Eventra Bespoke — Southern Africa — Zimbabwe
The spray of Victoria Falls visible from 50 kilometres away. Walking through Mana Pools while lion rest in the shade across the floodplain. A helicopter tracing the Zambezi Gorge at dusk. Zimbabwe is one of the most rewarding destinations in Africa — and one of the most underrated.
Victoria Falls & Beyond
Victoria Falls is simply one of the most impressive natural phenomena on earth. The Zambezi River, at this point over a kilometre wide, drops 108 metres into the basalt gorge below in a curtain of falling water that generates a permanent cloud of mist visible from far beyond the forest. The local Tonga name — Mosi-oa-Tunya, “the smoke that thunders” — describes what it is better than any photograph can. The viewing path along the Zimbabwean side offers a series of perspectives, each more dramatic than the last, that accumulate into an experience no description fully prepares you for.
But Zimbabwe is more than the Falls. Hwange National Park, the country's largest, shelters one of Africa's greatest elephant populations alongside exceptional lion, wild dog, and cheetah. Mana Pools, on the banks of the Zambezi in the Zambezi Valley, is the finest walking safari destination in southern Africa — a UNESCO World Heritage Site where lion, leopard, wild dog, and elephant move through floodplain woodland in one of the continent's most atmospheric settings. Zimbabwe's guides are celebrated as the finest in Africa. Eventra works with the camps and operators who access all of it best.
What to Experience
Natural Wonder
Victoria Falls is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — a kilometre-wide curtain of water dropping 108 metres into the Batoka Gorge in a permanent roar that can be heard 40 kilometres away. The spray sustains a rainforest on the Zimbabwean bank that remains green and dripping year-round. The Zimbabwean viewing path, which runs along the edge of the gorge for over a kilometre, offers perspectives that the Zambian side cannot match. Helicopter flights over the Falls provide a completely different relationship with the scale of what is below. The Zambezi River upstream offers sunset cruises, white water rafting in the gorge, and bungee jumping from the Victoria Falls Bridge for those who want it.
Walking Safari
Mana Pools is widely regarded as the finest walking safari destination in southern Africa — a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the banks of the Zambezi where the rules allow guests to walk unguided in the park. The floodplain woodland, dotted with the ancient albida trees that give the park its distinctive character, supports extraordinary concentrations of wildlife in the dry season: elephant, lion, leopard, wild dog, hyena, and a remarkable range of antelope move through terrain of dramatic beauty. Zimbabwe's professional guides — trained under some of the most rigorous programmes in Africa — operate walking safaris here of a quality found nowhere else on the continent.
Wildlife
Hwange is Zimbabwe's largest national park and one of Africa's most significant wildlife areas — a vast expanse of Kalahari sand, teak woodland, and pans that collectively support one of the continent's largest elephant populations, estimated at over 40,000. The park's pumped waterholes, maintained artificially through the dry season, create reliable focal points for game viewing: lion, wild dog, cheetah, sable antelope, and roan antelope can all be found here alongside the elephants that define Hwange's character. Several of Zimbabwe's finest small camps operate in the park's exclusive areas, offering game viewing of a quality equal to any private reserve in Africa.
River Adventure
The Zambezi River offers a range of experiences concentrated around Victoria Falls. Sunset river cruises upstream of the Falls, where hippo and elephant come to drink against a backdrop of papyrus and palm, are a gentler form of the Zambezi experience. White water rafting through the Batoka Gorge — with 23 named rapids rated among the most extreme commercially run rapids in the world — is for those who want the opposite. Fishing for tigerfish, canoe safaris, and helicopter flights fill in the space between. Victoria Falls town itself, small and manageable, provides a comfortable base for several days of activities before or after a wider Zimbabwe journey.
Begin Here
Tell us whether it is Victoria Falls, Mana Pools, Hwange, or the Zambezi River that draws you most. Eventra designs Zimbabwe journeys around the experiences that matter to you.
Design Your Journey
