Victoria Falls

Overview: 

‘The Smoke That Thun­ders’ the mighty Vic­to­ria Falls is an adren­a­line pump­ing, awe-inspir­ing, nat­ur­al beau­ty that stands proud as one of the great­est Water­falls in the world — with the stun­ning falls being home to the largest sin­gle flow­ing sheet of water on the plan­et, the best infin­i­ty pool on the plan­et in the devil’s pool and being the sight of the incred­i­ble Lunar Rain­bow – which com­bine with the lush green rain­for­est that bor­ders the falls, the res­i­dent ani­mals and of course the mes­meris­ing African sun­set that help make the great Vic­to­ria Falls a tru­ly incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Found on the mighty Zam­bezi Riv­er and dis­sect­ing the bor­der between Zam­bia and Zim­bab­we, Vic­to­ria Falls were first formed mil­lions of years ago dur­ing the Jur­ra­sic peri­od and is believed to be some of the first water­falls on the plan­et – with the falls hav­ing now devel­oped to see more than 4,800 cubic meters of water come crash­ing down into mighty gorge below each sec­ond – and being home to the largest sin­gle flow­ing sheet of water on the plan­et ! 

Along­side the stun­ning and pow­er­ful water­fall, the Falls have also become known as the adven­ture cap­i­tal of south­ern Africa – with not only one of the worlds most scenic and death-defy­ing bungee jumps off the Vic­to­ria Falls bridge, but per­haps the great­est white water raft­ing and grade 5 rapids on the plan­et, along­side canyon swings, riv­er cruis­es and of course the chance to swim in the devil’s pool – an adren­a­line filled adven­ture that takes you to the edge of the falls. 

View­able from both the Zam­bia side and the Zim­bab­we side – and we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend­ed cross­ing the bridge to view the unique won­der from both coun­tries, the falls hous­es not only to the famous Devil’s pool, but also a series of walk­ways, pho­to spots, paths and bridges – all of which let you get you up close and per­son­al to the falls and allow you to expe­ri­ence both the stun­ning rain­bows at the top of the falls but the true pow­er, scale and beau­ty of this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Where:

The won­der of Vic­to­ria Falls is found on the bor­der between Zam­bia and Zim­bab­we on the stun­ning Zam­bezi Riv­er – with the town of Liv­ing­stone (Zam­bia) and the apt­ly named Vic­to­ria Falls Town (Zim­bab­we) being the clos­est towns.  

Getting there:

For­tu­nate­ly, both the towns of Liv­ing­stone and Vic­to­ria Falls Town sit right on the edge of the won­der – so to get to Vic­to­ria Falls you need only head to these town and you can grab a taxi, tour or walk from them to the won­der – and over the Vic­to­ria Falls bridge to cross the coun­tries.  

While we’d cer­tain­ly rec­om­mend­ed vis­it­ing the won­der from both sides, to begin with to get to Vic­to­ria Falls town – which is con­sid­ered big­ger, has bet­ter infra­struc­ture, more hotels and restau­rants and per­haps more impor­tant­ly has a bet­ter and high-class air­port – you can sim­ply fly into the Vic­to­ria Falls air­port from any­where in Zim­bab­we or Inter­na­tion­al­ly (in par­tic­u­lar­ly the UK and South Africa) and then take a taxi to your hotel or onto the won­der.  

Alter­na­tive­ly, for those with a fear of fly­ing – the well named Vic­to­ria Falls Train sta­tion is ser­viced fre­quent­ly by trains from across Zim­bab­we – with the overnight train from Bul­awayo in par­tic­u­lar­ly being a great option for back­pack­ers who want to save the accom­mo­da­tion costs of a night in a hotel before arriv­ing at the won­der and offers a great option to drop explor­ers in the heart of the Vic­to­ria Falls town.  

For Zam­bia, the air­port unfor­tu­nate­ly is not as devel­oped, and flights are not as reg­u­lar – but you can still fly into Liv­ing­stone direct from a flight a cou­ple of times a week from around Zam­bia – but be warned the flights will like­ly be bumpi­er and more expen­sive.  

While you can also take your chances dri­ving to Liv­ing­stone town – and then onwards to the won­der – we’d real­ly rec­om­mend start­ing your jour­ney to the won­der from the Zim­bab­we side and the town of Vic­to­ria Falls – before enter­ing the Vic­to­ria Falls Nation­al park and cross­ing over the Vic­to­ria Falls bridge and into Liv­ing­stone and con­tin­u­ing your expe­ri­ence of the won­der from the Zam­bia side – with this route being the most afford­able, prac­ti­cal and ulti­mate­ly the best way to see the won­der. 

