Travel guide
Featured on September 21, 2026
Great Zimbabwe gave the country its modern name.
Places
From the Zimbabwean side, the walk opposite the gorge gives you the full face of the falls, viewpoint after viewpoint, with the roar changing as the wind shifts. You go for the wall of water, the soaked rainforest edge, and the sudden drop of the gorge at your feet.
Tip: March to May brings the biggest water and the wettest walk; August to October gives clearer views into the gorge.
These are the ruins that gave the country its name: dry-stone walls without mortar, the Hill Complex above, and the great curving enclosure below. A guide helps you read the passages, the tower, and the trading world behind the granite.
Tip: Give it at least half a day and hire the site guide at the gate.
This is patient safari country: elephants at pumped pans, long sits in hides, and the real pleasure of watching everything gather where the water is. If luck turns, you may also see lion or wild dog, but the rhythm matters as much as the sightings.
Tip: The dry months are best for wildlife; stay in or beside the park so you can be out at first light and dusk.
Go for two things that do not usually come together: ancient rock art in cave shelters and guided rhino tracking on foot among the granite kopjes. The landscape also carries graves, shrines, and a heavy part of the country's colonial story.
Tip: Book a guide for both the rock art and the rhino walk, and give it a full day from Bulawayo.
The old rail city is worth a stop in its own right. Come for the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, the station quarter, and the broad centre that still shows the scale of a planned colonial city.
Tip: Use it as your base for Matobo and give the museum a weekday morning.
Eat
A stiff porridge of maize meal, pinched by hand and used to scoop up stewed greens, beans, beef, or chicken.
Where: At Mbare Musika lunch counters in Harare, in township takeaways, and on family tables at supper.
Chicken, beef, or greens cooked in peanut butter with tomato and onion, usually served with rice or sadza.
Where: At Sunday family lunches and at plate-lunch spots in Highfield, Mbare, and downtown Bulawayo.
Small freshwater fish, usually dried in the sun and then fried or simmered with tomato and onion.
Where: In Kariba's Nyamhunga township and in homes around the lake, rather than hotel buffets.
The caterpillar of the emperor moth, cleaned, dried, then fried or stewed with onion and tomato.
Where: From traders at Egodini in Bulawayo and roadside stalls across Matabeleland when in season.
Story
At Victoria Falls, the spray reaches the high street before the gorge does. In Harare and Bulawayo, diesel, charcoal smoke, and roasting maize hang over the bus ranks, and even a quick question starts with a greeting. Then you step through the stone passages of Great Zimbabwe and feel the order of things change: the nation is younger than its name.
At Great Zimbabwe, a mason lifts a granite slab and fits it into a curve without mortar. Cattle move in the valley below. Gold and ivory go east toward the coast, and beads come back inland. By the time Portuguese writers hear of rulers they call Monomotapa in the 16th century, the plateau already has a court, a ritual centre, and a name that will last longer than the kingdom.
On a September morning in 1890, men of Cecil Rhodes's Pioneer Column raise a flag at Fort Salisbury. Pegs go into the ground. Maps, rifles, and company papers do the rest. In 1965 Ian Smith declares unilateral independence to keep white-minority rule, and by 1980 Bob Marley is singing through tear gas at Rufaro Stadium as independence arrives and Robert Mugabe takes office.
In 2008, workers rush to spend wages before prices move again. Shopkeepers write numbers on cardboard, then cross them out. In November 2017, crowds pour into Harare and pose beside armoured vehicles after the army moves against Mugabe. The next morning the kombis run again, and the argument over land, power, and who gets a future does not stop.
Say hello
Mangwanani
Good morning
Say: ma-ngwa-NAH-nee
Makadii?
How are you?
Say: ma-ka-DEE-ee
Ndapota
Please / excuse me
Say: nda-POH-ta
Zvinoita marii?
How much is it?
Say: zvee-NO-ee-ta ma-REE-ee
Ndatenda
Thank you
Say: nda-TEN-da
Surprises
Cecil Rhodes is buried in Matobo National Park. His grave sits on a granite summit called World's View, where he asked to be laid to rest.
Zimbabwe's women's field hockey team won Olympic gold in 1980. It was the country's first Olympic appearance under the name Zimbabwe, only months after independence.
Lake Kariba's filling sparked a rescue called Operation Noah. Rangers and volunteers moved animals stranded on shrinking islands and from treetops as the valley flooded.
Quiz
Which of these is one of Zimbabwe's official languages?
Tonga is official. The 2013 constitution recognizes 16 official languages, including English, Shona, Ndebele, Kalanga, Venda, Nambya, Chewa, Shangani, and Zimbabwe Sign Language.
3 days
Day 1
Morning on the viewpoints at Victoria Falls, afternoon on the Zambezi above the gorge, evening in Victoria Falls town.
Day 2
Travel from Victoria Falls to Hwange National Park, then spend the afternoon on a game drive and dusk at a pan or hide.
Day 3
Continue to Bulawayo for the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, then go on to Matobo National Park for rock art, kopjes, and a sunset back in town.
At a glance
At a glance
Member of
Neighbouring countries
Listen
The song of the day
Neria
Oliver Mtukudzi
Its guitar line and chorus made a film song into a national one, still used to talk about grief, inheritance, and injustice.
Play a 30-second preview30-second clip via Apple Music
Before you go, watch or read
Nervous Conditions
Book
Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel gets you inside family life, schooling, class, and colonial pressure before you land.
Entry requirements
Zimbabwe entry requirements by passport: of 197 passports, 39 can enter without a visa, 94 get a visa on arrival, 64 apply online before they travel and 0 need a visa from an embassy or consulate.
Find your passport for the documents, the cost and how long you can stay.
Safety
Due to crime and official harassment of U.S. citizens
US State Dept, updated August 20, 2025. Advisories change: check your own government's travel advice before you go.
From the community
🇿🇼 Today's country is Zimbabwe. Great Zimbabwe gave the country its modern name. At Victoria Falls, the spray reaches the high street before the gorge does. In Harare and Bulawayo, diesel, charcoal smoke, and roasting maize hang over the bus ranks, and even a quick question starts with a greeting. Then you step through the stone passages of Great Zimbabwe and feel the order of things change: the nation is younger than its name. 📍 Places to visit • Victoria Falls — From the Zimbabwean…
Questions
Travel guide
See who has been there and what you need to travel.
Zambia
Mozambique
South Africa
Botswana