Zimbabwe and Zambia Safari Routes and Combinations
"How to combine Victoria Falls with Hwange, Mana Pools or the Busanga Plains, and what each route asks of you"
Zimbabwe and Zambia combine around one fixed point. Victoria Falls sits on the border between them, and almost every itinerary here begins or ends there. What changes is what you attach to it: Hwange for elephant and predator density in a private concession, Mana Pools for walking and canoeing on the Zambezi floodplain, or the Busanga Plains for a short seasonal window in one of Africa’s least-visited wildernesses.
Three combinations cover most of what I build in this region. They run from five to eleven nights, they are not ranked, and they suit different travellers and different months. The right one usually becomes clear within a few minutes of conversation.
Every route here can run as a privately guided journey, with one guide and one vehicle throughout, or as a lodge-based safari using the resident teams. Guiding standards in both countries are high enough that neither is a compromise, and I use both depending on what guests want. My Zimbabwe and Zambia planning guide sets out how the two approaches differ, along with costs and seasons for each destination. All pricing here is on enquiry, because every itinerary is built around the people taking it.
This page is about routing: which destinations combine, in what order, and why. For what each destination is like in its own right, along with costs, seasons and packing, the planning guide covers it in more depth than I would want to repeat here.
Two of these four destinations are strictly seasonal, which shapes the planning more than most people expect.
The Three Zimbabwe and Zambia Combinations I Build Most
These three routes account for most of what I run here. Each solves a different problem, and the differences between them are worth understanding before you choose.
Victoria Falls and Hwange: The Classic Introduction
This is the route most first-time visitors to Zimbabwe should take, and it earns that on logistics as much as on wildlife. Victoria Falls and Hwange sit close together, the transfer is short, and the two halves contrast properly rather than repeating each other.
Two to three nights at the Falls covers it: the viewpoints, a Zambezi sunset cruise, and Devil’s Pool if it appeals and the water allows. That is enough without the town starting to feel like a stopover you are stuck in.
Hwange is where the safari happens. I work exclusively in the private concessions rather than the national park proper, and the difference is practical rather than cosmetic. Night drives, off-road access when a sighting warrants it, and a fraction of the vehicle traffic. Elephants are what Hwange is known for, and the dry-season concentrations around water are the reason to be there. Three nights is the minimum that lets the area settle, and four is better.
Victoria Falls, Hwange and Mana Pools: The Full Arc
Adding Mana Pools changes the character of the trip rather than simply extending it. Hwange is a vehicle-based safari in woodland and sandveld. Mana Pools is a floodplain, and the way you move through it is the point.
Walking and canoeing are part of the safari here, not extras bolted on. You track on foot along the river terraces beneath the Ana trees, and you paddle stretches of the Zambezi with the escarpment on the Zambian bank ahead of you. Zimbabwe’s professional guiding qualification is among the most demanding in Africa, and Mana is where that becomes obvious.
Three nights is the working minimum, and four is better, because walking rewards a second and third morning in a way a single one does not. Mana is seasonal: the floodplain closes to vehicles through the rains, and camps generally run from April or May through October.
This is a route for a second safari rather than a first. Not because it is difficult, but because walking safari lands differently once you already know what it feels like to sit in a vehicle at a sighting.
The mornings that stay with me out here are the quiet ones: a river to paddle, a plain to read, and nowhere you have to be by lunch.
Victoria Falls and Busanga Plains: The Kafue Option
The Busanga Plains sit in the far north of Kafue National Park in Zambia, and they are open for only part of the year. The plains are a floodplain on an ancient lake bed, and until they drain there is no vehicle access at all. In practice, the season runs from about June to November, with July to October the strongest part of it.
Two things make it worth the cost, and the cost is real. The first is the lion dynamics. The prides here work open grassland with very little cover, which means you watch behaviour rather than glimpse it, and the guides know the individual animals and the shifting territories in a way that changes what you actually see. The second is the birding, which is exceptional even by Zambian standards and includes species you will not find elsewhere on a Zimbabwe or Zambia route.
A third thing is worth saying because nobody says it: there are no tsetse flies on the plains themselves. The airstrip sits clear of the woodland, and unless you head into the tree line looking for leopard, you are simply not dealing with them. Anyone who has spent a day in the wrong part of Kafue will understand why that matters.
This is not a value route, and I will not pretend otherwise. It is a remote, short-season and small-camp, and it is priced accordingly. What a Busanga Plains safari returns is an environment that does not resemble anywhere else on this page.
A Guide to Zimbabwe and Zambia's Key Destinations
The three routes above mix and match four core destinations. Here is each one on its own terms, so you can see what it adds before deciding how to combine them.
Victoria Falls
The border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, and the hinge almost every route turns on. Two to three nights covers the viewpoints, a Zambezi sunset cruise and Devil’s Pool when the water allows. Which side you stay on depends on the river: the Zimbabwean side carries water all year, the Zambian side is seasonal.
