An Itinerary for 48 Hours in Victoria Falls

If forty-eight hours is all you have to spend in Victoria Falls, we’re here to make sure you experience the highlight reel of all our beautiful pocket of the world has to offer – while still enjoying a bit of downtime at our gorgeous hotel on the banks of the Zambezi River. Hopefully, after this small taste of Africa’s “Adventure Capital,” you’ll be inspired to return and spend more time with us.

But, if you’re joining us in the middle of a larger trip around southern Africa, we want to reassure you that you can fit some truly special stuff into your time in Victoria Falls. Two well-spent days here will take you from the edge of one of the world’s great waterfalls to the deck of a boat on the Zambezi at sunset; from an open game-drive vehicle in the bush to the Zambezi River Deck on our lawns, complete with entertainment and a star-spangled night sky.

Without further ado – this is how we recommend you spend two days in Victoria Falls.

(Feel free to chop, change, add or eliminate as your energy levels see fit!)

Begin where everything begins: at the Falls. The guided rainforest trail through the Victoria Falls National Park is a rewarding way to experience “the smoke that thunders” up close, but it is by no means compulsory. If you’d like to gain a little insight into the ecology and history of this site – go for it – but, if you’d simply like to experience it at your own pace and do some of your own reading later, that is also a great option.

In June, the river is still carrying good volume from the wet season rains upstream, and the spray off the Falls keeps the gorge-edge vegetation lush and green year-round.

Allow two hours and wear something you don’t mind getting wet.

Once you have stood at the gorge’s edge and felt the scale of the Falls from land, we recommend taking a 25-minute helicopter flight (locally known as the Flight of Angels, after David Livingstone’s description of the view) and see the same landscape from above. This is a popular activity, so we’d advise letting our front desk know the night before so that we can either prep you on how to go about booking your flight, or arrange it on your behalf. With that said, the operators in Vic Falls are super jacked up and even if there is a short wait, you will be up in the air in no time.

The view of the Falls from above? Something worth standing in any queue for – trust us. And a memory to last a lifetime.

After your flight, you’ll be hungry. Check out our sister property’s blog post on the Top 10 Restaurants in Victoria Falls.

After lunch your afternoon divides according to temperament. For the adventure-minded, white water rafting on the Zambezi below the Falls is among the best in the world: the Batoka Gorge funnels the river into a series of Grade 4 and 5 rapids with names like The Terminator and Oblivion, and a full-day session will occupy most of your afternoon and a fair amount of your conversation for the weeks that follow.

For those who prefer the view from above the waterline, a guided game drive into the Zambezi National Park (56,000 hectares of unfenced wilderness just minutes from the hotel) offers elephants, buffalo, lion, and over 400 bird species in the same hours.

Whatever the afternoon held, end it on the water. A sunset cruise on the Zambezi is the natural full stop to a first day in Victoria Falls: the river broad and calm, the light turning the water copper, the hippos surfacing in the shallows, a fish eagle calling from somewhere in the riparian trees.

For this activity, you’re in luck! Because we happen to run among the best sunset cruises in town and the Ra-Ikane River Cruisers dock right in from of Palm River Hotel.

Most cruises run for two hours and include drinks; book through our activities desk and we’ll arrange everything. Simply mosy down to the docks when the time comes, sit back, relax and enjoy the view.

After a full day out, you’ll be happy to wind down and sit down to dinner in our restaurant afterwards.

You’ve had a full first day, so we wouldn’t blame you for wanting to enjoy a slow morning. Wake up to a spectacular view of the riverside from your suite, make some coffee, get ready and join us for breakfast at your leisure.

Depending on the weather, your morning might consist of relaxing poolside, in the garden or in one of our beautiful shared indoor spaces. However, if you’re somebody who likes to make the most of every moment, our complimentary shuttle into town drops you a short walk from Elephant’s Walk Shopping and Artist’s Village, a pedestrian courtyard of galleries, craft studios, and jewellery workshops where local artists work on-site and the quality of the pieces on offer is genuinely impressive.

After a spot of shopping, Brooks Café inside the complex does wonderful coffee.

Image Credits: @victoriafallsguide & @emmagatlandphotography

It’s time to admire some architecture!

From Elephant’s Walk, you aren’t far from the Victoria Falls Bridge, an elegant 1905 steel arch that spans the Batoka Gorge between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Even if you have no intention of bungee jumping from it, and hats off to you if you do, it really is worth admiring. (Insider’s Tip: A great view can be found from the veranda of The Victoria Falls Hotel.)

The bridge itself is a piece of history, built during the construction of Cecil Rhodes’ Cape-to-Cairo railway and positioned, at Rhodes’ insistence, close enough to the Falls that passengers would see the spray from the windows.

(And you can see a small replica of the bridge on our property – you’ll walk right under it when you enter our hotel!)

Interested in the bridge? Read one of our older blog posts: Bridging Countries: A Brief History of the Victoria Falls Bridge

For lunch on the second day, make the short journey to Dusty Road Township Experience in Chinotimba. Food cooked over open fires and in cast iron pots, sadza and slow-braised meats, a setting that is colourful and warm and entirely unpretentious; it is the most genuinely local meal you will have in Victoria Falls, and one of the most memorable. Book ahead – it’s very popular.

Afterwards, the afternoon is yours: A return to the hotel’s al fresco bar, a swim, a walk along the lawns to the river’s edge, or simply a chair in the shade with the sound of the Zambezi for company.

Image Credit: @the.salty_.zebra_.co

Close your 48 hours with something truly memorable. Our dining experience on the Zambezi River Deck is one of Victoria Falls’ most distinctive evenings out and, as the name suggests, it happens right on the edge of the Zambezi.

The setting is a fully mobile, multi-layered wooden deck positioned on the riverbank near the Ra-Ikane jetty, open to the African sky and the sounds of the Zambezi National Park all around you.

The dinner itself is a three-course African barbecue, with traditional dishes infused with Zimbabwean flavour prepared over open flames, served by lantern light with attentive staff and a welcome drink on arrival. As the evening unfolds, there is live entertainment and local mbira music, and if the Zambezi is generous, hippos, buffalo, or elephants may make an appearance on the opposite riverbank.

Forty-eight hours in Victoria Falls is enough to understand why people come back. The Falls are the headline, but the river, the bush, the town, and the people who know it well are the substance. At Palm River Hotel, our activities desk can arrange every experience on this list – and a few we haven’t mentioned.

To book your stay or speak to our team about putting together your perfect Victoria Falls itinerary, get in touch at onlinereservations@palmriverhotel.com. Alternatively, browse our suites, select your ideal stay and secure your dates on our seamless online booking platform.

We look forward to welcoming you to Victoria Falls!