Best time to Visit:

Vic­to­ria falls view­ing times are divid­ed into rainy and dry zones, with the rainy sea­son being in water between Novem­ber – March and the rest of the year from spring to the end of Autumn being con­sid­ered the dry sea­son.  

For those who want to swim in the dev­ils pool, you need to be there when the water is at its low­est – which is the dry sea­son, but you can get away with vis­it­ing between Octo­ber – Jan­u­ary – and for the stun­ning sight of the Lunar Rain­bow and the best panoram­ic and dra­mat­ic shots you want to be there just out­side of peak rainy sea­son 

We’d there­fore rec­om­mend vis­it­ing in either Octo­ber or Novem­ber – it might rain and it will be humid but this will give you the best chance of swim­ming the Devil’s pool catch­ing the Lunar rain­bow and see­ing the stun­ning water­fall of Vic­to­ria in all its Glo­ry – oth­er­wise you’ll need two trip one in the rainy sea­son and one in the dry to tru­ly see the best of Vic­to­ria Falls.  

 

Explore:

While Vic­to­ria Falls is an incred­i­ble thun­der­ing and tru­ly beau­ti­ful won­der – it’s also known as being one of the best places in the world to see the lunar moon reflect­ing against a water­fall, offers you a chance to see an incred­i­ble won­der of the world from two sep­a­rate coun­tries and for those who love their adren­a­line numer­ous heart pound­ing expe­ri­ences – includ­ing bungee jump­ing, white water raft­ing and sit­ting over the edge of the won­der at the famous Dev­ils pool.  

While Vic­to­ria Falls is view­able from both the Zam­bia side and the Zim­bab­we side – we’d rec­om­mend see­ing it from both sides – which is achiev­able by walk­ing across a walk­way and pay­ing a small fee for a sin­gle entry visa (or get­ting a visa in advanced).  

By see­ing it from the Zim­bab­we side, you’ll not only get access to the stun­ning bungee jump spots and the nation­al park described below, but also a series of incred­i­ble and pho­to per­fect look­outs – includ­ing our favourite of dan­ger point and the Main falls look­out which lets you gaze at the largest sheet of water in the world as it comes crash­ing down to the val­ley floor.  

From the Zam­bian side, you not only have the access to the Devlis pool – a tru­ly must expdere­ince at the won­der, but also a series of look out points at the Mosi-oa-Tun­ya Nation­al Park where regard­less of the sea­son you can stand and watch the water go crash­ing down into the Zim­bab­wae side – with a chance to get real­ly up close and dis­cov­er and explore the won­der.  

With it pos­si­ble to cross the bridge and see the stun­ning won­der from both coun­tries, and with each coun­try offer­ing tru­ly unique and beau­ti­ful expe­ri­ences its cer­tain­ly rec­om­mend­ed to see and explore the won­der from every per­spec­tive.  

In no par­tic­u­lar order below are also our top things to see, do, expe­ri­ence and jump off when vis­it­ing the won­der of Vic­to­ria Falls: 

Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park / Victoria Falls National Park (Viewing): 

Start­ing on the Zim­bab­wean side with the incred­i­ble Vic­to­ria Falls Nation­al Park, you have the option to stroll around the out­er rim of the incred­i­ble Vic­to­ria Falls and take in the stun­ning won­der from a series of incred­i­ble view­points as you stroll through lush green rain­for­est on a well defined path­way – and if you’re lucky accom­pa­nied by friend­ly Baboons, Mon­keys and Hip­pos.  

Fol­low­ing the cir­cu­lar trail, you’ll come up to 16 view­points all offer­ing stun­ning views of the won­der on five dis­tinct sec­tions, includ­ing the famous Dev­il’s Cataract and Main Falls – with the Main Falls view­point in par­tic­u­lar­ly offer­ing stun­ning view of the incred­i­ble won­der.  

It’s also in the Vic­to­ria Falls Nation­al Park that you’ll come across the stun­ning view­point of Dan­ger point – our favourite view­point but one that comes with a warn­ing as it can be hard to reach and is a slip­pery rocky and exposed view­point which offers two guar­an­tees – stun­ning view­points that let you get up close to the won­der and a sure-fire way to get soaked by the flow­ing water – so be sure to pack a series of spare clothes and come pre­pared to get wet ! 

