Zimbabwe

[Daisy12Maisie]

This is way in advance but for my 40th I want to take my 2 children who will be 15 and 13 to Zimbabwe for 2 weeks for the Easter holidays 2022. I know its nearly 2 years away.
Possibly the last big family holiday plus.
Any suggestions or advice?
I want to go to Victoria falls and stay in a nice hotel for 2/3 days but not sure after that.
I'm looking for easy, no stress so not hiring a car and driving.
I'm in the uk

Vic Falls is lovely but very expensive & not much to do after a couple of days.

We spent some time with family as a fishing resort near Hwange. Definitely easier to spend time there.

What is it that you are looking to do? Safaris etc? Hwange and Chizarira are both gorgeous - Hwange is closer to Vic Falls.

You would need to fly in to Joburg and then up to Vic Falls, so a stop off in SA could break things up further.

Thank you. I'm not sure what I want to do yet but that's a good idea to stop off in joburg first. Could always do a safari for a couple of days there then Victoria Falls then something else. I'm just looking for ideas at the moment

The white water rafting and the two day canoeing trip from Vic Falls are amazing. A lot of people combine Vic Falls with Chobe game reserve which would be great.

Thanks that's really useful. Think my youngest would be too scared to do white water rafting but I'll certainly look into the canoeing trip.
I think I'm decided I will fly into Johannesburg. Possibly some sort of organised tour ending up in Victoria falls. Then the canoe trip then possibly something else.
Thanks so much for the advice.

I don’t know about Zim, but for Zambia (right next to it) Easter would be a bit early for game parks to be open. Also, some of the activities at Vic Falls (eg Angels and Devils pools) aren’t possible until at least early July as the water levels are so high. Mana Pools is a gorgeous reserve. Have a look at the Africa Travel Resource and Expert Africa websites to get ideas. Aardvark Safaris are also very helpful when organising family trips.

We went to Zimbabwe last year. We visited Victoria falls/Zambezi national park, hwange and mana pool. Our main focus was Safari. It was quite expensive. I think excluding flights it was about 11k for 2 adults.
It was amazing and I’d love to go again and maybe add on a trip to Botswana.

Thanks for those comments as well. I'm not really worried about cost as I have time to save and it's a one off holiday. Potentially the last one my 15 year old will agree to come on!
In terms of things being open I'll do some research and check enough of the things we want to do will be open.
I cant go later in the year as it is incredibly difficult to get time off work in july/August.

Game parks will be open at Easter, it’s a busy time for them, so that shouldn’t be an issue.

We spent a month in Vic Falls & near time Hwange at Christmas one year, and then 3 weeks at Easter so both places were as busy as each other.

Elephant Hills is probably my fave luxury hotel but Vic Falls Hotel is stunning. You can visit all of them for dinner or sundowners.

Bayete Lodge in Vic Falls is a cheaper option but very clean and comfortable.

Thanks. Lots of great ideas to start my planning

You will have an amazing time and Easter is the perfect time to go to Zimbabwe. Mana pools / hwange, bvumba mountains were a favourite too and Zambezi National Park. And if you want to do something off the beat and track stay a couple of nights at jungle junction ( an island just above vic falls on the Zambezi ). Very jealous - love Zimbabwe. Just waiting for my 5 to get a teeny bit older !!

We have a trip booked to zim and South Africa for xmas, subject to the pandemic. We are flying straight to vic falls via joberg, then going to Hwange, back to vic falls then getting the direct flight to Cape Town to do bits of the Garden route we haven't done before. For the zim part I used the travel company Go2Africa, they tailor make your trip for you and will get the best rates with the lodges. They also sort out transfers as it is not really possible to self drive there. However, as a poster said above it is not cheap. Have fun planning.

Thanks everyone. I'm getting ardvark safaris to put an itinery together for me but I have a good idea of what we want to do.
I'll try go2africa for a second quote as well.

I went to Zimbabwe last year and fell in love with the country. We stayed with African Bush Camps for our safari portion and they were excellent. Though they are not cheap you may be lucky enough to get a discount due to difficult trading because of COVID. The highlight of my trip was Somalisa camp in Hwange, but Lake Kariba and Mana Pools are beautiful too.

I thought Aardvark were great. They were recommended by two separate friends.

We used Aardvark for Chobe. Stayed at Victoria Falls Hotel and did microlight flight over the Falls.

You should go via Botswana.
Go to Maun and that way you get to do both the (pans) a sight to behold and then see Mosi-o-tunya ( Victoria Falls) on a day trip.😊

Aardvark’s latest blog post is all about Zimbabwe!

I fell in love with Africa, be prepared for it to get under your skin and leaving you longing for more adventures!

We did Zambia side of Vic falls and I'm sure I'm in the minority but I really didn't enjoy it, we had come from a really peaceful 5 day safari in Madikwe to being harangued continuously by people trying to sell us things, it spoilt it for me having to constantly say 'no thank you!'

I cannot wait to go back, Zambia did nothing for me but I loved Madikwe and Botswana. I hope you have a fabulous trip, it's a magical place.

I understand your bday is Easter but you'd get a much better experience imo August onwards 're animals

I did the following
Victoria falls - river cruise, trek around the falls, helicopter over the top then the Stanley Livingstone game reserve (they have rhino here, not really any lion). The place we stayed was nice but there is one hotel overlooking the watering hole which was amazing

Then were driven to Chobe area In Botswana and did further safari there (lots of lion and elephant). Both river and ground safari.

All through trail finders £7k for 2 adults which I thought was good value

www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293761-d305391-Reviews-Victoria_Falls_Safari_Lodge-Victoria_Falls_Matabeleland_North_Province.html

This was the hotel I mentioned