Victoria Falls Safari Lodge

We spent 3 nts at VF Safari Lodge during our 16 day Africa Adventure. It was a wonderful location for Vic Falls. While you are not in town, the small town is not far and there is a free lodge shuttle that runs approximately every 2 hrs. That was convenient and we only needed to use this once. Otherwise all our activities picked us up directly at the Lodge. We had a 1st floor water hole facing room with a balcony. (Room#6). 1st floor but lodge is on stilts so our room felt like 2nd floor. Perfect viewing slightly off to the right of the watering hole. We considered booking the suite, but the balcony and bedroom was upstairs and main living area on main level. We wanted the balcony full glass doors visible at all times for looking at wildlife any time we were in the room. With the suite you’d only have that maximum viewing opportunity if in the bedroom we felt & so opted to not upgrade. Hindsight very pleased with that decision. If you look at photos of the suites online this comment(s) may make more sense. The room itself was nice. Typical hotel room size. Mosquito netting provided but we never really felt the presence of bugs. We saw a few bugs during our stay but far less than expected given the territory AND all the recent rains. Rooms are a bit old and probably not far from needing a bit of a refresh but still nice. Water took forever to turn warm but once it did it was great with lots of water pressure. My only 2 comments are: 1. lack of counter space in bathroom for toiletry bags, hair appliances etc when getting ready. This is a common “issue” in hotels, rentals, etc. Certainly didn’t negatively impact our stay, but fyi. 2. Air conditioning worked but not COLD. I woke up hot each nite which isnt like me and no way to cool the room further. We saw lots of different wildlife….elephants, impalas, zebras, wart hogs, baboons, mongoose, etc. at the Lodge. It’s Mother Nature though so you never know what you will or won’t get to see. Wart hogs often came out from under the lodge at the gym in the am. Baboons are common and will come to breakfast or try to visit your room. Keep your doors locked at all times and don’t leave phones on the table at bkst. We watched a monkey come to breakfast and steal a muffin right out of a guests hand! Breakfast was included with our room rate. Large selection of hot/cold items and made to order egg options. Plenty to choose from including some gluten free choices. They even had a make your own Bloody Mary bar. We ate big bksts and often skipped lunch. We did not eat at the lodge for any other meals other than the Boma dinner. The gym was good size and actually larger than the photos on their website made it out to be. Elliptical, rowing machine 2 bikes and 1 or 2 treadmills + weights, mats, etc. All equipment was working and good condition. This was the best gym of all the properties we stayed at during our 16 day travels. COMPLAINT: Air conditioning not working in the gym the entire time. Reported it 2x as did other gym goers, but not fixed. Be prepared to sweat! I’m not a sweater when I worked out and each day was so soaked I had to hang my gym clothes out to dry. There was usually only 1 other person at the gym with me at any given time. No issues waiting for equipment. Gym hours: front desk said 6 am - 6 pm. Sign on gym door says 6 am - 7 pm. Seems very early to close especially if you’ve been on tours all day and need to get your work out done afterwards. Found the gym door to never be locked so after 7 pm was not an issue. Runners/Walkers: Not really anywhere on property you could run or walk due to the presence of wildlife. I had also inquired would it be safe to run in to town for my daily run and was told NO! 😉 Activities: Day 1: Arrived by air from White River, South Africa after having done the Panorama Tour the day before and Kruger National Park for several days prior. We took the free shuttle in to town to explore. Spent 2 hrs walking around at the markets, etc. Felt very safe at all times. Picked up a pizza and brought it back to our patio for dinner. Using the shuttle was easy and convenient. Also picked up some sodas at the local grocery store. If carrying bags of groceries be very aware of the baboons. They are known for snatching bags of food from people’s hands. They were very interested in our pizza box as we waited for the lodge shuttle. 😂 Day 2 AM: Shearwater Jet Boat at the bottom of Victoria Falls. Depending on time of year depends on how close to the falls you can get. We visited late Jan and were lucky to be able to get as close as possible or what’s called the boiling pot/point. This time of yr starts high water season and getting that close may not be an option. You will not get wet on this tour. You will get drenched! Even with a rain coat I was still wet but still worth it! There is a 7 story steep descent down to the bottom of the gorge and back out. NOT for anyone with mobility issues, fear of heights, ladders, etc. GREAT way to view the Falls and the Bridge from a different perspective. DAY 2 PM: Bakota Gorge hike & sunset bush dinner. Booked thru Mpala guest and adventure farm & Try Rafting tours. They picked us up at the lodge and drove us thru “rural