The falls take a morning. Zimbabwe fills the rest of the week.
Which side of the gorge you actually see more from. What a sunset cruise on the Zambezi includes once the drinks are counted. Whether the Chobe day trip is worth the border queue. Reviews of every tour you can book in Zimbabwe.
Four bookings a first week at Victoria Falls hangs off.
The walk along the rim, twelve minutes above it, the lip of the drop and the river after dark. What each costs and what the people who took it say.
01The first morningPrivate Guided Tour of the WaterfallsSixteen viewpoints along the Zimbabwean rim, guided, before the coach groups reach the second one. Take a rain jacket even in September.
02Twelve minutesHelicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 12-13 minutes FlightThe only angle that shows the whole zigzag gorge at once. Short, expensive, and the photograph everyone comes home with.
03The edge itselfLivingstone Island Tour & Devils PoolAcross to Livingstone Island and into the pool on the lip of the drop. Runs only while the river is low enough to be safe.
04After darkDinner Cruise on the Zambezi RiverDinner and a drift downstream while the hippos start up. The evening that fixes a long, hot day at the rim.
Victoria Falls is one waterfall and six completely different days.
The rim path, the border crossing to Chobe, a deck on the Zambezi, the helicopter loop, the rapids below the bridge and the rainforest the spray keeps green all year.
Above the falls the Zambezi is glass. Below it, the river tries to kill you.
The same river does both in one afternoon. Upstream of the lip it slides past islands wide and flat enough for a dinner boat. A kilometre downstream it drops into the Batoka Gorge and turns into grade five water. Book whichever version of the Zambezi you came for.
- 1Dinner Cruise on the Zambezi Riverfrom $110
- 2Dinner Cruise on the Zambezi Riverfrom $92
- 32-Hour Luxury Zambezi River Sunset Cruisefrom $69
Chobe, Hwange or the strip of bush behind your hotel. Three sizes of game day.
Victoria Falls sits an hour from one of the densest elephant populations on the continent and a morning from Zimbabwe's biggest park. The difference between the three is how much of the day you spend in a vehicle, and whether you need your passport.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · Chobe National Park Day Trip with Lunch
Chobe, for the dayBorder crossing at dawn, river cruise and a game drive, back for dinner.
A drive near townTwo or three hours in Zambezi National Park. No border, no early alarm.
Hwange, properlyThe long one. Waterholes, lion country and a night out of Victoria Falls.
All 50 game days in Zimbabwe →
Mosi-oa-Tunya: a mile and a half of river falling into a crack in the rock.
The Zimbabwean side holds about three quarters of the viewpoints and looks straight into the main curtain. A guide is worth it for one reason: knowing which of the sixteen viewpoints is worth standing in the spray for on the day you happen to arrive.
What travellers actually book at Victoria Falls.
Every Zimbabwe tour review →A helicopter loop, a dinner boat and a border run to Chobe carry more travellers than everything else on this site put together.
1
Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 12-13 minutes Flight
Chikopokopo Helicopters collects you from your Victoria Falls hotel, drives about 7 to 10 minutes to its helipad in Zambezi National Park, and flies you over the Falls, Batoka Gorge, Zambezi River, and nearby parkland. The flight lasts 12 to 15 minutes, with hotel pickup included.
From · $135
Read our review →
2
Dinner Cruise on the Zambezi River
from $110
3
Chobe National Park Day Trip with Lunch
from $170
4
Dinner Cruise on the Zambezi River
from $92
5
Boma Dinner and Drum Show
from $60
6
Helicopter Tour with Hotel Pickup
from $180
7
2-Hour Luxury Zambezi River Sunset Cruise
from $69
8
Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 25-27 Minutes Game
from $265
Nobody photographs Victoria Falls properly from the ground.
The gorge zigzags back on itself seven times and the curtain is longer than the eye takes in from the rim. Twelve minutes in a helicopter shows both. Doors are on, headsets are issued, and the left-hand seat is the one to ask for.
- 1Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 12-13 minutes Flightfrom $135
- 2Helicopter Tour with Hotel Pickupfrom $180
- 3Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 25-27 Minutes Gamefrom $265
Devils Pool, the Boma and Great Zimbabwe have no substitutes.
Waterfalls, elephants and drumming exist all over Africa. A swimming pool on the lip of the largest sheet of falling water on the planet does not, and neither does a city built without mortar.
Devils Pool
A rock lip holds back a natural pool a few feet from a hundred-metre drop, and for part of the year you can swim in it. Boats leave from the Zambian bank to Livingstone Island, a guide goes first, and everyone crosses the current holding onto the person in front. It opens roughly August to January, when the flow drops far enough for the lip to hold. In flood season the whole thing is underwater and nobody runs it.
- 1Livingstone Island Tour & Devils Pool★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · from $230
- 2Small-Group Devil’s Pool and Livingstone Island Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · from $199
- 3Livingstone Island and Devil’s Pool Walking Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · from $160
The Boma
Warthog, kudu, crocodile tail and a mopane worm you get a certificate for eating, served under thatch while the drumming builds. A face-painting queue forms early, every table is handed a drum before the end, and the whole room plays together. It is the single most-booked evening in town and it is booked out most nights in the dry season.
- 1Boma Dinner and Drum Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · from $60
- 2The Boma Dinner and Drum Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · from $92
- 3The Boma Dinner and Drum Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · from $85
Great Zimbabwe
Eleven metres of dry-stone wall, laid in level courses without a drop of mortar, standing since the thirteenth century. This is the city the country took its name from, and the soapstone birds cut from its walls are on the flag. It sits near Masvingo, a long way from the falls, and it is the reason to add days on the far side of the country.
- 1Great Zimbabwe★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $260
- 2Great Zimbabwe Tour from Harare★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $400
- 3Great Zimbabwe: The World’s View Historical Site !!★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $400
What a day at Victoria Falls actually costs.
Three price brackets, and what each one buys at Victoria Falls. The rim walk and the rainforest come in under a restaurant dinner. The helicopter and the border runs are where the money goes.
Guided rim walks, the rainforest circuit, village visits and the transfer in from the airport.
Sunset cruises, the Boma, the shorter helicopter loop and a half day on the rapids.
Chobe day trips, Devils Pool, Hwange overnights and the long scenic flights.
In flood, Victoria Falls disappears inside its own spray.
Peak flow is spectacular and almost invisible. The spray column climbs several hundred metres, the rim path becomes a warm downpour, and photographs come back as white. Two answers: get above the water, or spend the day somewhere the river is not falling. The elephants do not care what the Zambezi is doing.
Four Victoria Falls bookings that will not wait for you to arrive.
Most of this town can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on river levels, seat weights, border hours and a dining room that fills every night of the dry season.
- 01Livingstone Island Tour & Devils PoolIt only runs while the river is low, roughly August to January, and the boats take a handful of people at a time.
- 02Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 12-13 minutes FlightEach aircraft seats four or five and every passenger is weighed. The morning slots, before the heat haze, go first.
- 03Boma Dinner and Drum ShowOne dining room, one sitting, and it fills most nights between June and October.
- 04Chobe National Park Day Trip with LunchIt is an international border at dawn. The transfer, the park permit and the boat are all booked as one thing, days ahead.
The six that carry the town
The fallsfrom $17- Chobefrom $100
Sunset cruisesfrom $49- Helicopter flightsfrom $136
Whitewaterfrom $120
Rainforest walksfrom $18
The Bomafrom $60- Hwangefrom $260
- Everything at the falls →
By kind of day: water, wildlife, air or stone
The newest Zimbabwe tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Zambezi National Park Private Wildlife Safari (4 – 10 hours)
Read our review →