Cross­ing the bor­der over a small bridge and you’ll enter the Zam­bian side and the stun­ning Mosi-oa-Tun­ya Nation­al Park and the Liv­ing­stone Island. From a pure­ly walk­ing and pho­to­graph view­point you’ll get a more up-close chance top view and pho­tog­ra­phy the falls – observ­ing the water thun­der­ing down a few inch­es away from where you stand and as you trav­el along a well-marked path that runs par­al­lel to the won­der.  

It’s on this side you’ll also see the entrance point to the Dev­ils pool, as the water gush­es into a nar­row gorge – which forces the water upwards and is the cause of stun­ning steam and rain­bows, with here being one of the best spots to view the incred­i­ble Lunar Rain­bow.  

You’ll also be able to see the sec­ond biggest fall of the won­der in the east­ern Cataract and if you’re lucky and get there in high water sea­son jour­ney across the famous and incred­i­bly well named Knife Edge Bridge – a rick­ety bridge that takes you along the deep gorge below where you can stop and pose for some of the most exhil­a­rat­ing self­ies on the plan­et.  

Although the views are per­haps not as scenic as on the Zim­bab­we side from the Zam­bian side you tru­ly get the chance to get up close to the won­der, with the many view spots and the incred­i­ble green­ery of the Mosi-oa-Tun­ya Nation­al Park being a tru­ly great place to explore and expe­ri­ence the pow­er of Vic­to­ria falls.  

The Devils pool:

Found on the Zam­bia side and on a sper­ate island known also as Liv­ing­stone Island, after the first white per­son to set eyes on the won­der of Vic­to­ria falls and bring it to the atten­tion of the west­ern world, the Dev­ils pool is the most famous spot of the won­der and one that is worth tim­ing your trip for – as when the water lev­els are low and safe you can sit in the pool at the top of the water­fall and gaze over the edge of the incred­i­ble water­fall and watch and feel the water crash­ing down into the gorge below. 

When embark­ing on the trip to the pool, expect it to be a full day expe­ri­ence – in order to make sure you meet your time slot tours tend to be extend­ed to include a trip to the stat­ue of Liv­ing­stone and the spot where he first gazed upon the won­der, and also a boat ride either through the Zam­bezi Riv­er or at sun­set – which gives you a chance to cap­ture the incred­i­ble African sun­set against this stun­ning won­der. Depend­ing on your time slot you’ll then approach Liv­ing­stone island where you’ll have to swim against the cur­rent and then clam­ber onto the island and then jump into the stun­ning pool – where you can feel the gen­tle water slip through you as a result of a reduced cur­rent and take a swim in per­haps the world’s great­est pool against the back­drop of the incred­i­ble won­der of Vic­to­ria Falls.  

With the sea­son for the devil’s pool being in Octo­ber – Jan­u­ary it’s advised to book a trip ear­ly in advance as only 12 peo­ple are allowed in the pool at once – and we’d advise book­ing a trip from the Zam­bia side to keep your costs down – and being sure to come with a rep­utable tour oper­a­tor and a decent under­wa­ter and water­proof cam­era.  

Helicopter over the falls

One for those with no fear of fly­ing a chance to grab an aer­i­al view of the won­der is an incred­i­ble way to see the sheer scale and mag­ni­tude of Vic­to­ria Falls – as you  take a 15–20 min heli­copter tour over the won­der.  

Sur­pris­ing­ly afford­able at no more than $150 usd, treat­ing your­self to a heli­copter tour – which will make mul­ti­ple pass­es of the falls is a great yet safe adren­a­line tour for those who want to do some­thing a lit­tle unique and cap­ture the true won­der of the falls with­out get­ting wet ! 

The Lunar rainbow

Unques­tion­ably the best and most mag­i­cal pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty over the falls the stun­ning Lunar Rain­bow is an opti­cal illu­sion cre­at­ed as the full moon lights up the tow­er­ing spray caused by the crash­ing water descend­ing over the falls into the canyon below — which helps cre­ates an incred­i­ble nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­non in which the rain­bow formed by this spray is illu­mi­nat­ed by the beau­ty of the moon – cre­at­ing a lunar rain­bow that daz­zles beneath the African sky.  

While best seen in the wet sea­son in the first part of the year, you’ll need to be on a guid­ed tour to see this incred­i­ble phe­nom­e­non – and unfor­tu­nate­ly the Dan­ger point is off lim­its for pho­tos – but for those than can get to top of the falls and who are lucky enough to see the stun­ning phe­nom­e­non it’s a sight and pho­to that will stay with you for­ev­er.  

