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African Safaris and Tours
Zimbabwe Honeymoon Lodges
Romantic Safari Escapes in Zimbabwe for Honeymooners and Couples
A hand-picked collection of the most romantic safari lodges, camps and hotels in Zimbabwe, chosen for privacy and for the way they look after couples. These are small, intimate places where the day is built around two people rather than a full vehicle. Think private game drives, candlelit bush dinners, sundowners for two on the banks of the Zambezi, and nights spent listening to the bush from a deck of your own.
Few countries in Africa pack so much romance into one trip. You have the thundering spray of Victoria Falls, the great elephant herds of Hwange and the Zambezi floodplains of Mana Pools. Add the sunsets over Lake Kariba, the ancient granite hills of Matobo and the lowveld wilderness of the Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve. Pair a few nights at the falls with a bush camp and you have the classic Zimbabwe honeymoon.
These lodges suit an anniversary, a milestone birthday or simply a romantic safari for two just as well as a honeymoon. For a room with a bath that looks out on the wild, see our Zimbabwe lodges with a bath with a view. For massages between game drives, see our Zimbabwe spa lodges. To time the trip around the seasons, read when to visit Zimbabwe.
Most Romantic Zimbabwe Lodges
Amalinda Lodge
Rates from US$ 447.00 Per person per night
Set among the granite kopjes of the Matobo Hills, inside Matobo National Park, Amalinda Lodge is one of the most romantic hideaways in Zimbabwe. It pairs ancient landscapes and sweeping views with personalised, top-notch service tailored to the two of you. Days bring guided walks through the hills and rhino tracking on foot, and evenings bring candlelit dinners in secluded settings, savouring superb food.
Bumi Hills Safari Lodge
Rates from US$ 630.00 Per person per night
High on the escarpment above Lake Kariba, Bumi Hills Safari Lodge has one of the most spectacular settings in Zimbabwe, with the whole shimmering sweep of the lake laid out below. It is remote, quiet and beautifully run. For a honeymoon, it pairs lakeside wildlife and unforgettable sunsets with genuine luxury and privacy.
Changa Safari Camp
Rates from US$ 440.00 Per person per night
On a remote shore of Lake Kariba inside Matusadona National Park, Changa Safari Camp is a secluded, intimate camp made for couples. Sunset boat cruises on the lake, guided bush walks and tailor-made game viewing fill the days. The evenings belong to the two of you and the sound of the water.
Chikwenya Camp
Rates from US$ 1,242.00 Per person per night
Chikwenya Camp sits on the eastern edge of Mana Pools National Park, where the Sapi meets the Zambezi, looking across the river to the Zambezi Escarpment. It is one of the most romantic and secluded camps in the Zambezi Valley. Expect wide skies, elephants on the floodplain and a sense of space that few places in Africa can match.
John's Camp
Rates from US$ 744.00 Per person per night
In Mana Pools National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, John's Camp crafts some of the most memorable tailor-made honeymoons in the Zambezi Valley. Think alfresco dinners under a blanket of stars, walks that bring you closer to the wild than any vehicle can, and canoe safaris on the Zambezi River. Here adventure and romance come in equal measure.
Little Makalolo Camp
Rates from US$ 774.00 Per person per night
In Hwange National Park, Little Makalolo Camp is an intimate camp where the dawn chorus is the alarm clock and the elephants set the pace. Couples can arrange private game drives at dawn and secluded picnics in the wilderness. Evenings end with dinner under the stars from beautifully crafted menus. It is a quintessential Hwange honeymoon.
Little Ruckomechi Camp
Rates from US$ 1,119.00 Per person per night
On the banks of the Zambezi River in Mana Pools National Park, Little Ruckomechi Camp is a secluded paradise for honeymooners. Wake to a golden sunrise over the river and spend the days on superb game viewing. You come back each time to wonderful service and every comfort, in one of the most romantic places to stay in the Zambezi Valley.
Matetsi Victoria Falls
Rates from US$ 1,300.00 Per person per night
On the Zambezi riverbank upstream of Victoria Falls, Matetsi Victoria Falls pairs the thrill of the falls with the privacy of a riverside retreat. Its luxurious private suites all look out over the river. The sunsets, when the sky turns orange and pink above the Zambezi, make the perfect backdrop for a honeymoon.