villages” out to the gorge. You can choose a hike along top the gorge ridge line or descend down in to the gorge 1,000 ft and hike along the river returning up a different trail. The hike down to the gorge is NOT for everyone. It’s steep, it’s uneven, there’s some rock scrambling and ladders. Beautiful if you can do it! I assume the hike along the ridge line easy but wouldnt be as pretty. Ended with a private dinner made by a local and served atop the gorge with the Zambezi River below and sun setting in the distance. Beautiful afternoon and very romantic /private. DAY 3: Livingston Island / Angels Pool booked directly thru the lodge. What an amazing adventure swimming in the Falls! WOW!! If you’re not familiar with this tour option youtube it! If you’re not interested in the Angels Pool option you can still go to Livingston Island via the boat and have a lovely lunch or breakfast. However if you can and are up for the adventure do Angels Pool or Devils Pool for the most up close view of the falls you can possibly get! We did the 10:30 am tour (departs Lodge at 9:15) which was perfect. Didn’t have to be up super early. Still had time for hotel bkst. Tour ended with what they called a bkst but was noon when we finished so was lunch for us. Perfect! This tour involves a border crossing to Zambia which was easy with this tour. One guide picks you up at the lodge and takes you to Zimbabwe border crossing. He stayed with us and got us thru. On the other side a guide/driver was waiting for us. Drove us across the VF bridge and navigated us thru Zambia customs. You will need a visa when coming back to Zimbabwe. When you purchase your visa online before your travels purchase the multi visit visa and you are covered. Otherwise you pay for another day use visa when you cross back in from Zambia to Zimbabwe. Day 3 PM: We arrived back at hotel at 12:55 just in time to catch the 1 pm Vulture tour. So glad we didn’t miss this. Was more interesting to see than expected. This experience is offered daily at 1 pm and is free at the lodge. Ended our day with the Boma dinner. We did the Boma dinner on our last nt. Was a great finale to our days in VIc Falls before heading to Namibia. LOTS of food choices. I’m vegetarian and still lots of options for me to choose from. Food was ok. Husband said the meats were tough, but have found that has been the case during much of this trip? I wouldn’t attend the Boma for the food itself but would attend for the experience. They dress everyone in what I called an “African toga”, native dancers, face painting, etc. The dinner is on the lodge property but the van takes you as you likely would encounter wildlife if walking to the Boma location. We saw lots of baboons on our short drive there. First shuttle is 6:45. We went to the lobby shortly after 6:30 and they took us over right away. Go early to take in the venue before everyone begins arriving, best photo ops, etc. Perfect ending to our stay! The lodge also advertises a free wildlife encounter experience. However when we asked about it we were told you don’t see any animals and only learn about animals. You also have to pay for a cab to/from. We decided to skip it. We did not visit the National Park itself. It’s $50/person and takes approx 2 hrs to walk thru depending on your pace. Bring rain poncho! You will get wet! Pack a cheap rain poncho from your local Dollar Store at home or I think the locals rent them just before you walk in the park? We felt we’d seen the falls up close & personal from below on the jet boat & on top swimming in the falls & that was good enough! No need to book a guided tour of the falls. Just take the free lodge shuttle to the park, pay your entry fee and begin your exploring. Weve moved around from location to location on this 16 day trip. If you have a shorter time available and/or don’t want to move around yet want to get the most variety of experience I might recommend Vic Falls. You could easily spend a wk here with touring the falls, land safaris, river safaris, day trip to Chobi, etc…. Weather: Jan is summer here. It was WARM for certain but we’re from the South. Didn’t bother us too bad. If you’re from a cold climate it would be HOT! Bugs: Our entire trip has been almost bugless. Vic Falls has been the first location we’ve used bug spray but even then hasn’t been much of an issue. Different than expected. Hindsight for us is always the perfect indication of how well we liked a property. After having seen other properties in the area and based on our experience we would choose VF Safari Lodge once again!

What a place! Great location for watching the wildlife from. Staff were friendly and attentive. Food was good quality and value for money if not part of the meal package. We saw so much. The bona was fun and entertaining too. Could have stayed for weeks just watching the animals visit the watering hole

The place is nestled in the forest and they take care of the nature around it. At this place you see animals NOT CAGED...

Would want to visit the lodge again not on business but a personal vacation once again. The ambiance is to die for !

Beautiful scenery and friendly staff. The food was amazing. Highly recommend this lodge if you love safari kind of feel.