Victoria Falls, booked properly.
Which side of the gorge to walk. Whether the helicopter is worth it. When Devil’s Pool actually opens. Every tour in Zimbabwe, reviewed, priced and put in order.
The six days Victoria Falls is built around.
A morning on the rainforest path, an afternoon over the gorge, a sunset on the Zambezi and a border day in Chobe. Almost every trip to Zimbabwe is some arrangement of these, and each one books differently.
Both sides of the falls, or just the Zimbabwean one?
Every falls walk →
Zimbabwe owns roughly two-thirds of the rock face and every viewpoint that looks straight into the main curtain. Zambia owns the lip, the island and the pool on the edge. Three walks below cover the choice; the full list splits the rest by pace and price.
Both sides, one day, one guide
Down the Zimbabwean rainforest path first, where the spray never stops, then across the bridge to the Zambian lip for the view back into the gorge.
The rainforest path, guided
Sixteen viewpoints between Devil’s Cataract and Danger Point, walked slowly with someone who can name the birds and explain what the river is doing.
Livingstone Island and Devil’s Pool
A boat out to the island on the lip, then the swim to the rock rim where the Zambezi drops away. It runs when the river is low, roughly August to January.
Above the falls, the Zambezi is completely calm.
Two kilometres upstream of a 108-metre drop, the river runs flat and wide between islands. Hippos surface, elephants cross at dusk, and the whole town is on a boat by five. Sunset cruises are the one thing here that everyone books and nobody regrets.
What travellers to Zimbabwe actually book.
Every review →The eight tours more people take than anything else in the country, and what each one gets you for the money.
1
Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 12-13 minutes Flight
See Victoria Falls, Batoka Gorge, the Zambezi, and wildlife from a 12 to 15 minute helicopter flight with hotel pickup in Zimbabwe.
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
A day at the falls costs less than you think.
The whole catalogue in three price bands. The rainforest walk most people end up calling the highlight of the trip costs less than lunch at the hotel.
The guided rainforest walk, a seat on a sunset boat, the short bridge crossings. Cheap and often the best thing you do.
The everyday shape of a Victoria Falls trip: full falls tours, dinner cruises, rafting days, the shorter flights.
Chobe crossings, longer helicopter loops, Devil’s Pool and the multi-day safaris that leave town for good.
Chobe is a day trip, and it is the elephants.
Ninety minutes and one border post from Victoria Falls, Chobe holds one of the densest elephant populations on the continent. The standard day is a morning river cruise and an afternoon game drive, back in Zimbabwe by dark. Take the passport.
- 1Chobe National Park Day Trip with Lunchfrom $170
- 2Chobe Day Trip from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwefrom $170
- 3Chobe Day Trip From Victoria Falls Zimbabwefrom $170
Three things you can only do at this river.
Game drives happen across southern Africa. Swimming on the rim of the falls, drumming at the Boma and jumping off a colonial railway bridge belong to this one gorge.
Devil’s Pool
A rock ledge holds the water back a metre from the edge, and when the Zambezi drops far enough you can swim to it and look 108 metres straight down. The boat leaves from Livingstone Island on the Zambian side, groups are small, and the season is short: roughly August to January, decided entirely by the river.
- 1Livingstone Island Tour & Devils Pool★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 235 reviews
- 2Livingstone Victoria Falls Tour Zambia And Zimbabwe Combo★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 109 reviews
- 3Small-Group Devil’s Pool and Livingstone Island Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 94 reviews
The Boma Drums
Dinner in a thatched boma on the edge of town, where the menu runs from sadza to warthog and mopane worms, and the drumming starts once the plates are cleared. Every guest ends up with a drum. It is the loudest, least solemn cultural evening in Zimbabwe and it books out most nights of the high season.
- 1Boma Dinner and Drum Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 415 reviews
- 2The Boma Dinner and Drum Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 43 reviews
- 3The Boma Dinner and Drum Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 27 reviews
The 111-Metre Drop
The Victoria Falls Bridge was finished in 1905 to carry a railway to Cairo that never got there. Today people jump off it into the Batoka Gorge on a 111-metre bungee, swing across it, or zip the gorge wall beside it. The bridge sits in no country: the jump happens in the gap between two border posts.
- 1Victoria Falls Canopy Tour (Zimbabwe)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 96 reviews
- 2Gorge Swing (Zimbabwe)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 38 reviews
- 3Zip Line from the Victoria Falls Bridge★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 33 reviews
The falls close at six. The town does not.
All evening trips →Four things to lock in before you land in Zimbabwe.
Most of Victoria Falls can be arranged from the hotel desk the night before. These four cannot: they run on water levels, border hours and a fixed number of daily slots.
- 01Livingstone Island Tour & Devils PoolThe island only opens when the river drops, roughly August to January, and each departure carries a handful of people.
- 02Chobe National Park Day Trip with LunchThe day crosses into Botswana. The border post sets the departure time, not the operator, and your passport goes with you.
- 03Zambezi River Class IV-V White-Water Rafting from Victoria FallsThe long run through the Batoka Gorge needs low water — roughly August to December. High water shortens it or closes it entirely.
- 04Victoria Falls Bridge Bungee JumpOne rig on the bridge and a fixed number of jumps a day. In July and August the sheet fills before lunch.
The Zambezi decides what kind of trip you get.
Peak flow arrives around March and holds into May: the curtain runs bank to bank, five hundred million litres a minute go over, and the spray is so heavy the viewpoints hand out raincoats and the view is mostly weather. From September the river drops, the rock face appears, and the island, the pool and the long rafting run all open. Neither season is the wrong one. They are different trips.
Zimbabwe keeps going for another thousand kilometres.
Hwange puts forty thousand elephants around a handful of pumped waterholes. The Matobo Hills stack granite into balancing towers over rhino country and eight thousand years of rock art. Great Zimbabwe left a stone city standing without mortar. All of it is reachable, and almost nobody at the falls goes.
- 1Zambezi National Park Game Drive in a Small Groupfrom $100
- 2Unique Safari Game Drives in Zambezi National Park, 4 Optionsfrom $125
- 3The Best of Matobofrom $140
By place — where the day starts
Victoria Falls141 tours
Livingstone & the Zambian side7 tours
Chobe & Botswana35 tours
Zambezi National Park6 tours
Hwange4 tours
Matobo & the heritage sites6 tours
Harare4 tours- Every tour in Zimbabwe →
By experience — water, wildlife or the edge?
How a Victoria Falls week actually runs.
The falls path
Sunset cruise
Batoka GorgeThe newest Zimbabwe tour reviews.
All recent →
4 Days Victoria Falls Tour and Chobe Full day Safari Tour
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3 Days Explore Zambia, Zimbabwe and Chobe Park in Botswana
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3 Days Victoria Falls and Full day Chobe National Park
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Luxury Cruise : Sunset Boat Cruise on The Zambezi Explorer
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2 Hour Stargazing Tour in Victoria Falls NP Area in 4×4
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5 Day Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park Accommodated Safari Tour
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