Livingstone's Africa — Victoria Falls, Botswana & Zimbabwe

Day 2 Victoria Falls to Kasane

Touching down at Victoria Falls, your local guide will be waiting to welcome you and accompany the group as you cross the border into Botswana. Your home for the next two nights is a lodge set directly on the banks of the Chobe River.

Settle in over a welcome drink with your fellow travellers before dinner this evening, a flavoursome mix of both African and Western cuisine, served with views across the river towards the Namibian flood plains. As dusk falls, the scene is rarely still – elephants and other animals drawn to the water's edge make this one of Africa's most rewarding spots simply to sit and observe.

Day 3 Kasane

Chobe National Park is home to some of the largest elephant herds on the continent, and this morning's open-vehicle game drive puts you right in the heart of it. The park's deep-blue river and rich floodplains attract a remarkable cast of wildlife – lions, leopards, giraffes, zebras and antelope move freely through the landscape and unscripted encounters offer once-in-a-lifetime memories.

After time to relax and lunch back at the lodge , the afternoon takes on a different rhythm altogether. A river cruise along the Chobe offers a quieter perspective on the wildlife – animals on the riverbank are unhurried. It's a wholly different experience from the morning drive, and one that rewards patience with some of the day's finest sightings.

Day 4 Kasane to Victoria Falls

A final game drive through Chobe this morning gives you a last chance to seek out more of the wildlife of the National Park. After lunch at the lodge, we cross back into Zimbabwe and make our way to the hotel, situated only 400 m from the falls themselves.

The name Victoria Falls was bestowed by doctor, missionary and explorer, David Livingstone, who was one of the first Europeans to witness the cascades in 1855. He had been led to the site by the local people who knew it as Mosi-oa-Tunya ‘the smoke that thunders’.

This evening, we gather for dinner and a drum show at The Boma. Traditional dance performances, face painting, and the renowned interactive drumming combine to create a genuinely memorable welcome to Zimbabwe, with local flavours and culture woven through every part of the evening.

Day 5 Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls needs no introduction, but no amount of prior knowledge quite prepares you for the experience. The falls cascade 100 metres into the Batoka Gorge, and the perpetual cloud of spray that gave them their local name ‘the smoke that thunders’, can be visible from kilometres away. This morning's guided tour brings the story of the falls to life including more about David Livingstone and his close connection to this World Heritage site.

Lunch today is at the Lusumpuko Women's Club, a project supported by Planeterra that began as a small catering cooperative for local churches and events, now provides a traditional meal for international travellers. It’s the dishes their mothers and grandmothers once prepared and the welcome is as warm as the food. It's one of those quiet encounters that stays with you long after the big sights have faded.

The afternoon is free for you to enjoy at your leisure.

Day 6 Victoria Falls

This morning offers a different angle on the falls entirely. A vintage-style tram carries you through Zambezi National Park to the Victoria Falls Bridge, an elegant piece of Edwardian engineering completed in 1905, where views of the falls and the Batoka Gorge below are quite different from those of yesterday. Historical commentary accompanies the journey, and a visit to the rail and bridge museum on the Zambian side adds further depth to the story of this remarkable region.

The rest of the day is yours to make your own discoveries. Your local guide is on hand to suggest optional activities you may wish to pursue.

Day 7 Victoria Falls

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast while deciding on how to spend your day. Perhaps you’ll relax around the pool, take a walk into town to the browse the local market stall, alternatively, your local guide can help you to explore options to discover more of Victoria Falls.

This evening, we gather for a sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi River. As the light softens over the water, elephants appear as silhouettes on the embankment, hippos call from the shallows, and the occasional splash of a crocodile breaks the surface. A four-course meal is served as the colours of the river shift through gold and amber – an evening that is difficult to improve upon.

Day 8 Victoria Falls to Hwange

Today we travel two hours east into Zimbabwe to reach Hwange National Park, the country's largest natural game reserve, and one of Africa's finest. The grasslands and mopane woodlands here support one of the highest concentrations of elephants anywhere on the continent, alongside lions, African wild dogs and an impressive array of birdlife.

After some time to settle in at the camp, your first open-vehicle 4x4 game drive into the park begins. It is a gentle introduction to what this quietly extraordinary place has to offer.

Our camp for the next few days is a tented lodge set in a teak forest and was designed to sit in harmony with the surrounding bush. At the heart of the camp, is a welcoming open-plan space with a fire-lit boma, the perfect place to gather as the day's sightings are reliably the subject of conversation under star-lit skies.

Day 9 Hwange

Your morning begins at dawn to the 'symphony' of chirping birds and the distant sounds of roaming wildlife. Enjoy the views from your veranda, which overlooks the ancient riverbed known as the Dete Vlei, where animals like elephants, buffalos, and impala may already be passing by, before breakfast is served.

The morning game drive sets out early, when the air is cool and predators are at their most active. Lions and leopards are most often encountered in these hours, though Hwange's diversity means the drive rarely follows a predictable script.

This afternoon brings a visit to the Painted Dog Conservation Centre, dedicated to protecting one of Africa's most endangered species. African painted dogs, also known as wild dogs or hunting dogs, number fewer than 7,000 across the entire continent. The centre's work in conservation, education and community outreach has made a significant difference, and the visit offers a chance to understand what meaningful wildlife protection actually looks like in practice.

The day concludes with sundowners and dinner at the lodge.

Day 10 Hwange

Wake again to the sounds of the African bush around you before your morning game drive to go in search of more captivating wildlife before returning to the lodge for a cooked breakfast.

There’s plenty of time to relax by the pool, sit on the viewing deck as elephants pass, or simply settle into the quiet rhythms of the camp before our next outing. Wildlife here doesn't observe visiting hours, and some of the most memorable encounters happen without going anywhere at all.

We’ll stop in the bush for a sundowner to watch the sunset on this afternoons game drive which often continues into darkness for a night drive – a different world of nocturnal creatures, revealed by spotlight and silence. We’ll return to camp for drinks around the boma fire, followed by a delicious dinner frequently prepared over an open fire.

Day 11 Hwange to UK

After a final breakfast in the bush, and with memories of the Chobe's elephants, the thunder of the falls, the painted dogs, and an array of wildlife sightings packed away, we'll transfer to Victoria Falls for your overnight flight back to the UK.

Day 12 UK

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