Hwange
Zimbabwe’s largest park and its classic game viewing. I work the private concessions rather than the park proper, which allows night drives, off-road access and far less vehicle traffic. Elephant is the signature, and the dry-season concentrations around water from about July to October are the reason to time a trip for then.
Mana Pools
A Zambezi floodplain where the way you move is the point. You track on foot beneath the Ana trees and paddle stretches of the river with the escarpment ahead. Zimbabwe’s guiding qualification is among the most demanding in Africa, and Mana is where that shows. Camps run roughly April or May through October.
Busanga Plains
A remote floodplain in the far north of Kafue, on an ancient lake bed that must drain before vehicles can reach it. Open from about June to November, July to October strongest. The draw is lion behaviour on open grassland and exceptional birding, with no tsetse fly on the plains themselves.
Zambia or Zimbabwe: Which Side of the Falls to Stay On
I choose the side by the flow of the river, because which side of Victoria Falls rewards you depends on how much water is coming over it. When the Zambezi is running heavy, I base guests in Livingstone on the Zambian side; when the flow has receded, I move to Victoria Falls town on the Zimbabwean side.
Devil’s Pool sits on the Zambian side and can be arranged whichever side I base you on, subject to water levels. It is a popular addition and worth the day crossing if it appeals.
Getting There: Flights, Transfers and Border Crossings
Every route here starts with a flight from Johannesburg into whichever airport suits the itinerary, most often Victoria Falls, Livingstone or Harare. There is no fixed entry point, because there is no fixed itinerary. The routing is built around the trip rather than the other way round.
Internal legs are short. Victoria Falls to Hwange is a brief flight or a road transfer. Mana Pools is reached by light aircraft to an airstrip near camp. Busanga is a charter into the plains, with the airstrip sitting clear of the woodland belt.
The border at Victoria Falls is crossed routinely, including for day trips, and where a route uses both sides I handle the crossing as part of the itinerary rather than leaving it to you on the day.
Cross-Border Routes: Extending Into Botswana and South Africa
Victoria Falls sits within reach of two other safari countries, which makes every route here extendable in either direction. Both extensions work as an opening chapter or a closing one, and the choice usually comes down to whether you want to arrive gently or finish gently.
The Chobe Connection: Botswana Across the Border
Kasane sits roughly ninety minutes by road from Victoria Falls, which puts the Chobe Riverfront closer to the Falls than Hwange is. Chobe adds a river-based safari and elephant concentrations that rival Hwange’s in a completely different setting. From Kasane, the Okavango Delta is a short charter away, which turns a Zimbabwe route into a two-country journey without a long connecting flight.
Starting or Ending in South Africa: Kruger and Cape Town
Every route here connects through Johannesburg, which makes South Africa the natural bookend. Greater Kruger works well as a first safari before moving north, giving a sense of progression from the structured private reserves into the larger, looser wilderness areas of Zimbabwe and Zambia. Cape Town suits travellers who want a city at one end of the trip.
Guests on safari with Moriti
Frequently Asked Questions
Three questions come up in almost every conversation about combining these countries.
Victoria Falls and Hwange. It delivers the Falls and serious game viewing in five to seven nights with one short transfer, and the private concessions allow night drives and off-road access the national park does not. Mana Pools and Busanga both suit travellers on a second safari.
In practice, yes, and the season usually decides it. Busanga opens only from around June to November and sits in Zambia rather than Zimbabwe, so combining both means two charter legs and a longer trip than most people have. Hwange works across a wider window.
Yes, comfortably. Two to three nights at the Falls, three to four in Hwange and three to four at Mana Pools fits inside ten with transfers accounted for, and eleven buys the fourth night at Mana, where the walking improves most.
Our Zimbabwe and Zambia Safari Portfolio
Kruger, Cape Town & Victoria Falls in Ten Unrushed Nights
Three of southern Africa’s most distinct environments, one well-paced trip. Four nights in Kruger, three in Cape Town with your own private guide, and three nights at Victoria Falls — staying at a lodge with a genuine safari component rather than a hotel in town.
Victoria Falls and Busanga Plains Safari
Seven nights pairing the icon and the wilderness: three at Victoria Falls, then four on the remote Busanga Plains in the far north of Kafue. En-suite tented camps, light charter flights between the two, lodge-based or privately guided. June to October.
Victoria Falls, Mana Pools and Hwange Safari
Eight nights across three contrasting corners of Zimbabwe, from the upper Zambezi above Victoria Falls to the Mana Pools floodplain and Hwange’s dry-season elephant. Privately guided or lodge-based.
Occasional notes from the field. Thoughts on planning, places I’m spending time in, and changes that actually matter when you’re thinking about a safari. I send it when there’s something worth saying.