Victoria Falls With Kids
A mile of the Zambezi dropping 350 feet into a crack in the earth, with a cloud of spray you can see from 20 miles away and a rainforest it waters itself. The town is small, the elephants walk through it, and the kids get soaked, flown over a gorge and put on a boat with hippos in three days.
Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel
Is Victoria Falls good for kids?
Yes, from about 5 up. The rainforest walk is flat and two hours, the helicopter takes any age, the sunset cruise is hippos and elephants from a boat, the Chobe day trip works for kids 5 and up, and the Boma dinner puts a drum in each child's lap. Rafting and Devil's Pool are for older kids.
How many days do you need at Victoria Falls?
Three nights. One for the falls walk and the helicopter, one for the Chobe day trip, with the sunset cruise and the Boma dinner on the evenings. Four if you add the Zambian side.
Which side of Victoria Falls is better, Zimbabwe or Zambia?
Zimbabwe has about three quarters of the view and the rainforest walk, so most families base there. Zambia has the Knife Edge bridge and Devil's Pool at low water. With the KAZA visa you can walk across the bridge and do both.
When is the best time to visit Victoria Falls?
June to August for full falls, cool dry weather and clear views. February to May is the most water and the heaviest spray. September to December is low water with the gorge in view, Devil's Pool open and the hottest weather.
Can you do a safari from Victoria Falls?
Yes. The Chobe day trip into Botswana is a game drive and a river boat in one day with the border handled for you. The Zambezi National Park next to town has game drives, and the sunset cruise on the river is elephants and hippos from the water.
The Smoke That Thunders
Mosi oa Tunya, the smoke that thunders, is the name the Lozi people gave it long before Livingstone named it for his queen in 1855. The Zambezi is a mile wide here and the whole river falls into a gorge 350 feet deep, then zigzags away through a series of gorges toward the bridge. Zimbabwe has about three quarters of the viewing front, in a rainforest park with 16 viewpoints along the rim. Zambia has the other quarter, the Knife Edge bridge and Devil’s Pool at low water. The town of Victoria Falls is a 20 minute walk from the park gate, small, walkable, with warthogs on the lawns and elephants on the road at dusk.
Three nights covers the falls walk, the helicopter, a sunset cruise, a Chobe day and the Boma dinner. Four adds the Zambia side and a slow day at the pool.
Getting Around
On foot and by hotel shuttle. The town is a mile across, the park gate is a 20 minute walk from the center, and the hotels run shuttles to the falls and the bridge. Taxis are cheap and fixed price. Do not walk at night, elephants and buffalo use the roads after dark and the hotel will drive you. The bridge to Zambia is a walk or a taxi with the passports in your hand. Chobe is a tour with the border done for you.
Neighborhoods worth basing in
Town center
The small grid of streets around the Elephant’s Walk shops, the craft market and the restaurants, with the park gate a 20 minute walk away. Lodges and guesthouses, cheaper than the river hotels, and the kids can walk to an ice cream. Elephants and warthogs wander through, which is the point.
The falls and the bridge
The strip between the park gate and the bridge, where the Victoria Falls Hotel and the Ilala Lodge sit within sight of the spray. The closest you can sleep to the falls, with the sound of the water at night and the lunar rainbow walk a few minutes away. The splurge location.
The Zambezi riverfront and Zambia
Lodges upstream along the river on both banks, with hippos in front of the deck, game drives in the Zambezi National Park and boats from the jetty. Quieter and wilder, 15 to 30 minutes from the falls by shuttle, and the Zambian side at Livingstone is cheaper with a different view of the same water.
The Victoria Falls Hotel
The 1904 railway hotel with the spray in view from the lawn, high tea on Stanley’s Terrace, a pool, a long garden and the bridge framed at the end of the path. The rooms are old fashioned in the good way and the kids feel like they are in a story. The one I book when the trip deserves it.
Victoria Falls Safari Lodge
On a ridge over the Zambezi National Park with a waterhole below the deck where elephants, buffalo and the occasional lion come to drink while you eat breakfast. A pool, family rooms, the vulture feeding at 1 pm that the kids will not forget, and the Boma dinner on site. Fifteen minutes from the falls by the free shuttle.
Ilala Lodge
A small hotel on the edge of the park, a 10 minute walk from the falls gate, with a pool, a garden the warthogs mow and good family rooms. The one for a family who wants to walk to everything and spend the money on the helicopter instead.
The Three I Build Every Victoria Falls Trip Around
The rainforest walk
The Zimbabwe side of the park is a strip of rainforest along the rim of the gorge, watered by the spray, with a path and 16 numbered viewpoints from Livingstone’s statue at the Devil’s Cataract to Danger Point above the bridge. Two hours, flat, and from February to June you are walking through rain under a blue sky, so ponchos for the whole family and the phone in a bag. Rainbows all morning, a double one if you are lucky, and on full moon nights the park opens late for the lunar rainbow. The kids will want to go twice.
The Zambezi sunset cruise
Upstream of the falls the Zambezi is wide, slow and full of animals, and the two hour sunset cruise is where the kids see hippos, crocodiles and elephants coming down to drink while the sky goes orange. Boats range from the big party decks to small family boats with a guide and a cooler, and for kids the small boat wins. Go on the first evening, when nobody is tired yet. Canoe safaris on the upper river work for ages 12 and up.