Sunset Cruise

An equal­ly stun­ning – and per­haps more guar­an­teed sight, is to take a sun­set cruise along the Zam­bezi Riv­er at dusk – as you jour­ney to var­i­ous view­ing points of the incred­i­ble won­der against the back­drop of a famous African sun­set – for a tru­ly stun­ning and mag­i­cal pho­to op.  

It’s also a chance to go on a mini riv­er safari, with the waters of the Zam­bezi Riv­er being known for croc­o­diles, hip­pos and Warthogs – and the rain­for­est that the banks of the riv­er lead into being home to hun­gry Giraffes, Ele­phants and Zebra – which makes riv­er cruise not only an incred­i­ble way to see the falls against a stun­ning sun­set but a tru­ly unique way to round off your trip to this stun­ning won­der of the world.  

Bungee Jump

For those whose hearts aren’t pound­ing enough from the Devil’s pool or the expe­ri­ence of fly­ing over the falls then you can actu­al­ly bungee jump from the Vic­to­ria Falls Bridge (not the Falls) that sep­a­rates the Zam­bia and Zim­bab­we parts of the won­der and as you go hur­dling down head­first from the 110 metre bridge —  against the back­drop of the stun­ning falls – you’ll get a feel­ing as to what it would be like to fly off the top of the Dev­ils pool into the water below.  

Whilst those who don’t close their eyes on descent will get a stun­ning, if upside down view of the won­der, you’ll also get the chance to Bungee between two coun­tries for a tru­ly unique and thrill seek­ing expe­ri­ence – again though be sure to book in advance and be sure you want to jump as they’ll be a crowd of onlook­ers watch­ing and cheer­ing you on as you take the ulti­mate and most scenic jump on the plan­et.  

 Batoka Gorge Swing

Along­side jump­ing – you can also swing ! with the Bato­ka Gorge Swing being one of the great­est swings on the plan­et and a tru­ly stun­ning if fast and thrill seek­ing way to see the won­der.  

You’ll first find your­self attached to a zipline on a 100 metre high plat­form, and then after a deep breath and  jump or push – you’ll find your­self descend­ing down towards the canyon floor before  

swing­ing round  above the great Gorge to give you a tru­ly Bird­s­eye view of the won­der as the water plum­mets down the incred­i­ble Vic­to­ria Falls.  

White Water Rafting

Per­haps the most famous and pop­u­lar thing to do for Adren­a­line seek­ers, the white water raft­ing on the Zam­bezi Riv­er is the best in the world ! – with the rivers fea­tur­ing not just an assort­ment of Croc­o­diles, hip­pos and warthogs – but also a series of rapids – ranked from grades 3–5 that you and your friends will get the oppor­tu­ni­ty to nav­i­gate, bat­tle and ulti­mate­ly con­quer in a true heart rac­ing and thrilling adven­ture.  

Whilst often tak­ing a full day, and involv­ing some heav­ing of the raft along the riv­er banks and up a steep climb bank up the riv­er (at least when we went), you’ll begin my mak­ing your way down the riv­er gorge (again car­ry­ing your raft) and once float­ed and onboard it’ll be all hands on deck to pad­dle, cruise and bat­tle through some 20 incred­i­ble rapids along the beau­ti­ful if chal­leng­ing Zam­bezi Riv­er and against the back­drop of the incred­i­ble yet stun­ning won­der of the world that is Vic­to­ria Falls.  

How long to stay:

We’d rec­om­mend allo­cat­ing at least 2 days 1 night to tru­ly see all of the incred­i­ble Vic­to­ria Falls – with this giv­ing you enough time to see the incred­i­ble sun­set, Lunar Rain­bow and sun­rise and then enough time to Bungee, white water raft and stroll around the incred­i­ble Nation­al Park – as well as vis­it the won­der from both Mosi-oa-Tun­ya Nation­al Park in Zam­bia and Vic­to­ria Falls in Zim­bab­we and if you’re lucky dive and swim in the Dev­ils pool – for a heart pump­ing and tru­ly incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence.  

Top Tip:

First­ly if you can be sure to time your trip for the Lunar Rain­bow ! – it’s a tru­ly incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence and one that is a Pho­tog­ra­phers and explor­ers dream with awe-inspir­ing and incred­i­ble views – and if you can time this with a return of con­cur­rent vis­it dur­ing the open sea­son of the Dev­ils pool – like­ly in Octo­ber – Jan­u­ary all the bet­ter ! 

