the Cape get there first — which is precisely why the lodges are quieter and the guiding is better than it needs to be.
Top 10 Must See Attractions In Victoria Falls
Livingstone named it after a queen who never saw it, and the Tonga had been calling it Mosi-oa-Tunya, the smoke that thunders, for a very long time before he turned up. Theirs is the better name. Five hundred million litres a minute go over the edge in full flood, which is enough to soak you through a hired raincoat before you are halfway along the Zimbabwe footpath, and enough to hide the falls entirely if you have come in the wrong month. There is also a rock pool at the very lip of the drop that people swim in. We will come to that.
5 Best Lodges In Victoria Falls
You can see the falls properly in ninety minutes. The rest of the week happens wherever you are sleeping, which makes the choice of lodge matter more here than almost anywhere else in Zimbabwe. Some of them are town hotels with a shuttle and a buffet. Others sit far enough upriver that the loudest thing at breakfast is one hippo disagreeing with another. The gap in price between those two experiences is usually smaller than you would expect, and the gap in the holiday is not. Here are five I would put my own money on.
10 Reasons To Visit The Zambezi River
The Zambezi begins as a spring in a patch of Zambian woodland you could step across, and ends two and a half thousand kilometres later in the Indian Ocean, having spent much of the journey acting as the border of half of southern Africa. Six countries. One waterfall that needs no introduction, a dam that made an inland sea, and a stretch below that dam at Mana Pools where you are permitted to walk. It is also, at six in the evening with the light going, the single best place in this part of the continent to be sitting still.
Luxury Tented Safari Camps in Zimbabwe
"Tent" is a word working extremely hard in this part of the brochure. It covers canvas on a hardwood deck with a four-poster and plumbing that would pass in Kensington, and it also covers a bucket shower and a zip. What the two share is the actual reason to choose either: canvas does not keep sound out. You hear the elephants arrive at the Hwange waterhole at two in the morning. You hear the hippos settling their differences on the Zambezi. You lie there listening rather than sleeping, which is rather the point of the whole arrangement.
10 Reasons To Visit The Hwange National Park
Hwange should not really work. Most of it sits on Kalahari sand with no permanent river anywhere near it, and the reason elephants stand shoulder to shoulder at Nyamandhlovu Pan in October is that somebody is running a diesel pump. That decision was taken in the 1920s by a warden named Ted Davison, and it has been kept up, more or less, ever since. Fourteen thousand square kilometres of managed thirst. The Big Five are all present on paper, though I would not build a holiday around seeing the rhino. The elephants are an entirely different proposition.
Zimbabwe Travel Bucket List
For most of the last century the Rhodesian authorities preferred to believe that Zimbabweans had not built Great Zimbabwe. Phoenicians were proposed. So were the Queen of Sheba's architects. The stonework is Shona, laid without mortar, eleven metres high in places, and it is the only ruin I can think of that gave its name to the country containing it. That is the sort of country this is. The obvious things — the falls, the Hwange elephants, the rapids below the gorge — are worth every hour of the flight, and underneath them sits a second Zimbabwe that most itineraries never touch.
10 Reasons to Visit Victoria Falls for an Unforgettable Experience
The bridge was cast in Darlington, shipped out in pieces and bolted together over the gorge in 1905, and people now jump off it on an elastic rope. Victoria Falls has been like this ever since: a serious piece of natural history with an adrenaline economy bolted to the side of it. You can run the grade five rapids in the Batoka Gorge in the morning and be on a boat with a gin and tonic by six, watching the same water arrive flat and innocent above the lip. Both are honest ways to spend a day here. So is doing neither.