Nyamatusi Camp
Rates from US$ 680.00 Per person per night
On the banks of the Zambezi River in Mana Pools National Park, Nyamatusi Camp is one of the most romantic wilderness retreats in Zimbabwe. Personalised service shapes every day around the two of you. Adventure on the floodplains is balanced with long, lazy hours by the river, making it the ultimate sanctuary for honeymooners.
Sapi Explorers Camp
Rates form part of a safari itinerary
Within the Mana Pools World Heritage Site, Sapi Explorers Camp is about as far from the crowds as a Zimbabwe honeymoon gets. Expect few people, wild country and a camp that balances real comfort with the wilderness around it. It is a wonderful choice for couples who want their romance with a real sense of adventure.
Singita Pamushana Lodge
Rates from US$ 2,525.00 Per person per night
In the Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve, Singita Pamushana Lodge is one of the most exclusive and romantic lodges in Zimbabwe. Its suites have plunge pools looking out over the dam. Singita's tailored service turns every day into something special, from lantern-lit dinners under the stars to private safaris with the wildlife up close.
Somalisa Camp
Rates from US$ 680.00 Per person per night
In Hwange National Park, Somalisa Camp is a luxurious tented camp that blends elegance with the untamed African bush. Each tent has a king-size bed, an en-suite bathroom and a private deck, and elephants are frequent visitors. It is an unforgettable setting for a honeymoon.
Somalisa Expeditions Camp
Rates from US$ 530.00 Per person per night
In Hwange National Park, Somalisa Expeditions Camp is a romantic getaway that is as enchanting as it is luxurious. It is made for couples seeking an intimate connection with the Hwange bush. The hospitality is warm from the moment you arrive, so your time together is nothing short of extraordinary.
The Elephant Camp
Rates from US$ 702.00 Per person per night
Close to Victoria Falls, The Elephant Camp is a romantic, luxurious base for a honeymoon at the falls. You wake to soft dawn light and the sounds of the bush, with elephants never far away. Days can be spent at the falls, with the peace of camp waiting afterwards.
Zimbabwe Honeymoon Questions Answered
How were these honeymoon lodges chosen?
We chose each lodge for its privacy and for how well it looks after couples. Most are small, intimate camps or hotels that can arrange private game drives, candlelit bush dinners and sundowners for two, in settings far from the crowds. The collection is deliberately short. Romance was the test, not simply the priciest rooms in Zimbabwe.
Where in Zimbabwe should we go on honeymoon?
The collection covers six settings: Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park, Mana Pools and the Zambezi Valley, Lake Kariba, the Matobo Hills, and the Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve in the south-east. Mana Pools has the largest share of our honeymoon camps. Victoria Falls and Hwange make the easiest pairing for a first trip.
Can we combine Victoria Falls with a safari on our honeymoon?
Yes. Pairing a few nights at the falls with a bush camp is the classic Zimbabwe honeymoon. Matetsi Victoria Falls and The Elephant Camp are the romantic bases near the falls in this collection. Either pairs naturally with a camp in Hwange, Mana Pools or on Lake Kariba, so the trip ends with wildlife and quiet.
Can we have game drives and dinners on our own?
Many of these lodges arrange private experiences for couples, though what's on offer varies by property. Little Makalolo Camp sets up private dawn game drives and secluded bush picnics. Singita Pamushana Lodge offers private safaris and lantern-lit dinners under the stars. Amalinda Lodge and John's Camp arrange secluded or alfresco dinners for two.
Which honeymoon lodges suit adventurous couples?
Mana Pools and the Matobo Hills suit couples who want adventure with their romance. John's Camp offers canoe safaris on the Zambezi and bush walks. Amalinda Lodge has guided walks through the Matobo Hills and rhino tracking on foot. On Lake Kariba, Changa Safari Camp adds sunset boat cruises and guided walks.
Are these lodges only for honeymooners?
No, every lodge here suits any couple looking for a romantic safari. They work just as well for anniversaries, milestone birthdays or simply time together. The privacy, the dinners for two and the unhurried pace of a small camp are the same whether you married last week or decades ago.
Map of Lodges in and around Zimbabwe
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.