Along­side this, chances are when you vis­it Vic­to­ria Falls you’ll get wet – it is a water­fall after all, so we’d advise com­ing with a change of clothes and wear­ing some­thing water­proof is pos­si­ble, and tak­ing care to come with good grip­ping shoes (flip flops if pos­si­ble) – espe­cial­ly for those who seek a pho­to from Dan­ger point.  

It’s also strong­ly advised to stock up on insect repel­lent and come pre­pared with a Mos­qui­to net and tablets as Malar­ia is a par­tic­u­lar con­cern in Africa and the health care is lack­ing in treat­ment – so your best bet is pre­ven­tion.  

Final­ly while Vic­to­ria Falls are a true won­der of the world and Zim­bab­we is gen­er­al­ly a safe coun­try, we’d advise keep­ing an eye on your pos­ses­sions as pick­pock­ets, thieves and scam­mers are known to oper­a­tion in the high tourist area of Vic­to­ria falls.  

 Cost: 

To vis­it the falls from either side you can expect to pay $30 USD – as an entrance fee, which while annoy­ing for a nat­ur­al won­der is both under­stand­able and afford­able.  

For those who want to do more than walk around the falls, you can expect to bud­get rough­ly $150 USD for each ‘adven­ture activ­i­ty’ with bungee jump­ing, canyon swing­ing and white water raft­ing trips all com­ing in at between $110 Usd — $180 Usd – with there being plen­ty of tour oper­a­tors in the Vic­to­ria Falls Town or Liv­ing­stone Town – so don’t be afraid to shop around – or if you’re on a tight time bud­get the tours are all avail­able online.  

For the Dev­ils Pool which is in our view the thing not to miss out you can get trips on either side, but you will find them cheap­er on the Zam­bia side – with tours again com­ing in between $100 Usd and $175 Usd – and this is one trip where we’d real­ly sug­gest fork­ing out a bit more mon­ey as the more expen­sive usu­al­ly means the high­er the safe­ty stan­dards involved.  

For heli­copter trips around the won­der expect to pay $150 Usd for a 15 – 20 minute ride, which on bal­ance is a great price to pay for an ariel view of the won­der, and sun­set and sun­rise cruis­es up to the won­der cost­ing at most $75 usd.  

One often over­looked fee is the cost of a sin­gle or dou­ble entry visa if you wish to view the won­der from both the Zim­bab­we side and the Zam­bia side. If going from Zim­bab­we into Zam­bia you’ll have to pay $20 usd for a sin­gle entry visa and from Zam­bia into Zim­bab­we a $30 usd visa. While you can get these on the bor­der we’d advise get­ting them in advance to avoid any has­sle and unwant­ed com­pli­ca­tions and would cer­tain­ly rec­om­mend view­ing the won­der from both sides  — as not only will you miss out on some incred­i­ble views and expe­ri­ences if you don’t but the chance to see a true won­der of the world from two sep­a­rate coun­tries is a tru­ly rare expe­ri­ence.  

Assum­ing you see the won­der from both sides, treat your­self to a heli­copter trip and swim in the Dev­ils pool, you can expect to pay around $350 Usd to see the incred­i­ble Vic­to­ria Falls.  

Fun Fact:

Along­side side being a stun­ning won­der of the world – Vic­to­ria Falls and in par­tic­u­lar­ly Vic­to­ria Falls Town on the Zim­bab­wea side is a great place to see unique African Wildlife, with the town known for it’s herds of Baboons and Warthogs – and you’re also like­ly to see a series of warthogs, hip­pos and if you’re incred­i­ble lucky Ele­phants as you take in and cruise down the incred­i­ble Zam­bezi riv­er to the falls.  

Best photo spot:

While a pho­to of your­self hang­ing in the Devil’s pool is always a must have —  for the full panoram­ic icon­ic shot of Vic­to­ria falls – we’d rec­om­mend get­ting a shot of the famous lunar rain­bow – when you can view the incred­i­ble rain­bows illu­mi­nat­ed by the full moon for a tru­ly mes­meris­ing shot.  

For those who don’t man­age to time their vis­it over a full moon, then get­ting to Dan­ger Point on the Zim­bab­we side for sun­set or sun­rise is an equal­ly impres­sive and stun­ning way to cap­ture the true beau­ty of the incred­i­ble world of the world that is Vic­to­ria Falls.