The bridge and the gorge
The 1905 bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia hangs 420 feet over the Zambezi gorge, and the walk across with the falls on one side and the bungee jumpers on the other is free with your passport. The Lookout Cafe on the Zimbabwe rim is the place for lunch with the gorge in front of you and the zipline swinging past. The helicopter, the Flight of Angels, is 13 minutes over the falls and the zigzag gorges and worth the money for a family, because from above you finally see the shape of what the river did.
Family Time, Built In: Victoria Falls With Kids
Victoria Falls with kids is a rainbow in a poncho, a helicopter over the gorge, hippos from a boat, elephants on the road to dinner and a drum in their hands at the Boma.
The 13 minute helicopter flight
Hippos from the sunset boat
The vulture feeding at the Safari Lodge
Drums at the Boma dinner
PARK & DOWNTIME PICK
The hotel pool is the afternoon, because the falls walk is a morning and the cruise is the evening. The Boma dinner at the Safari Lodge is the night out, a buffet of game meat and the ordinary stuff for the kids, face painting, and a drum put in each lap for an hour of drumming that the children love and the adults pretend not to. The vulture feeding at 1 pm on the Safari Lodge deck is free and ten minutes. The Elephant’s Walk craft village in town is where the kids spend their pocket money on carved animals, and the bargaining is gentle.
Five Things To Eat In Victoria Falls
Braai meat straight off the fire
Sadza, the maize staple, with stew
Zambezi bream, grilled whole
Mangoes and fresh fruit in season
High tea at the Victoria Falls HotelNicole’s Perspective
The three nights that make the trip
Southern Africa with kids is usually Cape Town, a safari and the falls, and the falls are the part families almost drop to save time. Do not. It is three nights, it is the one natural wonder the kids will have seen in pictures, and it is the place they get to be loud, wet and amazed at the same time. I put it in the middle, between Cape Town and the safari, so the spray washes off the city.
My order is the sunset cruise the night you arrive, the rainforest walk the first morning when the light is softest, the helicopter after lunch, the Chobe day on day two, and the Boma dinner on the last night. Jake would be first in line for the helicopter, Gavin would be reading the geology boards at each viewpoint, and Avilene would spend the whole Boma dinner with a drum.
The Day Trip: Chobe In Botswana
An hour and a half west by road across the Kazungula border is Kasane and Chobe National Park, home to one of the largest elephant populations on earth, and the day trip from Victoria Falls is a game drive in the morning along the river and a boat on the Chobe River in the afternoon, with lunch at a lodge between. From the boat the kids watch elephant families swim between the islands, hippos, crocodiles and buffalo on the banks, and the guide gets close without getting close. The tour does the border, the passports and the lunch, and you are back for dinner. Kids 5 and up. For a family who wants one real safari day without a full safari, this is it.
Things I Would Tell A Friend Before They Booked
How Many Days
Three nights covers the walk, the helicopter, the cruise and Chobe. Four adds Zambia and a slow day.
Arrive and do the sunset cruise. Day one is the rainforest walk, the helicopter and the Lookout Cafe. Day two is the Chobe day. The Boma dinner on the last night, and the morning flight out.
Add a morning on the Zambian side for the Knife Edge bridge and, at low water with kids 12 and up, Devil’s Pool on the lip of the falls. An afternoon at the pool and the vulture feeding to end it.
Four nights in Cape Town, three at Victoria Falls, then four on safari in Botswana or South Africa. Twelve days, the ocean, the falls and the animals in one trip, and the one I plan most for families doing southern Africa once.
Victoria Falls With Kids, Answered
Is Victoria Falls good for kids?
Yes, from about 5 up. The rainforest walk is flat and two hours, the helicopter takes any age, the sunset cruise is hippos and elephants from a boat, the Chobe day trip works for kids 5 and up, and the Boma dinner puts a drum in each child’s lap. Rafting and Devil’s Pool are for older kids.
How many days do you need at Victoria Falls?
Three nights. One for the falls walk and the helicopter, one for the Chobe day trip, with the sunset cruise and the Boma dinner on the evenings. Four if you add the Zambian side.
Which side of Victoria Falls is better, Zimbabwe or Zambia?
Zimbabwe has about three quarters of the view and the rainforest walk, so most families base there. Zambia has the Knife Edge bridge and Devil’s Pool at low water. With the KAZA visa you can walk across the bridge and do both.
When is the best time to visit Victoria Falls?
June to August for full falls, cool dry weather and clear views. February to May is the most water and the heaviest spray. September to December is low water with the gorge in view, Devil’s Pool open and the hottest weather.
Can you do a safari from Victoria Falls?
Yes. The Chobe day trip into Botswana is a game drive and a river boat in one day with the border handled for you. The Zambezi National Park next to town has game drives, and the sunset cruise on the river is elephants and hippos from the water.
Ready To Put Victoria Falls On The Calendar
Send me your dates and your kids’ ages and I will put Victoria Falls into your southern Africa trip, with the hotel by the spray, the helicopter booked and the Chobe day set up.
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